Unlocking the Lessons of the Past

The Trapped Seeds of the Past

Telling stories to each other is an aspect of humanity that has truly withstood the test of time. Stories have always been the way in which we have shared information and taught the next generation the lessons of the past.

For generations, this was accomplished only by word of mouth around a fire. Then, as we began to write the stories down, they became able to outlive us. The onset of the printing press expanded this capability. With the endless possibilities of technology, now our stories can be shared across the globe in seconds by a variety of means. Thus, the sharing of information and our stories knows no bounds. Well, except for one area.

We have become so reliant on technology and the World Wide Web that the information and stories that were physically written down in our past are locked away from efficient access. While physical libraries still hold this information, it is unavailable to those who cannot physically go to the locations. Additionally, researching those catalogs of information can take an enormous amount of time, depending on your project.

For instance, the branches of the Army have had journals in publication for well over 100 years, with some dating back into the late 1800s. The Army Sustainment Professional Bulletin (ASPB) has been in publication since 1969. That amounts to hundreds upon hundreds of journals with thousands of published articles. The problem is that most of these publications are not searchable on the internet but are locked away solely as physical copies in a branch library. If the library does have a digital scanned version of the publication, it may not have the metadata needed for a user to find it with an internet search. If this information remains locked away, we risk repeating the same mistakes of our past and reinventing the wheel all over again. Thankfully, the Harding Project recognized this situation and acted quickly to provide a solution.

Combat Chronicles Hold the Key

The Harding Project was designed to renew the Army’s professional journals and discourse across the force. It was designed around four pillars, which are stewardship, education, archives, and modernization. Today we look at the archives pillar, the goal of which is to improve archive accessibility by consolidating, splitting, tagging, and indexing journals by articles on a platform that eases search and citation of Army journals. Part of this has been achieved with the Line of Departure website, which has become the centralized point for all Army professional journals, articles, podcasts, and overall discourse.

Launched on October 11, 2024, the Line of Departure website provides a single access point for all branch journals that is easy to navigate, web-first, and mobile-friendly for all users. The content is available in the web programming language HTML and downable PDFs. Thus, every Soldier of every rank can consume the information in the manner of their choosing.

Soldiers can now read articles while waiting in line at the chow hall, waiting for their turn during the monthly uranalysis, or during their weekly leader’s time training. This website meets Soldiers where they are.

Another prime aspect of the Line of Departure is that all the Army’s professional journals are located there. The website is constantly fed by each of the journals, so there is always new content. This broadens our overall knowledge and understanding by reading articles from other branches. No longer does this information exist in a vacuum, nor is it separated by branch. It is no longer just contained at the senior level either. The most junior Soldier can read these articles and then write about the innovations they have discovered that will benefit the entire force.

The creation of this website was just the first step, but we needed something more to help with the thousands of articles of our past. Thus, the Harding Project partnered with the Army Software Factory to develop a program that enables the Army branch journals to be accessible for the modern user. They developed a system called Combat Chronicles.

Combat Chronicles is an Army Software Factory application developed for the Harding Project. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to unlock more than 5,000 historical journals and more than 100,000 articles by automating metadata and text extraction, saving thousands of manual hours and unlocking a century of peer-reviewed research. This breakthrough makes the Army's intellectual body of knowledge searchable and accessible, giving warrior scholars and senior leaders rapid, evidence-based insights that directly inform strategic decisions, enhance leader development, and ensure relevance in today's complex, multi-domain operations.

I can personally attest to how efficient this system is. So far, I have completed 20 years of journals in the system: 1969 through 1988. This encompasses 116 journals and 2,050 individual articles or content. That is just 20 of the 56 years, 116 of the 322 journals, and 2,050 of the nearly 6,000 articles we have published in our time as a publication.

The articles I unlocked have not been easily accessible in the past. While we have an archive of journals on our website, anything pre-1996 only has the table of contents available to download. You must physically visit the Army Sustainment University library to read these older articles.

The Harding Project, through the use of Combat Chronicles from the Army Software Factory, is now making access to the articles possible. Once we complete the extraction of articles and embed the metadata needed to ensure they are searchable and accessible, these articles will be available on the internet for everyone to access. We are still determining how they will be incorporated on the current platforms such as Line of Departure and the Army Sustainment website. So, stay tuned as we continue to bring the stories of our past to you.

Now, if you read my previous articles on AI, “Is Efficiency Worth Sacrificing Our Humanity?” from the spring 2025 issue of ASPB, or “GPT: The Death of Creativity and Critical Thinking” from the fall 2025 issue of ASPB, you know my feelings on AI. As I stated previously, AI must be used only in limited and restricted ways and not for generating content. Combat Chronicles is an aspect of AI that does not hinder our humanity or creative thinking. It enhances our ability by increasing the number of articles we can archive. It would take hours to split a PDF journal into individual PDF articles. This does not even include adding metadata to the file. Now, of course, the system is not perfect. I must constantly fix article names and the page breaks in each journal. However, I am saving an immense amount of time by using this system while not sacrificing my humanity. In essence, this system is exactly what AI should be used for, but it still needs the human element to review and check everything for accuracy.

Lessons Learned from the Past

We have countless articles written that remain important, even critical, to today’s challenges. For instance, the concept of large-scale combat operations is not new. Many of the articles I have been reviewing from the ‘70s and ‘80s discuss this concept and how to conduct sustainment operations. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. Because of the war on terrorism, most of those in uniform today, including myself, did not know a world outside counter-insurgency operations until recently. But the answer to so many of the challenges we face have already been written. We just have to find them.

This is why the work we do is so critical. We are unlocking the lessons of the past by making them accessible and searchable.

The Past Paving the Way for the Future

My plea for everyone today is to take any opportunity you can to expand your knowledge and tool kit with the lessons of the past. Let us not repeat any mistakes of the past because we failed to learn from them. Information is available at a moment’s notice. That is why we developed the “Blast from the Past” section of ASPB, to highlight past articles that provide lessons for today’s Soldiers and show the importance of those who came before us. The past has paved the way for the future. We must take advantage of the stories written before us to find our way.

While we continue to unlock these articles of the past so they are accessible and searchable, please continue to write your stories of today so that current and future generations can learn from you. Just like those from the ‘70s and ‘80s help us today, let us help our children’s generation by telling the stories we are living through. Transformation in Contact is a prime example. A lot is happening currently, and we need your stories so that we can all learn together. The team here at ASPB is ready to help you. Please reach out to us if you need any assistance with telling your story. We would love to help.

--------------------

CPT (P) Garett H. Pyle is the Military Editor-in-Chief for the Army Sustainment Professional Bulletin and has been selected as the first Sustainment Center of Excellence Harding Fellow at Fort Lee, Virginia. He joined the Army Reserves in 2012 as an O9R (Simultaneous Membership Program Cadet) where he simultaneously attended ROTC at Washington & Jefferson College, where he commissioned in 2016 in the Transportation Corps. He holds a Master of Arts degree in transportation and logistics management from American Military University. He is an Honor Graduate of both the Transportation Officer Basic Course and the Logistics Captains Career Course.

--------------------

This article was published in the winter 2026 issue of Army Sustainment.

RELATED LINKS

Army Sustainment homepage

The Current issue of Army Sustainment in pdf format

Current Army Sustainment Online Articles

Connect with Army Sustainment on LinkedIn

Connect with Army Sustainment on Facebook

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------