Photo By Paul Lagasse | Gen. James E. Rainey, commanding general of Army Futures Command, offers remarks...... read more read more
FORT DETRICK, Md. – During his recent all-hands town hall at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command at Fort Detrick, Gen. James E. Rainey, commanding general of Army Futures Command, emphasized the importance of prioritizing mental and physical health to ensure that the Army is prepared to engage and win in future conflicts.
“If you walk out of here today and only remember one thing, it should be that in AFC, including your organization, we are never one person away from mission failure,” said Rainey. “On any given day, you are not going to make or break the success. I want people to reach their maximum potential, and they can't do that if they're burning 50% of their calories worrying about something that may or may not happen at some point in the future.”
The reason for that, Rainey emphasized, is to ensure that everyone is able to give their best effort to ensuring AFC can carry out its mission to transform the Army to ensure war-winning future readiness.
“We're the best Army in the world today, I believe; making sure that statement is true in 2030, 2035, 2027, 2040 – that's why Army Futures Command exists,” said Rainey. “We're closer to 2040 than we are to 9/11. The world has never gone 100 years without a major global conflict in the history of the world, and 1945 is a long time ago.”
Over 300 USAMRDC and DHA teammates gathered in Fort Detrick’s auditorium and more than 750 logged in via Teams to hear Rainey and AFC’s Command Sgt. Maj. Brian A. Hester discuss how AFC is transforming the Army to ensure war-winning future readiness and explain how USAMRDC supports this vision. The town hall was followed by an awards ceremony.
During the event, Rainey talked about a tenet of his leadership philosophy that he considered to be “the one real non-negotiable thing” that he believes in, which is that people should treat others with respect and dignity. Likewise, Rainey said, if anyone witnesses someone mistreating another person at work, they are obligated to intervene or report it to their chain of command.
In response to a question from the audience, Rainey took the opportunity to emphasize the central importance of the joint force.
“In my worst days in combat, I cannot imagine not having the Air Force there for support,” said Rainey. “I can’t imagine going to war next time without Space Command or Cyber Command. We're inherently a joint force, and that's our superpower. And I should add, our partners and allies are part of that. If we fight another major conflict, nobody is going to be sitting it out.”
During their visit to Fort Detrick, Rainey and his leadership staff had an opportunity to see firsthand some of the cutting-edge research being conducted at USAMRDC to improve the readiness and lethality of the force. Col. Matt Scherer, director of the DOD Blast Injury Research Coordinating Office, briefed them on the current strategic landscape related to force health protection from blast overpressure. They also attended a demonstration of medical systems developed by researchers from the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center and the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research that will be tested at Project Convergence Capstone 5, a joint multinational exercise that will take place in the western United States and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command theater later this year.
Looking to the future, Rainey said he was excited for what lay ahead for USAMRDC and for AFC.
“I'd love to have 15, 20 more years of this,” said Rainey. “It's going to be awesome.”
| Date Taken: | 02.13.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.13.2025 10:26 |
| Story ID: | 490721 |
| Location: | FORT DETRICK, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 48 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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