Photo By Timothy Hale | Lt. Gen. Jeffrey W. Talley, Chief, U.S. Army Reserve and U.S. Army Reserve Command...... read more read more
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. – The Honorable Patrick J. Murphy, the Acting Secretary of the United States Army, praised the U.S. Army Reserve for their contributions to the Army’s Total Force.
His remarks were made during the U.S. Army Reserve Senior Leader Conference, held in conjunction with the 108th birthday of the U.S. Army Reserve, at the Iron Mike Conference Center, April 23, 2016.
“Thank you so much for all that you do. I know it’s not easy for all of you,” Murphy said. “What you do as part of the Army team is remarkable. We, as a broader Army, have a lot to learn at some of the things you are getting after, and bring that in to the broader Army.”
Murphy, who was sworn in as the 32nd under secretary of the Army and Chief Management Officer, Jan. 4, is a former 82nd Airborne Division officer, served in Bosnia and Iraq, and as a law professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
Murphy also served in Congress from 2007-2011, the first Iraq veteran to be elected, where he was a member of the Armed Services, Select Intelligence, and Appropriations committees. From 2011-2015, Murphy also was a contributor on NBC Universal and hosted a show on MSNBC.
“When I left Congress five years ago, the Army budget was $250 billion. We are fighting right now to get just under $150 billion. So a 40 percent cut in five years,” he said. “Five years ago we didn’t have Russia invading other countries, we didn’t have ISIS, and we didn’t have North Korea launching missiles.”
He said the operational tempo of the Army has not decreased. But there have been changes.
“We have shown that we are a Total Force – not just the active Army but the Army Reserve and the National Guard,” he said. “Readiness is the number one priority, there is no other. What the reserve does so well is integrate with that deploying force on active duty. The Citizen-Soldiers have a broader perspective because of the dual-hatted nature – you are twice the citizen, twice the soldier.”
Murphy said that readiness is a three-part process: individual, unit, and Army. Within this readiness are three initiatives that Murphy wants to see improved: Public-Private Partnerships, expanding Soldier for Life, and telling the Army story.
“We have to be more agile and be quicker to partner with others in every capacity in what we do,” Murphy said, citing an Army energy project at Fort Hood, Texas that saved the Army $38 million by donating land to the project.
“I’m going to be asking, you in this room, for more help with that (Public-Private Partnership). You’ve already done incredible work in this regard. When we talk about Public-Private Partnerships, I want you to be thinking about audit readiness. Congress is our board of directors and they have mandated that every federal agency – 16 of them – must have audit readiness. The only one of the 16 that is not audit ready is the Department of Defense and the three departments that includes the four services. We have to do a better job and I need to make sure that our enterprise resource systems work for you. It’s not a comptroller issue, it’s a leader issue – a commander issue.”
He’s also looking at best business practices in innovation, making sure every dollar counts, and the current “spend it or lose it policy” which he said isn’t a sound practice. He also challenged leaders to look at how they execute their budget by looking for the positive return on investment.
“That’s not how it should be,” Murphy said. “If you can save some money you should not be penalized. If you do things more efficiently, that’s a positive.”
When it comes to Soldier for Life, Murphy cited his time at West Point as an example. He said at West Point, their mantra is “develop leaders of character for a lifetime of service. We are all leaders of character … it’s not whether you serve for three years or 30 years, you are still expected to serve.
“We are civic assets. And when you wear the cloth of our country, you have the love of country stamped on your heart. Because you are away from your families and we have this shared sacrifice. We have the same core beliefs of duty, honor, and country,” he said.
Public-Private Partnerships and Soldier for Life dovetail into Murphy’s final priority of telling the Army story. To tell that story, Murphy said the Army needs social media.
“It’s important to communicate to younger Americans who can join our ranks and we need them to join our ranks,” Murphy said. “They do not read newspapers. Only 24 percent of Americans read newspapers and I happen to be one of them. The average age of a newspaper reader is over 60-years-old. Newspapers are important but 90 percent of teenagers get their news from social media.”
Units and leaders need to leverage their good news stories using social media in order to reach a younger audience, Murphy said.
“The majority of them get their news from Facebook,” he said. “If there is an article about your unit, put it on Facebook. If there is not an article, take their picture, write an article and put it on Facebook and tell their story.”
Murphy said the he understand that we, as an Army, have an ethic of being quiet professionals but it’s important to brag about unit and soldier accomplishments.
“Just tell their story,” Murphy said. “It helps the team and tell it using social media. We have to do a better job.”
Murphy summed up his time with the senior leaders by saying the Army is “America’s varsity team” and needs to be ready at a moment’s notice. And the U.S. Army Reserve is an integral part of the team.
“When the President or these governors ask us to respond, we can’t say, ‘I’m sorry.’ We’ve got to be ready to go. We’ve got be ready to go tonight. That’s why readiness is so important,” Murphy said.
| Date Taken: | 04.23.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 04.23.2016 23:08 |
| Story ID: | 196348 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,151 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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