Morning. And youre in for a real treat this afternoon with us Authors Forum two panels. Each panel consists of three authors there will be a q a time so im so pleased to be able to be your moderator today. And we have the first panel has a theme of the challenges of command that will run from about 1 00 to 2 00. And then the second panel is the sharp end of deterrence, which will be from 2 to 3. We will time at the end of each panel for the authors to answer questions from the audience, and youll see a microphone here where you can come to the microphone. I also encourage you to meet the authors and their publishers after the forum and throughout conference. They will be in the aca membership pavilion, which i think john smith alluded to west salon of the main entrance across from registration. Now let me introduce your three distinguished authors of this panel, the gentleman closest to the is Major General gregg f martin, the United States army. Hes the author of bipolar general my forever war with mental. Joe martin is a three year Army Combat Veteran and bipolar survivor as well as thriver, a former president of the National Defense university. He is qualified as an airborne. Airborne ranger, engineer, soldier as well as an army strategist. He holds advanced degrees from ti, a ph. D. As well as two masters and a bachelor of science from the United States military academy at west point. Joe martin, an ardent Mental Health advocate, and he is sharing his bipolar story to help stop the stigma, promote recovery and save lives. In addition to his book, he has published more than 20 articles and given of presentations, podcasts and interviews are second distinguished author on this panel is Lieutenant ColonelWilliam Stuart nance, the United States army, retired and hes the author of commanding simpson moore and the ninth u. S. Army. Colonel nance is a retired army officer with 20 Years Experience in the United States army, including two combat tours in iraq. He is currently an associate professor history at the commanding general Staff College at fort leavenworth, kansas. Colonel nance holds a masters degree and doctorate in military history from the university of north texas. His previous book is sabers through the reich World War Two core cavalry from to the elba. And lastly, but certainly not least our third author on this panel is colonel Daniel S MorganUnited States army, retired. Hes the coauthor along with kelly eads of the book entitled black hearts and painted guns a battalions journey into the iraqi iraqs triangle of death. Colonel morgan is the senior director, Business Operations and planning for teledyne flair. He retired in 2018 as an infantry officer. He deployed worldwide over his 23 year career and his last assignment was as the armys senior fellow at, the council of Foreign Relations in new york city. In addition to black cards and painted guns, colonel morgan, also the coauthor of chasing the white rabbit lessons from the battlefield to the boardroom and he has published several articles on policy and defense. So without listening to me, bang on anymore, ill turn it over to joe martin. Thank you. Hi, im greg martin, bipolar survivor and thriver. Thanks for the invitation and thanks, everybody for being here. Im fortunate to have achieved much in my life. A student athlete, leader and Mental Health advocate. My book, bipolar general my forever war with Mental Illness dives into all of this, including my experiences, both benefiting from and battling against bipolar disorder or bd. My book at once shocks and terrifies while inspiring, educating, saving lives. Much of my success is because of an sometimes in spite of living on the bipolar spectrum. The advantage of my bipolar was that my brain produced distributed large amounts of powerful, such as dopamine which gave me extra energy, drive, enthusiasm, create problem solving abilities, positivity and the like. This provided me with a advantage for years and decades. In short, my bipolar brain helped me until it went high and then it didnt. Ive lived on the bipolar spectrum. My whole life was born with a bipolar gene, which i had no idea i had my story successful service, bipolar or crisis recovery and new. But is physiologically real like diabetes, cancer or heart disease. It is not to a lack of willpower or character. So dont blame the afflicted and help educate others. Bd can strike young and old, rich and poor and illiterate privates and generals, male and female, all races. If not treated bd ruins. Marriages, careers, finances and often leads to homelessness, addictions, prison and suicide. Or, if treated and managed. One can live a happy, healthy, purposeful. The knowledge you gain from my book could save your life or someone you love. My life mission is sharing my bipolar story. Help stop the stigma, promote healing and save lives. I do it through speaking, writing and conferring. Its a cause bigger than myself and. It serves others. And i truly love it. Growing. I had what is called a hyper thymic personality, which is a state of near mild mania living on the bipolar spectrum. Helped me for years with this extra energy drive, enthuses asm, et, etc. That enhanced my talents. But i was slowly inching up the spectrum towards actual pd and again unknown on. Recognized. Led touch on my army journey. Excel that all the key commands military schools civilian graduate school at mit where my mission was to obtain a single masters degree and. I came out with two masters in a ph. D. That was my bipolar brain at. And i worked hard, but that was virtually an impossible and i did it because of my you know, highly functional bipolar disorder. Both the va and the army determined that my bipolar onset was in 2003 at age 47, during iraq war, that my genetic predisposition for bipolar disorder was triggered by the stress, thrill and euphoria of leading of soldiers in combat. I was a key commander, rapidly creating solutions to come unexpected problems under fire, and often making near simultaneous life and decisions. This altered the wiring and chemistry of my brain. I shot into my first real mania when we invaded iraq. I like superman bulletproof and performed brilliantly. But upon redeployment to germany, the thrill of combat behind me. I fell into a ten month long depression. My first full up down bipolar cycle. But again, bipolar disorder mostly helped me until it didnt. From 2003 to 2014, when my bipolar disorder intensified, as i was promoted from colonel to star than to star, my bd was unknown, unraveling, nice and undiagnosed for 12 two years. As i cycled in to higher highs and lower with severe psychosis until the year 2014. 2014 was the storm i shot into full blown mania. Madness. Insanity. I was disruptive, bizarre, overthetop. Frightening, and out of control. I swung from euphoria to agitation and rage. My mind was infused with delusions and extreme paranoia. I stopped sleeping for about three months. My speech became more rapid and pressured. New ideas flowed continuously. My grandiosity and religiosity soared. I talked nearly nonstop. Stop doing paperwork. Meetings ran over. I interrupted constantly. I was repeatedly. Late, often out uniform. And my risk taking and lack of selfcontrol were severe. I believed. I could fly. I mean, i really. In my brain, i fly. I flew on multiple it multiple occasions. I believed, i was the smartest person on earth. Held the key to world peace in gods apostle on a mission to transform dod. I saw the holy spirit descend times saw demons attack our house. I then repelled with bibles and crosses and saw them do a uturn and fly. And now noticed sending dozens of anonymous reports to my boss, leading to my removal from command. I was called on a friday, midjuly 2014, telling me to report to my boss, the chairman of the joint of staff report, monday at 10 a. M. In my sick brain, i wondered, will be a promotion an extension in command or will i be fired . I had worked for general dempsey times and we had a great relationship. I reported to him and saluted. He strode across his office and gave me big hug. Gregg, i love like a brother. Youve done an amazing. A grade of aplus. But your time at National Defense university is over. You have until 5 p. M. Today to resign and or youre fired. And im ordering you to get a psychiatric evaluation. This week at walter reed. Sir do you think i was disappointed . No. I declared. Thank you, chairman. I hugged him and said, god me in this job and hes going to move me to an even bigger job because hes got Bigger Missions for me to. I underwent three psychiatric evaluations month three times. Diagnosed fit for duty. But the doctors were wrong. After being fired, i retired early and was later hospitalized. The book details many more intense manic episodes. What goes up must come down. And that is particularly true with disorder. So after being fired over the next four months, i spiraled, then crashed into a complete breakdown. Mind, body, spirit. For mostly euphoric mania to anger bitter and paranoid delusions. Then into a hopeless, crippling depression and terrifying psychosis. In november 2014, i did an emergency walk into walter reed and finally diagnosed properly with disorder type one and psychosis. 12 years after onset. And the reason i went was when youre in mania. You feel great. You dont think theres anything wrong with you and no one can tell you there is. But youre in depression. I knew brain was sick because. I had no energy. I could hardly get out of bed. I was a complete zombie. From 2014 to 16, i lived bipolar. Hell, i was sunk in. Depression was barely for two years. Had psychosis, delusions being spied on, arrested, beaten and murdered in prison, face gurgling in a pool of my own blood continuous ideations of my own death. I wanted to die. I felt an invisible throw me under a speeding 18 wheeler steer into an oncoming 18 wheeler truck ripping apart a giant broken slithered out of the woods every morning, eyes blazing and crushed the life out of me. When i wasnt staring into space and ruminating, i threw myself on the hardwood floors, banging my head, punching myself on the face and head angry at god. Thankfully, my wonderful wife, maggie, a devoted friend, got me into a great va hospital for inpatient care. But it was six more months of bipolar hell until lithium, which saved me with lithium. I began my journey of recovery and i its a journey because im in a forever war. Theres no cure and, no end. I must manage it like other chronic disease. I lithium. In august 2016 and within days my symptoms vanished. We moved to florida for the sunshine and warmth and i began feeling like my old pre bipolar self. It took team to lift me up. My wife, family, friends and medical professionals gave me the hope and knowledge that i would recover my strategy for. Recovery is multidimensional. I covered in detail in my book and this is a very important part of my story. So please ask about it in the q a. But ive got a formula how to recover from Mental Illness that i think you all want to hear. And also its in detail in my book. But today, my life is happy, healthy, purposeful. My hypothalamic personality is back, though less intense. My bottom line is there is hope. Recovery possible. I am living proof. Finally, a word about my book general my forever war with Mental Illness. It expands and captures my story in detail. It provides hope, inspiration and practical knowledge, not just for bipolar disorder, but for any Mental Illness or, mental condition. It can benefit those who are afflicted with any kind of Mental Illness. Their families, friends, colleagues and caregivers. My website is ww rw dot bipolar general rt. Com and i have business cards with cover of the book. My website, so good info and im happy to give it to anybody. So thank you very much and i look forward to your question during the q a. Thanks. As bill nance comes to the podium, another author, and ill turn it over to you, bill. All right. So my book was commanding professionalism. Simpson in the ninth u. S. Army. And the question comes up is who simpson . Most people have never heard of him, which is interesting because he was a classmate of George Patton. He was a very successful professional general officer. And if World War Two had never happened, would have retired quite peacefully after 30 years of service and been considered a fairly successful general. General, that got to about one star and then moved into retirement and i came across when i was doing my research for the book sabers through the reich. And part of what it was, i was looking at the cause and the field armies and i was trying to figure out why no one had written anything on the ninth army. There was lots on the third army. You couldnt you cant swing a cow without hat. And something about George Patton and the third u. S. Army. And theyve done great things and theyve done wonderful things. But there were one American Army out of four u. S. Armies in northwest europe. The first, the third, the seventh and the ninth. And we know a lot about the third army, but not too much about the other three. And i was sitting around, why is that . And then i started dug in digging it a little bit more. And then i discovered that everyones suddenly like the ninth army. Everywhere i looked, people, hey, the ninth army. We like having them in their organization. We like with them. Its pure organization, subordinate organizations. We being in their organization for leaders. Thats the trifecta right. And whether they were effective, it wasnt like they were just people pleasers. So that kind of got me started. I think going thats thats kind of odd and yet no ones ever heard of guys. And then there was a great by general omar bradley, who was the commander of 12th army group, who said, unlike noisy, rambunctious third and the temperamental, the ninth army remained uncommon only normal. Now, for those of us that have been in combat headquarters, you realize that just being normal is kind of hard to do. Theres a lot there are a lot of stressors. Theres a lot of distracting hours and theres a lot of personnel that get in the way of just normal. So to be is a pretty big achievement. Yet we dont talk about it all that much. So i dug into like, okay, so how does this happen and why do we know . Why dont we write about. Why dont we hear about this guy . Well, what it turns out is is that the and the chief of staff together as a team put together a culture in a climate just doing the. Being a team player and working routine things routinely. The idea of, hey, weve got a special idea thats. Okay, thats great. Were not doing it because. Weve got an organization coming in at 2 00 in the morning thats going to cross the line of departure at 8 00 in the morning. And we cant come up with a new way of doing things. So i realized that i couldnt just write a book about simpson because simpson had his had his battle buddy, james moores chief of staff, who was just as to this. And along the way, i came more and more to realize as a former staff officer myself, just how important the general routine staff work was to the success of the United States army. We liked all im a maneuver officer. I love about, you know, poking a hole in the enemys position and driving deep the rear and destroying their headquarters or taking a hill. Those are all great things. But when we talk about large scale combat operations, we need to start looking at coors field armies, army groups, how do we manage theaters and what kind of personnel do we want in command of joint and multinational operations, particularly as we look at the United States army today and we realize if we go into a big war, were going to have our partners. So thats what got me excited and kind of motivated about looking into simpson and moore. So who are these guys. Simpson is a is a native of texas, just southwest fort worth, west point of 1909. Infantry officer so nobodys perfect. Im an army officer and he had a combat experience in the philippines fighting, the morals, and he also did surveying mission on the island was on working with a group of philippine scouts. Now its interesting, exciting about that is is that he was working with multinational operations a very junior age working with philippine scouts in on mindanao against the morals and in luzon on a survey mission, you could set like okay well hes a kind of imperial officer working as part and theyve got to work for him and. That might work for an extent, but if you dont treat your multinational partners with respect, you might get utility, but youre certainly not going to get efficiency. He got both. So moving. He then participated in the punitive expedition. And then in world and as part of his experience he got identified a aide for general bell who then go on to take command of the third infantry, our third division, which is a Midwest National guard. From that time frame, he rose all the way to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and division chief of staff. He got inculcated into the staff, processes and systems of what was needed to fight at that echelon on and said, i like this and he was good at it. After the war, he spent he spent his time. First off, at working for infantry branch, then going to the Infantry School before the martial. But still important to him. Went to fort leavenworth. Took the command general staff school then went on to the war college, ended up teaching at the war college any number of years in a number of different functions right before World War Two kicks off. He is chosen to be the assistant Division Commander for the second Infantry Division. Then at fort sam houston. At that point, hes looking around for an aide, finally gets an aide, so he gets this guy by the name of jim. More to come on board and jim more comes on. And he starts off and hes like, hey, i want to come work for you. Colonel moore was west point class, 1924, had a similar career hed worked in. Hed worked in china again multinational operations. Hed picked up a habit of doing routine things routinely. Hed gone to the command and general staff school. Hed worked the staff, it was called the civilian military training core, which is a very lesser known part of. Its basically like rotc summer camp and, a jobs program all kind of rolled into one. And what that ended up doing is, is that he had to be basically a brigade. Xo with a couple of his buddies and figuring it out as he went. So again, he falls back on. Well, no one taught me how to do this. They taught me how to do staff work and guess what if you do the staff work right, and you think about it and you put the amount of questions into it, it gives you a framework to answer question, not the whole answer, but it gets you part of the way there. So more and simpson start working together first as aide and an assistant Division Commander. They get separated for little while, more goes off and works in the army staff. Simpson goes to take command of one of the first one session unit training out in fort walters, texas and then they come back together. Division commander. Aide correction and chief of staff of 35th Infantry Division. Again, Midwest National guard. The previous commander had been relieved due to marshalls lack of trust. Guy by the name of truman. Cousin of that truman. And somebody needed and they needed a good, capable general to take over. So he took over that division, started doing good things with them, took them to california after pearl harbor, and then was called on to, hey, got another problem. The 30th Infantry Division is hurting, so we need some help over there again. Marshall pulling as he needs it. So and morgan come out of one division as theyre starting to get right and theyre sent over to the 30th Infantry Division. And at that point simpson realizes that hes got to do some serious work out with these guys. Again, go back to the basics. Turns out the basics were. And then at that point, theyre then pulled up to the 12th corps Corps Commander or chief of staff. And simpson strides into his Corps Headquarters and said, guys, theres only one standard here. And thats army standard, and were going to do it. Excellence and again the way the u. S. Army thought war two is that for headquarters might four divisions one day and two divisions another, and they might not be even the same two divisions that they had previously. So if you have to come up a new and interesting way of doing things and you have to brief someone on it, it wont work. It simply will not work effectively. So simpson said, look, were not doing it any special way. Were going to stand up this Corps Headquarters to great now 12th corps is going to go on to great things in World War Two. But simpsons not going to lead him. Hes going to go off and take command. Fourth army and the fourth army is a training army. And he has to train and certify every Single Division thats leaving the continental United States to go fight in either the pacific or or the atlantic. And whats funny is, is he sits down and goes, guys, do it. The leavenworth way. And theres this great quote. I in here says, he would as put it every once in a while, you go down there and see some guy, a Division Commander, who like a genius, and you figure, hell, weve got another napoleon. Then you come to examine him more carefully. You find out that all hes doing following the rules they laid down in leavenworth and our other schools and he gets along. Again. Standard routine staff work done. The armys standard. Not the perfect way. It doesnt have to be the perfect, as we all know, good enough is often best. And what he does is he sits there and he works them through that takes command of ninth army in World War Two, new army throughout World War Two. He goes fights in all the major operations where he serves underneath bradley and montgomery, both senior commanders love working with him and those that know montgomery and the fellows that know the ability of for an American Army commander to get along with both is a major achievement. And so hes able to work not only multinational, but he also has an air force element working with him. So hes also working. Now, you could argue army air corps, but by that point, my air force father would say they were pretty much air force already anyways. So as we come through all of what do we see and theres more in is it turns out that people like working for bosses that make routine things possible in an unwritten environment standard processes work. Im not saying lack of creativity, not saying that at all, but the idea being is, is that we have processes and systems that have been tested in combat. We should use those. And what simpson shows is that, you know, sometimes you need a good leader to make it not about him. Its about the team. Its about the organization. And thats youve never heard of this man. He write a memoir when people him to write a memoir, he should go read about the ninth army. Go read conquer. And that to me is what came out of this is we have a general chow, a general officer who is more about the team more about the mission and more about getting the job rather than any sort of personal glory or pride. So again, thank you very much for your time. Id love to talk more about simpson. I could talk about him all day. If you let. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, bill colonel dan morgan, ill go up there now last, but certainly not least of our three distinguished authors, first off, id like to thank ausa everybody for being here today. I see some screaming eagle patches and i got i see some ncos go way back with with me and me with them. And also during this deployment, id like to thank general martin thank you for those words mean that was a very powerful very personal i think that matters a lot to all of us i think a lot of us kind of struggle with a lot other ways after what weve all been through. Look, i think i been give a couple of things of advice. First off, dont drop the fbomb because i have a habit of doing that. I promise you i wont slip out. But is the second book that i have, ive had the pleasure to coauthor. The first one was about with my brother actually about lessons from the battlefield, the boardroom, although joe i havent made it to the boardroom yet, but you know, so if theres still good enough lessons and you other than that Daniel Morgan thats a sad. Am i related to the famous Daniel Morgan he fought and he drank. So ill take. But i already got asked by dont that thats who im related to so. Look this book is very powerful book. I have to keep putting down even time i reread it and i had to put it numerous times while writing it with. Kelly colonel khan, a moderator who actually told me i had to put it down a couple of times when hes reading it and that was the intent of the book. So why do we write . We all of us, kind of journal our thoughts and, so forth. This book was about a deployment in 2005, 2006 in southwest baghdad, where nobody in the United States army went outside of the invasion. As we just went north, it was unoccupied. The unit i want is not mentioned in the book and im not going to mention it here, but the unit was before us did go past a certain grid line because they knew they were going to get hit. And it was during the fight for zarqawi all the way up into the russian power. And it was violent. There was one route, route motorhead. You had a 50 chance of getting hit period for a whole year, 783 ieds just on one road. And the reason the book came out is, kelly, eads, i was a specialist at the time, and he ended up leaving the army as a staff sergeant. Hes a Police Officer now. He journaled everything and put it together. I had journal things as well, like did in all my other deployments to and he sent it to me and asked me what i thought and i went through it. He was really raw in a good way. However, it kind of missed the the Overall Mission and what we were doing and nothing on kelly or anybody. It was just it just he was written from his, as we all know, in combat, particularly one combat engagement, theres 100 different points of view when done. And so kelly and i just started putting some thoughts together. I said, now, this is why we did this. And next thing you know, there were some meat on the bone and it became really. Tom ricks, whos written the generals and a few other fiasco, he embedded with me on that deployment and embedded with me a previous deployment. So we had a relationship and mentioned to me that out of all of the times he embedded into iraq or afghanistan, he had never the look haunted eyes that he had ever seen in any other unit. And it was that of a tough violent deployment. And so we struggled on how to write it because kelly did not want book written about himself and his experience so he kind of wrote it from both our experiences. And then i reread it and i was like, i dont understand anything were saying because it was too confusing to the reader, so we had to go back and we rewrote it from kellys eyes and obviously interspersed throughout the book, theyre just based off of being coauthor. So i was kind of struggling on how to bring up what this book to us and we wanted it to mean to the reader not to go into too much gruesome type details on things, but it was very violent. Theres an nco whos command sergeant major. Now sit back here and you know, so im trying to avoid looking at but and he knows what im referring to it was a very difficult time. And you know when i was trying to figure out how to pull this for this conversation nation today about the quote unquote challenges of command. I was kind of really struggling about it because it was it didnt matter who you were. You were in a fight at some point or another there is one combat engagement and for those of all of us who have been in iraq or afghanistan and truly gotten into a firefight, an ied went off a few ak 47, maybe an rpk. If you got stuck there for a few more minutes, maybe some mortars, and then eventually it was over because the apaches showed up, it wasnt a big, long, sustained firefight. We had a few that lasted hours. One platoon leader in his element and its in the book was hit by 13 ied years in span of 3 to 4 hours, not counting nonstop mortars, sniper rounds and just engagement firefight engagements throughout the time have house borne ieds go off for soldiers on rooftop of a house ied goes off everything collapses except the one area where the four soldiers were standing. So when i thought about what the book is about, it is more about leading in war in combat it is more about what happens under your command when in war and when in combat. And if you think about it, the difference between leadership and command is really one thing. Ownership. You know, the commander owns it, period, period, barn honey owns it. However, going war and conducting violence is about breaking your enemies will to fight and its nothing like any other experience youll ever have. It is a life of extremes that is interrupted with violence and boredom all at the same time. So the book kind defines all this in gritty detail. I mentioned that people had to put it down, and if you do have to put it down, its having the impact because were to get across to everybody the bravery and the cover and the love that have for each other in combat. And if you go through multiple iterations of deployment, what gets harder is that mission in purpose in having your soldiers to fight while still believing that when you were back the fourth time from doing it again and it is a very environment to figure out. And so what i would tell you from what we want to get across by describing this this deployment because i said it was as if it was going after zarqawi in baghdad, which, as you all know, was very violent time right before the surge and it actually led to pushing him out up north where eventually he was killed actually during that time frame of this deployment. But i would tell you what ive taken from it, while we try to get across about this, is command and leadership in combat about trust and nothing. And so how do actually get that trust in unit it permeates everything you do its just that simple and so its realistic training and as a commander as leader is an noncommissioned officer about being present being present whether you want to be there or not, whether its actually in the field during training and skipping a command staff meeting, which i did all the time, or is it going into in a combat engagement and being with your even though you dont need to be there, but they do need to see you. Its about your physical presence and your physical and moral courage to be there as a commander. And that gives you the trust. Soldiers want to know theyre never to be left in the battlefield. Thats all that thats thats the number one thing that theyre never going to be left behind. And so you only get there by being present and training and being hard. The other thing, you know, when i kind of thought through this, too and i think its very relevant to today technology and more, if you remember during this time Electronic Warfare was becoming a bigger and bigger deal. It was about blue force tracker. It was about soldiers having i cant remember the name of it, but having the Electronic Warfare capability to deny ieds going off from some type of remote controlled garage door opener, cell phone, whatever it may be. It was on our up humvees, eventually getting into mraps. So dont mistake innovation. The technology has been here for a long francoprussian war machine blitzkrieg World War Two. Its its always been there. Do not enamored with the innovation theater that we see today its important its an enabler but fighting in combat in war is all about the human spirit to win barnard you know, by the way, we continue to call everything asymmetric warfare im not a big fan of that because enemys always going to counter what youre doing. And its been going on for centuries so the human endeavor of combat is always there and its a contest of wills that i think is overcome by the human spirit youre seeing in ukraine. And now were going to see it. You know, whats happened over the past weekend. More importantly, though is that compassion fatigue. And i will tell i experienced it probably more so than i ever expected you know, combat is too complex psychological balance. You between your character, fear, grit, empathy and love for each other, but also the to do violence against another human being. And thats a tough balance to do. But compassion begins to set in when youre being indifferent not just to your enemy, but civilians on the battlefield, but another casualty in your had an officer me i was on my third deployment of seven and i have him tell me that this was becoming my personality because every year i kept going back and forth and as a result, you just dont know it. Then theres compassion fatigue begins to set in and it becomes a very difficult part of your life when you start having casualties. Because every soldier has a mother, father daughter, son, husband, wife, you know, you name it. And able to remember that over and over and over based off of all the decisions are doing to the mission, compassion begins to set in and empathy and love for people start to disappear. And it makes it challenging. You have to fight it every single day. In this book, though, aims to bring that back because also goes back at the end of the book through multiple narratives. A certain stories we get into the kitchen battlefield and thats the family. And its not just the family that through compassion fatigue, its actually the transition that you go through when you actually come home. Try reset, but then you go right back into the Mission Mindset again. So you actually really dont process out. You know, youre going out again. And then when you transition out into civilian life, you know, you try to find yourself in a lot more different situations where that mission soldiers and family that are intertwined together, its gone, gone. Just is. And so you have to find that way to kind of fight that compassion fatigue, give back to those people in your life again. And thats what this book kind of brings out, that those lives of those that have gone down before us and during that that we were with them are not be forgotten because that that complex psychological balance of empathy and love and so forth. Is that important to all of us. And hopefully youll get that from that book when you read it. So thank you for your time. Well, thank you colonel morgan. I want to you you have just seen not only of the written word, but also masters of speaking here, dynamic presentations. And we are all looking forward to your questions. So please dont be bashful. Microphone is right here and please just come up to the microphone and ask your thank you. Someones got to break open. Okay, lets do this. Good morning, gentlemen. Afternoon. Colonel eli lozano, can we have the honor of being the commander, the Walter Reed Army institute of research where . One of our major portfolios is brain health in relation to performance and all of you, in one respect, another talk about and spoke about the, you know, either compassion fatigue or the of of combat in conflict on human beings and what it can do both for leaders and subordinates of the military, the dod and the u. S. At large is thrown everything to include the kitchen in really trying to get this Behavioral Health challenge that we have in order to build the resiliency all of our servicemembers and also our families. I would just love to know your thoughts. You all have had really the the time and energy to look into this particular field, either by reflection of your own career, your own experiences, or speaking with other soldiers that shared combat with. And then you mentioned youre doing things routinely, right . So i know were throwing a lot of science into this but your thoughts as we prepare for large scale combat operations and a heavier toll right on on our Service Members and on leaders. What things you think the routine things are the basic things that we need to go back to in the army either through our professional military education, basic training or routine training in in order to improve and increase that resilience. And wed like to take the question sure. Can you hear me . Is this working. Thanks. Great question. I would say, number one, we need to train and educate the force on what Mental Illness and mental conditions and brain conditions are all about. So, for example, thousands people worked around me for over a decade, but they never recognized that had bipolar disorder. Well, the reason they were untrained, unschooled, uneducated, they didnt know what they were seeing. If they had had some training in the basic symptoms of the most common Mental Illnesses, people would have seen it very quite early on. And so i think the way we put emphasis on on like first aid, we should have the same thing for, you know, brain aid or Mental Health in the conversation about Mental Health, which should really be called brain health, it should be equal physical fitness. The second big thing is Everybody Needs a battle, buddy. Whether youre a private or a four star general, you need battle buddy. Someone that you trust who has complete freedom access to tell you the truth without any sugarcoating. And you cant take any retribution against that tells you, hey, i think youre really showing serious Mental Health problems the third thing is we need to push Mental Health resources down to a much lower level, which i think the military has done quite a good job since 911. And weve come a long way since 911 in all these areas. Fourth, big thing is you need to establish safe channels for people talk. So for example i was a two star general president of national university. People were generally to come talk to me because i was the general. Well, i had ambassadors six other generals working around me and there should have been safe Communication Channels for low ranking people to go to. The ambassador of the u. S. To come in and tell me candidly, hey, people think theres something going on. You, you know, ultimately it came out with all these anonymous complaints to my boss, the chairman, and and so it was solved. I mean, the the was resolved, but it probably could have been done a lot sooner and without quite as much pain. So those are just a few thoughts. Oh, did you have something to. Ill give you a story of three Division Commanders, one in third army and two in ninth army. The first is a guy by name of pete woods that was nicknamed pete because he was really good at armor tactics and he would train folks up there. So people stood for short for professor drove himself basically into the ground. He was always kind of patents go to guy Fourth Armored Division was always forefront of operations and patton always kind of needed whenever you needed something done you grabbed the Fourth Armored Division because woods was going to get it. Well, the problem is that woods drove himself into the ground and at a certain point he became insubordinate to the commander. 12th corps man petty. And even though is probably a better maneuver commander than eddie was, eddie was right. And patton had to fire. So thats one story. Second story, ernie harmon, commander of second Armored Division fighting in nora, fighting up in the netherlands, belgium, kind of the benelux region up there. And he is hes starting to get army chief of staff doing his job runs around the battlefield. Notice the chief notices that the Division Commander getting a little ragged tells the army commander, Division Commander on the edge. General calls the command, calls to star up and says, hey man, youre my guest tonight. All i did is took him. And this is not this is World War Two. There is no general word, number one. So he spent the night drinking, telling war stories, and thats all he needed was an evening off the line, not in talk. Tell him war stories, drinking a lot of booze. So you have that burned him out because he could never no one ever took him off. The one said, hey, man, why dont you it off . And you another guy thats out there and like, whoa, dude, you need to back off a little bit with you. Then the last piece on that, that third Division Commander and ive never figured out exactly who was i figured out it was probably hobbs 3030 Infantry Division. And it was after the battle of the bulge. And what ended up happening is is that again chief of staff out doing his job realized Division Commanders on the edge. Army commander calls men like hey your choice paris or london. Excuse me, sir. Perisher line. Youre taking leave, sir. My divisions ready for fight. I cant take any time off. Let me rephrase this. Paris. London. A relief. I guess to go to london. Well, that Division Gets on an airplane, goes to london, takes bath. Ill take a little nap before before dinner, wakes up noon the next day, went back, told the army after he got back. Hey, sir. Thanks i didnt realize how tired i was. And the point of all three of these stories is its to your point is its just the person. Its not just the peers. Its job of a leader to look at your people, look them in the eyes and see how close to the edge they are. And just because theyre your go to guy doesnt mean that they dont a limit. You should stop before you get them to that limit. Otherwise you end up burning the mountain. You lose them permanently. So lose him for couple of days or lose them totally. And thats, i think, the job of a leader to look your people in the eye and see where they are on the edge. And thats smart because you dont know what that is. And everyones a different. Thank you very much, bill lets go the next question, sir, please. Hi, im colin. Each year on the army Geospatial Office at enger, first day on the system you can think of. I think you were thinking of warlock. And i say that because the Program Manager was my best friend in the army, colonel john ritchie, whos not with us anymore, but my question is for general martin. I was intrigued when you said that you succeeded in the army because of affliction and not despite it. So it causes me to wonder, you know, youre sitting next to two guys that are talking about combat it seems to me that big manic depressive might actually serve you pretty well in combat because it isnt that what combat is so how prevalent do you think this is in the army . How well are we either recognizing it or maybe were incentivized not to recognize it . Just take advantage of these bursts of energy that people like you had. Yeah, thats a great and again, it really me a lot until it went to high and then it destroyed me my personal belief bipolar disorder is widespread in the military. I dont have the data to prove it my friends from walter reed may have more specific data, but i can i can tell you the qualities we want in our military officers energy, enthusiasm, creativity problem solving skills. You know, succeeding under pressure. Those are exactly the traits in the hallmarks of somebody mania. Now, mania in lots of different flavors. You can have very mild mania, which is just you just get in pure dopamine enhancement. You can get media mania where get even more. And then when you go into full blown mania, essentially you go mad and think you can fly and stuff like that. So theres that really help you, but ill tell you the best book ive ever and i read on Mental HealthMental Illness. Its called a first rate madness, uncovering the links between leadership and Mental Illness by professor Nassir Ghaemi of Tufts Medical School and he two of the most famous people that he he and hes a really a world renowned psychiatrist are William Tecumseh sherman severe bipolar disorder Winston Churchill severe. And then theres many many others in their they many people think he did but i think people are afraid to write about him because of the theyre afraid of the payton family coming after them for some kind of defamation character or Something Like that. But mean if you i watched you know now i understand bipolar disorder really well i watched the movie again read some stuff about him and like 100 no doubt same with teddy roosevelt, president the former president. I mean, absolutely no doubt in my mind. So i could go on. But one of the big things is the age group for recruits is 18 to 25. Thats the exact age that we bring people into the military, okay, who do we want to recruit . Same thing, energy, drive and when they get in, what happens . Pressure the triggers that are going to trigger it. I read a couple weeks ago National Institute of Mental Health said 25 of veterans have bipolar disorder. So that tells you you must have about 25 coming up through the through the service. And you compare that to the world average of 3 to 4 . So i mean kind of make your own judgment. Well, thank you