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Major General David Hill · Five Questions for a General

0:00
Speaker A: Foreign.
0:03
Speaker B: You're listening to five Questions for a General, a production of the Modern War Institute at West point. I am Dr. Charles Feint, the team lead for this podcast series which features interviews of senior military leaders conducted by specially selected and trained West Point cadet hosts. These exchanges produce timely, relevant, and inspirational insights for professional development of leaders at all levels.
0:25
Speaker C: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Modern War Institute's Class of 1974 Recording Studio and the Five Questions for your general podcast. I'm Cadet Sebastian Witt, your host, and is my pleasure to be here today with Major General David Hill, the 53rd Commandant of the US Army War College for this important discussion about leadership education and professional development. General, welcome to the show.
0:41
Speaker A: Thanks. It's great to be here, sir.
0:43
Speaker C: You are currently serving as the Commandant of the United States Army War College, or awc. The AWC is often cited as a think factory for strategic leaders worldwide. How does the AWC encourage critical analysis and strategic thinking?
0:55
Speaker A: It's a great question, and I think I'd start by communicating what I feel is an incredible sense of urgency to advance both that critical analytical capabilities and more broadly, this idea of strategic thinking. I think we are in as volatile, uncertain, and complex a world as we've had in my professional lifetime. And as we approach the preparation of strategic leaders to step out into that environment, we recognize first and foremost that we're in the business of helping them learn how to think and. And not what to think. And this idea then, broadly of strategic thinking is something we can unpack a little bit. But those ideas of critical analysis and strategic thinking are advanced across three efforts that we strive through at Carlisle. Developing strategic leaders, advancing knowledge with an emphasis on the global application of land power, and importantly, connecting partners and the public with the United States army and the Army War College. And I'll just touch lightly on sort of how those two ideas you asked in your question relate to each of those lines of effort. For us, under this idea of developing strategic leaders, I think it's helpful first to maybe not precisely, but think broadly about how we define strategic thinking. And really, I think it's a set of competencies or leader skills that include critical thinking, systems thinking, ethical reasoning. At Carlyle, we champion historical mindedness as a component of that. The habit of using history within any strategic framework to think about complex challenges. Thinking in time. As we develop leaders, we set our year around a foundations course that pulls those key concepts forward. So as they explore the rest of our curriculum, they have the benefit of having been able to understand and broaden their perspectives about those ideas, and then several of them we consider golden threads. And it's the recognition that they are best addressed not through one course or one lesson in one particular component of our core curriculum, but have to be woven throughout the work that we do in teaching and educating the professionals that study at Carlisle. Under this notion of advancing knowledge with an emphasis on the global application of land power. We have a strategic studies institute that I think has strong relationships with Herbal Moore Institute to help frame this critical analysis. They undertake an effort each year to produce an annual estimate of the strategic environment. And as part of that process, we collect strategic questions from senior leaders serving in the field wrestling with complex challenges today. And both of those help us to shape a relevant research agenda and to align student and faculty faculty work to what I would call applied sponsored research, where it accelerates learning for those that are doing the research and hopefully contributes critical analysis and strategic thinking to those senior leaders that are engaged with us. And then this final piece is this idea of connecting partners and the public with the army and the Army War College. And I think, just like West Point, Carlisle has an attractiveness. And when we set an agenda to bring diverse audiences together around a community of interest, we get overwhelming response, typically. And so we have an opportunity, as we advance conferences, symposiums, war games, to continue that effort to broaden strategic thinking and bring critical analysis to complex national defense issues.
4:14
Speaker C: Yes, sir. In closing remarks you made to the National Security Seminar at the War College In July of 2024, you cited comments by General Mark Milley about a fundamental point of change in the character of war. How do you think the character of war has changed in that context, or is changing?
4:27
Speaker A: That's an important question that we wrestle with at Carlisle, as I think you do here at, at the Modern War Institute, as well as your cadets in all the disciplines that you're studying. I think here at the United States Military Academy, you know, I'll draw back to that same article that I referenced, where General Milley made that assertion about this historically significant shift in the character of war. He went on then to, you know, offer a relatively straightforward and simple definition of what he meant by character. And it was how, where and with what weapons and technologies wars are fought. And so I think from my perspective, as I think about where, I think certainly about the increasing importance and emergence of domains like space and cyber that expand the space for maneuver by contestants in warfare, I think here in the United States, the fact that we should no longer assume or expect that our homeland is a sanctuary and in Many of our most significant wars in the past, we had this benefit of two great oceans that separated us from those that we were waged in a great struggle with. And part because of these emerging domains and other capabilities, I think the homeland will continue to be contested. The physical environment is changing, I think, whether you think about the Poles and the Arctic and the Antarctic, where they not only remain the most demanding and challenging operating environments, but they're opening as an operational space and then trends toward urbanization and more broadly, an idea around environmental security, where the changes in the world around us, the physical environment and the climate, we think will increasingly have potential to be a source or accelerant for conflict, whether that's by driving migration or in two states competing for a shared resource, certainly impacting where wars may be fought in the future. This idea of the weapons and technologies that wars are fought with, I think it's fairly clear. The themes that the Modern War Institute is exploring this year that your director shared with us and the other Army War College students that are here at West Point with me today touched on many of these ideas. But clearly there's a recognition of the increase in speed, range and the lethal of the weapon systems we're employing. The idea that the battle space is proliferated with sensors. And this idea that you'll be persistently observed as a form of contact that generates tremendous amounts of data that can either shape the cognitive domain or perhaps how we cycle through, observe, orient, decide, act faster. An AI will accelerate that even further. Autonomy in robots and importantly, commercial technologies that have low barriers to entry, that perhaps in the past were perceived as sort of the exclusive domain or capabilities of the highest end militaries like the United States. And so I think the where is changing the weapons and technologies. And I won't spend much time on the how. But I think what that is requiring us is to rethink concepts and organization and how we develop leaders to be, first and foremost adaptive as individuals and then capable of leading organizations to adapt to a changing environment. And what's presented to you that will undoubtedly be different than what you expected.
7:45
Speaker C: Absolutely. And I know General Milley, one of General Milley's points in that was, so we do have to try to think of a deliberate way to change the way leaders, how we develop leaders and their mindset moving forward in that kind of new environment and this new character of war. So, sir, at your change of command ceremony In September of 2021, you made a point to acknowledge our joint teammates, interagency partners and allies around the World. You already mentioned it once before. When you're talking about the AWC and bringing in the civilian aspect, what have your experiences been like in dealing with the combined joint and interagency force?
8:21
Speaker A: Thanks for asking that question and thanks for watching our change of command. Well, I should start by, I think, highlighting what the motivation for myself to make that statement in the change of command was. And first and foremost, that's a reflection that, you know, I was about to assume responsibility to lead this organization. It's incredibly diverse, and 40% of our resident student body in our senior service college experience at Carlisle is made up of joint interagency or multinational partners. And then the strategies that were in development and on the verge of publication at the time I was making Those remarks, the 2022 National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy clearly communicate an idea of integrated deterrence as a way that will accomplish national security objectives. And I've heard that explained to be inclusive of all of the joint for the integration of all the joint force, the integration of the whole of government, and the integration of partners and allies. So I think it's both a recognition that the strategies we're studying as well as those we're studying rith reflect that joint interagency and multinational assignment. My first assignment in the army first day in my first company was in January of 1991 in Desert Shield. As I joined the company's activities that day, they were training life breach operations with coalition partners in preparation for Desert Shield and as a aide de camp as a young officer, after having finished my time as a platoon leader in Company xo, I had a chance to serve in a. In a small joint command where I could see how strategic leaders were able to bring together the complementary capabilities of the full joint force and the tremendous power and potential that that represented. And then, you know, at other points in time throughout my, throughout my career, whether it was in Iraq or as an army service component commander for Central Command, there was not a day that went by that I didn't engage either with a joint partner or with an ally or partner in the Middle east to advance our mission and secure our shared interests together. Interestingly, I think my other experiences as a general officer have included some substantial time in the Army Corps of Engineers. And that's where I got to see this notion of interagency with more than just the military instrument of power and to work very closely with federal, state and local authorities that all work together to again accomplish shared objectives and shared interests. So those have been my experiences. My advice would be as a young officer, run toward those opportunities as they're presented to you. Early experience is helpful, I think. Approach them with humility. Right. With overwhelmingly the sense that you can learn from others and understanding them. And then finally, I think that feeds into a concept that we champion at Carlisle, which is this idea of strategic empathy and perspective taking as you, you know, advance in your own responsibilities to make decisions and lead organizations.
11:19
Speaker C: Sure. And that was actually going to be my next question was what advice do you have for young leaders going into that environment? But I'd like to maybe see if you can elaborate any more on any particular experience you had that really taught you that value, that lesson and that advice that you.
11:34
Speaker A: Yeah, and so maybe this is recency bias, but I think as a, as a major general, I had the opportunity to serve as the deputy commander for the 3rd US army, which is the army service component command for Central Command. That was during the 2018-2020 time, not, not unlike today, a period of heightened detention in the region. And what I had the opportunity to observe was how at a geographic combatant command, leveraging the ways and means that the joint service components brought to the table, you could create options for decision makers to accomplish national security objectives. I also saw how we worked day in and day out with partners and allies in the region on combined training events. And oftentimes that was really how we created interoperability. Right. It's a lot more than just buying the same equipment or piece of kit. It's soldiers from multiple organizations or countries being able to work together to employ those systems that creates capability. And so I think what I also left there with was an appreciation for how land power is joint power, and in particular, the things that the United States army brings to the Joint Force as we focus and bring tremendous logistics capability, protection capability, long range fires and intel systems and set a theater for the Joint Force to operate in with many of those capabilities. And so that's probably the one that left me sort of most clear minded about what it means to be integrated.
13:07
Speaker C: Sir, in or out of uniform. In more general terms, what have been your most significant developmental experiences?
13:13
Speaker A: That is a really good question. It's a really hard question because I'll be honest with you, and this isn't a cop out to your question. Every assignment has presented enormous opportunity for growth, and I think that's actually become more true the longer that I've served than perhaps you might expect through time and experience that you grow more comfortable or able to step into new organizations and intuitively lead them. And I Found it's quite the opposite. Right. So every assignment has created an opportunity for me to be a self learner, to be a lifelong learner. And I think, you know, as I think about periods in time in my career that maybe have been most impactful from a developmental perspective, you know, as you get set to head to your first assignment, I might put that at the top of my list because I think at the end of the day, that's where you really roll your sleeves up every day and get to know what makes a US army soldier tick. You understand what it means to be an engaged leader, to build a cohesive team. And for me, at my first unit of assignment was at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. We operated in, in really small decentralized units in both training and in operations. And I think it gave me an early and clear eyed sense of what mission command meant. So that was a particularly important assignment for me. If you flash forward, I think to mid career, as I was transitioning from being a company commander and preparing to be a field grade officer, I had the opportunity to work at our national Training center as an observer controller. And there I had the tremendous Blessing to watch 20 rotations of Brigade combat teams with all of their brigade and subordinate battalion leadership come through and wrestle with mission command. And you know, it forced me to dive deep into our doctrine and really gave me a sense of what combined arms maneuver at scale is, which is something that I think we in the United States army do better than any, any army in the world. And then probably brigade command, where it was the first time that it was crystal clear to me that, you know, even at battalion command you certainly couldn't do this every day, but you could reach out and touch or see every one of your soldiers if you chose to on any given day. And at brigade command for ME There was 4,000 soldiers and six battalions on four different installations. And this ability to think through what, communicating vision that enables mission accomplishment and what the sort of imperatives for our command. What were those three to five things that we had to be really good at, had to be core competencies for our brigade and then to align people around that in a collaborative way and then figure out how to extend influence throughout a big formation like that that's geographically dispersed. That was a really important learning opportunity and I think prepared me to at least be comfortable with the discomfort of doing that at increasing scales in all the assignments I had after as a general officer.
16:07
Speaker C: Yes sir. So I'm sure a lot of the lessons and things that you learned moving through Your career kind of built off of one another, I'm sure. But were there any moments where your perspective on leadership changed because of a new position you're in or a new responsibility or role?
16:23
Speaker A: My perspective on leadership changing? I think when I was a new general officer, I was challenged by a mentor. And he said to me, dave, you're a very intelligent officer. You've got great experience, good judgment formed through years of practice. He said, but you're entering a point where you will no longer be the smartest person in the room on anything that you're talking about. Right. And so for me, as a, as a general officer, it reinforced that I was now in a position where I had to lead interdisciplinary teams of experts. And I think it taught me lessons very quickly that were observations shared by that same mentor, which were. It required me to listen more and ask better questions and then to have confidence still to trust your gut as you lead in that particular environment. And so I think that was particularly eye opening for me, I think. And you know, interestingly now this is my 10th year serving as a general officer, so it's hard for me to believe that not quite a third, but a substantial portion of my career has now been leading in that environment where all those sort of tendencies or behaviors are very helpful if you can stay true to them.
17:33
Speaker C: Absolutely. And that plays nicely into, into this theme of, you know, working with various partners. And I don't find myself the, the most knowledgeable in, in, in any situation, any room now as a cadet. So I think that's, that's good.
17:46
Speaker A: One more thing on that, if I could. So, so that first general officer assignment that I had was in, it was commanding a division in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. I had spent my entire professional life up to that point as a combat engineer working, you know, integration of what started as a battlefield operating system mobility into a combined arms team and leadership at the direct and organizational level. When I stepped into that job, we had the responsibility to build strong for our joint force, but we also had responsibilities in the homeland here to partner in project delivery that helped keep our citizens safe. And there were responsibilities or requirements to be compliant with law. As an example, that in advancing a number of those projects or how we regulated things that we had authorities to, to do for and on behalf of the United States government that, to have listening sessions or public engagement. And, you know, it was early on in that experience where I had a member of the general public come up to me afterwards and said, I appreciate that you're here, but I don't think you're listening to understand. I think you're listening to comply. And that was a really important lesson for me. It doesn't necessarily mean that if our direction was going to be counter to that person's perspective, but again, it reinforced this idea that you had to be sensitive to it and genuinely understand it to be an effective communicator and make good decisions.
19:08
Speaker C: Sure. So the traditional final question for our show, it kind of piggybacks on everything we've spoke about so far. Knowing what you know now, given all your experiences, what advice would you give to your younger self? You're starting your career over again.
19:23
Speaker A: I love that question. And it's probably a collection of anecdotal advice I've been given over years that perhaps didn't fundamentally change how I was working, but helped me understand perhaps why intuitively I was thinking that way. But in some cases it did change how I thought about advancing my own career and where we would go as a family. The first was my second battalion commander in my first assignment. And at one point he was counseling officers that were hungry and eager to move on to go to the Captain's career course of the day and then to get on to other opportunities, perhaps because we had a vision of creating time and space for other broadening opportunities in the future that we wanted to be part of. And his counsel to us was, don't always be in a hurry to get to the next step. As an outcome of that, I think maybe more accidental than deliberate. I spent five full years at my first duty station. I spent seven years as a field grade officer from graduating Command and General Staff College to completion of battalion command at one duty station. I went through a number of different jobs there. But what it reinforced for me was that every job presents unique opportunities. And, you know, sometimes there's great benefit where you have strong relationships, understand systems in taking on new responsibilities and demonstrating your potential, but doing it in an environment that where you're established and you have some. So perhaps that's good advice. Don't be in a hurry to get to the next step. And another reason, just practically, is it's hard for me to believe that it was 36 years ago that I was sitting where you are now. It will all go by that quickly. I think the second one for me is just this notion that you should do your very best at the job you're asked to do, which will perhaps and most certainly not always be the one that you pictured yourself doing. And I think if you bloom where you're planted. You'll find those opportunities for growth, and you'll demonstrate that you're a team player and that, you know, you can. You can lead in any of a number of challenging and difficult context or circumstances. And I had a boss when I was completing brigade command. He was my. I'm sorry, completing company command. He was my brigade commander at the time. At that point, we were finishing our ninth year of service. I had deployed to Desert Shield, Desert Storm, twice to Bosnia Herzegovina during the operations in the Balkans in the mid-1990s. I had two children and one on the way. And I felt like our family was tired a little bit, and we had set our sights on coming back here to teach at West Point and think I had support from an enterprise to make that happen. He saw, I think, different potential in me that I perhaps didn't recognize in myself and said, dave, you can be a battalion commander someday. You can be. But here's what you've not had the opportunity to do yet that will be essential to your success in those environments. And perhaps much chagrin to my. My lovely bride now of also 34 years is when we thought we were going to the east coast and an opportunity to come back here. I ended up in the Mojave Desert in those training rotations. But in hindsight, it prepared me exactly the way I needed to be prepared for operation Iraqi Freedom and the things that I'd be asked to do in that environment. And it placed us at a place that we had not desired to go, but where we met lifelong friends that were still engaged with, like, family. And so I think this idea that bloom where youe planted and then as I was in a course that helps prepare us as we transition from leadership as a colonel to leading as a general officer. I had a senior mentor that I held in high regard, and he challenged us all to be happy generals. And I would challenge you or I would challenge myself if I was winding the clock back. Be a happy lieutenant. Make a habit of hunting the good stuff. Our organizations, to include those platoons that most young lieutenants go into, aren't perpetual energy machines. And leaders can put positive energy into a system or put a drag on it. Right? And so this notion of making a choice to be happy and engage positively in your organization, that flows from resilience, whatever drives that for you. And I think that goes hand in glove with the fact that as a young officer, I recognize and as a senior officer now, where I've made mistakes and that when things don't go right, that they don't have to define you negatively. And they really can be opportunities to learn and just be a better version of yourself. And that also implies that in my personal estimation, perhaps the most important characteristic for each of us that wear the uniform as a leader or as a commissioned officer in the United States army is to be humble. There's a lot we could talk about that would take a whole nother podcast. Explore that one.
24:12
Speaker C: Yes, sir. So don't be in a hurry. Do your very best at whatever job you're asked to do, and be a happy lieutenant.
24:20
Speaker A: That's right.
24:21
Speaker C: It's a lot of looking at things through kind of a growth mindset and accepting that success comes in many forms. And so I think your career and the way you've talked about it, certainly it seems like you've learned an incredible amount from, you know, both sources you expected and didn't expect. And it's a testament to that concept, drawing from anything and everything that's given to you, making the most of it. So, sir, thank you for sharing your time with us today and for the great discussion on partnership and leadership. On behalf of Colonel Pat Sullivan, the director of MWI, and Dr. Charlie Feint, the director of this podcast series, I'd like to present you with this rare and coveted MWI engraved ammo can as a token of our appreciation.
25:02
Speaker A: Well, that was pretty awesome. Thank you. It's an honor to be here and I'm proud and excited for you as you start your army journey here.
25:08
Speaker C: Thank you so much. Fer.
25:13
Speaker B: This has been an episode of Five Questions for a General, a production of the Modern War Institute of West Point. If you like what you heard today, please download, like, subscribe and share this podcast to help us reach an even larger audience. All statements in this podcast represent the personal views of the speakers at do not represent an official position of the United States Military Academy or the United States government.