THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL INFANTRY ASSOCIATION 7th Infantry (BAYONET) Division issue Squad training in Stryker brigades BUILDING the Army’s Best team leaders Permit #3592 Permit ATLANTA, GA GA ATLANTA, PAID US POSTAGE US PRSRT STD STD PRSRT FALL 2020 WWW.INFANTRYASSN.COM NATIONAL INFANTRY CONTENTSASSOCIATION OFFICERS Chairman/CEO LTG (Ret) Thomas F. Metz ★ ARTICLES ★ Immediate Past Chairman MG (Ret) William B. Steele Tomahawk NCOs Build New Secretary/Treasurer 4 LTC (Ret) Mac Plummer Team Leader Course Directors COL (Ret) Daniel Barnett COL (Ret) Johnny W. Brooks Building the Squad LTC (Ret) Michael Browder 8 CSM (Ret) Judson Gee CSM (Ret) William M. Grant Mr. Jim Irvin Plumlee Takes Skills From the Court to the Army CSM (Ret) Michael A. Kelso 12 CSM (Ret) Chris Lewis COL (Ret) Ralph Puckett COL (Ret) L.C. Rush 14 Finding New Ways to Communicate COL (Ret) William Simril Mr. Paul Voorhees CSM (Ret) Matthew C. Walker CSM (Ret) Richard W. Weik CSM (Ret) Willie Wells Legal Advisor COL (Ret) Bob Poydasheff ★ ★ Ex-Officio DEPARTMENTS BG David M. Hodne CSM Robert Fortenberry CSM Martin S. Celestine Messages from the Chairman, 2 NIA STAFF President and Chief of Infantry President/COO COL (Ret) Robert E. Choppa [email protected] Hall of Valor: Einar H. Ingman Jr. President Emeritus 16 COL (Ret) Richard Nurnberg Director of Operations NIMF Update: NIM Reopens Stephanie Haveron 17 [email protected] Exclusively for Soldiers Awards Manager MAJ (Ret) Mike Stinchcomb [email protected] News and Awards Editor 20 Jill Tigner [email protected] Non-Discrimination Statement Everything advertised in this publication must be made available for purchase, use, or patronage, without regard to the race, creed, color, sex, age, or national origin of the purchaser, ON THE COVER: AN INFANTRY TEAM MOVES THROUGH A GAP IN A WIRE OBSTACLE. user or patron. 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Views expressed by advertisers and/or contributing writers are not necessarily those of the National Infantry Association or this Do you have an opinion concerning one of the stories in this issue? magazine’s editorial staff. Trademark: The Infantry Bugler, a quarterly magazine published We would like to print your responses in our Letters to the Editor by the National Infantry Association, is protected by a registered trademark. ISSN#1933-6225 column. Have you researched a topic that is of interest to Infantry Publisher is Columbus and the Valley Magazine Soldiers? Submit it to us as an article for the Infantry Bugler. Do you have PO Box 229 Columbus, GA 31902 personal experiences or valuable lessons learned that would benefit telephone 706-324-6214 other readers? Let us be your vehicle for delivering those thoughts. Send For further information regarding the contents of this publication, please contact Jill Tigner at the National Infantry your submissions to [email protected]. Association, Infantry Bugler, 1775 Legacy Way, Suite 210, Columbus, GA 31903; e-mail [email protected]; telephone 706-323-2560. For advertising information, contact Sarah Weikert by email at [email protected] or by phone at 678-232-5253. ★ MESSAGES ★ From the Chairman From the President Pandemic, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Chinese Hey, from your National Infantry Virus, Plague ... call it what you like; regardless, it is Association. My column is dedicated to our enemy! Prehistoric (circa 3,000 B.C.) evidence Ralph Puckett, a Korean War veteran and tells us man has fought viruses for thousands of Vietnam War veteran, a Modern Ranger, years and the outcomes often changed the course an awesome Infantryman and officer. of history. The Bubonic Plague, the Black Death, Ralph continues to volunteer his time the Russian Plague, Spanish, Asian and Swine and support to the National Infantry Flus, Yellow Fever, Polio, AIDS and Ebola were and Association and our Infantry. He is always are our enemies. a pleasure to work with. Ralph is a LTG (Ret) Thomas F. Metz How we defeat these enemies is very similar COL (Ret) Robert E. Choppa Georgia gentleman, son, husband, father to the traits we want infused in our Infantry Leaders and Soldiers. For many military and grandfather. If you want to reach him, send us a note and we will ensure he tasks, we train for the expected and educate for the unexpected. Training to maintain gets it. We want to thank all of our Korean War Veterans on the 70th Anniversary a distance from others, to wear a mask, to wash hands and other tasks that come of the start of the Korean War (25 June 1950). This war would go on until the U.N. forward as we learn more about the coronavirus, should not be difficult tasks to learn. Armistice on 27 July 1953. We still have forces there. As the science of the coronavirus continues to grow, education about it should not be The Infantry Bugler has taken a new approach on content. For the foreseeable too challenging for our Soldiers to understand. They will find themselves in situations future, we will highlight one of our active Infantry Divisions and then our Army for which they were not trained. Thus, with their education, they will move to the best National Guard Infantry Divisions in each issue. We will begin with the 7th course of action available. infantry Division. Please let me know your thoughts. With adequate training and education, we must expect discipline from our Infantry As the Infantry and the National Infantry Association are still impacted by Soldiers. Discipline can be a noun or a verb, and these two definitions overlap with the the COVID-19 pandemic, lots of graduations, banquets, reunions, conferences term “self-control.” Infantry Soldiers will face situations that increase the risk of acquiring and even the Doughboy Dinner have been canceled. Two events were held in the coronavirus. Their discipline—their self-control—must kick in and move them out Columbus and at the National Infantry Museum on September 11-12. On 11 of this risk area. Their self-control will also give them support when via their education September, Gold Star Families were recognized and on 12 September, those who they realize they have been in a situation that increased their chance of obtaining the served and gave their lives in the Global War on Terror (GWOT) were recognized. coronavirus. Discipline and moral fortitude will be required to let the chain of command The names of those who were killed or died in combat this past year were know about the situation. Especially in units with quick to deploy missions, we can’t unveiled on after being added to the GWOT Memorial. afford for significant numbers of the unit to be ill while they need to achieve their We have to give special thanks to our all-star Membership Director Stephanie deployment mission. Our Infantry Soldiers must have the moral courage to avoid risky Haveron for her service as a NIM volunteer, NIA awards clerk and NIA operations situations and when they realize in hindsight that they were in a risky environment, they officer from April 2016 – October 2020. Stephanie has been phenomenal—an must be candid with their chain of command. We are smarter than a virus, but we must all-star on our team. Stephanie and her husband are relocating to Texas. We will have the moral strength to win this fight against a deadly enemy. miss her, but send her on her way with our love and well wishes. MAJ (Ret) Mike As we add the Space Service to fight in the Space domain, I’m reminded of the Stinchcomb is moving into the operations officer position and we will hire a new increased complexity of today’s and tomorrow’s wars. When wars were limited to the awards director. land component, little was known about deadly viruses. As military leaders added sea Thank you to our Sales Director Sarah Weikert. Sarah leads our advertising (surface and then sub-surface) and air domains, still little was known about viruses. and marketing effort and is constantly seeking opportunities for our Bugler We have added cyber, space and information domains, but are we ready to fight deadly and website. Please send any potential corporate marketing prospects to Sarah viruses? ([email protected]). I am not lobbying for a Virus Service, but what I am suggesting is we may find Thank you to our sole and official NIA Sponsor, Phantom Products. Ms. ourselves in a fight with our enemy in multiple domains. Based on what we learn Victoria McDermott is the owner, CEO and leader of the Phantom Team. Please about the coronavirus, we will have to add the fight against it or its deadly cousins support them as they have magnificent products and they are our only 5-Star simultaneously with enemies across all the domains of the battlefield. A new deadly Sponsor. virus may arrive in a hundred years or next year. It could also arrive while we are at war Finally, during this last quarter we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the end with a peer enemy.