Col. Richard Harrison, Air Defense Artillery commandant and ADA chief, told an audience of leaders they must first take care of themselves before they could offer advice and care for their Soldiers.

Brig. Gen. Brian Gibson, Air and Missile Defense Cross Functional Team director, spoke of progress in his pre-recorded remarks for the 2020 Fires Conference.

Darrell Youngman, Air and Missile Defense Cross Functional Team deputy director, answered questions from the online and in-person audience for the 2020 Fires Conference.

Day Two of the 2020 Virtual Fires Conference kicked off with Col. Richard Harrison, Air Defense Artillery commandant and ADA chief.

He advised the in-person and online audience to adhere to Fires Fifty No. 1, “Always secure yourself first.” Harrison added, "as a leader you must take care of yourself and family matters before you can offer advice and help other Soldiers."

His ultimate goal as commandant is leader development. Harrison wants everyone in the unit to have a PHD, or rather Pride Hustle and Desire.

“Have pride in yourself, in your organization, and in your branch. Hustle about your business, get after training, get after readiness and physical fitness. Desire to be the very best you can be and to live up to your Army Values,” said Harrison.

Brig. Gen. Brian Gibson, Air and Missile Defense Cross Functional Teams director, followed with pre-recorded remarks. Darrell Youngman, AMD CFT deputy director, fielded questions from the audience. Mr. Youngman responded to a question about risks associated with fielding weapon systems too fast to the warfighter.

“There’s always risk in moving fast. However, I personally think and I think a lot of Army leaders think there’s greater risk in not adapting our force to the enemy,” said Youngman.

“The enemy isn’t going to wait for us to adapt and move at a slow pace as we’ve historically done so we need to become more adaptive, overcome the risk with leadership and Soldiers adapting to change and mitigating risk where we can.”

https://sill-www.army.mil/fires-conference/