To the Army Team,
It is a great honor to serve alongside you as your 24th Secretary of the Army. Over the past two years, I witnessed firsthand the dedication and sacrifices our Soldiers, Civilians, and Families make every day defending our great Nation. Thank you for your hard work and continued service.
Despite significant leadership transition across the Department of Defense recently, the Army has remained focused on its missions in support of the National Defense Strategy.
Continuity of priorities and leadership focus is critical to achieve the 2018 Army Vision, which provides the strategic framework for guiding the Army into the next decade. Therefore, the Army's priorities - Readiness, Modernization, and Reform - are not changing.
The Army has increased its tactical readiness drastically, and now we will expand our focus to improve strategic readiness - our ability to mobilize, deploy, and sustain the force. We must maintain a sustainable level of readiness to meet current demands while executing an aggressive modernization strategy to ensure the Total Army remains the most lethal ground combat force in the world. The Army must modernize today or we could lose the next war. 'We will remain focused on delivering the 31 signature systems our cross-functional teams are developing in support of the six modernization priorities and ensure we can employ them the day they show up. To achieve this, we are integrating modernization efforts across doctrine, organizational designs, training models, leader development, personnel systems, facilities, and policies. Furthermore, the Army cannot maximize its Modernization Strategy without the Cloud, which is the backbone for artificial intelligence.
On reforms, the Army will continue to ruthlessly prioritize resources and divest legacy programs through "Night Court" sessions, so we can scale new capabilities for low-rate initial production. Most importantly, we must do all of this while taking care of our people.
The Army fights and wins with cohesive, disciplined teams. We will reverse the negative trends in suicide, sexual assault, and sexual harassment that tear at the fabric of our formations. To do this, we have to change our Army culture to become better teammates. Teammates know each other, mentor each other, and help each other through difficult times. Leaders at all levels must build cohesive teams and get to know their people to address challenges before they manifest into larger problems that degrade unit effectiveness.
I will work shoulder-to-shoulder with my teammates, the Chief of Staff of the Army and the Sergeant Major of the Army, to take care of our people, sustain readiness gains, and build irreversible momentum in our modernization efforts. Through teamwork, the U.S. Army will remain the most lethal, modern fighting force in the world.
Army Strong!
Ryan D. McCarthy
Secretary of the Army
Related Documents:24th Secretary of the Army Message to the Force [PDF]
Related Links:Army.mil: Secretary of the Army
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