That is what one former General thinks:

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 11, 2014) — As football season kicks off, the public is focusing on favorite teams and athletes and making predictions. That same focus needs to be on “our Soldier-athletes,” perhaps even more so, said Lt. Gen. Robert B. Brown, commander, Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Brown spoke at the Association of the United States Army’s Institute of Land Warfare Medical Forum, Wednesday.

Before kicking off his discussion on “The Soldier Athlete,” Brown walked around the audience of mostly Soldiers and former Soldiers, asking them to describe traits of good athletes. “Leadership,” “disciplined,” “talented,” “teamwork,” “commitment,” “hard work,” “determination,” “competitiveness,” “physically fit,” and “resilient” were some of the attributes given.

Then, Brown asked the same question about Soldiers. The similarities of their answers were striking.

Brown has some insights into soldiering and athletics. He was the number two basketball recruit from Michigan, playing for Coach Mike Krzyewski at the U.S. Military Academy. He was commissioned in 1981, and went infantry.

“We need to be more proactive in the way we treat Soldiers,” he said. In many ways, Soldiers have to deal with situations more difficult than athletes, particularly on the battlefield, but also at home station.

The battlefield of the future will be even more confused and chaotic than ever before, and a mature, well-trained Soldier who is adaptive and quick-thinking will be required.

Who could have imagined just a few months ago that a civilian airline would be shot out of the sky, the barbarism of ISIS and the situation in Ukraine?” he asked. The only predictable thing is that the future will be even more confused and chaotic, he said.

In Brown’s early career, he said the “fog of war was not having enough information. Now, the fog of war is too much information — in overwhelming amounts.” Soldiers will need to process that information much more rapidly than ever before and to do that will require a lot of realistic training. What is certain is that “the enemy will adapt” and they won’t play by the same rules and moral values. [Army.mil]

You can read more at the link.

I definitely agree with the information overload, but as far as training soldiers as elite athletes I would just be happy if the Army became committed to keeping soldiers healthy.

Asian Games – North Korea threatens attack if leaflets are launched from South http://t.co/YBs5gymrhR #KoreaNews

— Korea News Summary (@ROKreport) September 20, 2014

YONGSAN, South Korea – The Republic of Korea Minister of Defense The Honorable Han, Min Gu with General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, Commander, United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, and United States forces Korea, and General Seon Park, Deputy Commander, Combined Forces Command do a pass and review of the United Nations Command Honor Guard during a ceremony on Knight Field.(US Army photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Harris) [Via USFK Flickr page]

I am surprised this is actually considered illegal:

Image via Flickr user AnsanAnswers.

The former and current executives of Homeplus, the local discount chain owned by U.K. retailer Tesco, were slapped with a travel ban yesterday over allegations that customers’ personal information collected during in-store prize giveaways was sold to insurance companies.

The revelation dealt a further blow to the chain that is already beset by strained relations with its union, slumping sales and a separate scandal surrounding a giveaway event.

A joint investigation team of prosecutors and the government imposed travel bans on Lee Seung-han, the former CEO, and incumbent Do Sung-hwan, alleging that top-management involvement led to the sale of personal data.

The investigation team specializing in personal data leak cases said the retailer allegedly collected data from 2.5 million people over the past five years through registration forms for prize giveaways and sold it for about 4,000 won ($3.80) per person to multiple insurance companies.

Authorities say Homeplus may have pocketed a total of 10 billion won from the sales.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but this is basically what Facebook does selling people’s data to advertisers and most people do not even realize it.  What probably is illegal about what Homeplus did was that they did not have a disclaimer to warn the customers their data may be used to be sold to advertisers.  The fact that the raffel was also tampered with to select an employee’s friend to win a BMW is also very shady. 

I wonder if the 3rd Advisor Division will be issued Crocs? Would not want anyone to think this means there are boots on the ground:

FORT STEWART, Ga. — A force of approximately 25,000 advisers from the U.S. Army’s 3rd Adviser Division is heading to Iraq to not participate in direct ground combat of any kind, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

“Make no mistake, we are in full-on advisement against ISIL in the same way we continue to advise countries against al Qaeda and its affiliates,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said at a press conference, using an acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

While noting the division was comprised mostly of combat troops from its former unit name of 3rd Infantry Division, Kirby cautioned that using this re-structured unit would not lead to advisement-creep.

“It’s made up of three Brigade Advisor Teams (BAT). Among these are a mixture of various adviser types including Infantry Advisers, Armor Advisers, Artillery Advisers and Attack Aviation Advisers,” Kirby said.

Sources confirmed the new unit was formed after Pentagon leaders realized direct ground combat and trying to impose U.S. will on the enemy had negative effects, and it was better to advise them into submission.

You can read more at the Duffel Blog.

I wonder if 2ID will eventually be issued the upgraded M1A1 Armored Humanitarian Relief Vehicles as well?

Lawmakers test drive an electric vehicle at the National Assembly in Seoul on Sept. 19, 2014. (Yonhap)

It will be interesting to see how this turns out:

The U.S. wants to keep an artillery brigade stationed near the Demilitarized Zone after the planned relocation of American forces to the southern half of South Korea, according to media reports.

The request to keep the 2nd Infantry Division’s 210th Fires Brigade at Camp Casey was made earlier this week during military consultations in Seoul, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News. U.S. officials claimed that moving the brigade would hurt its combat readiness, and have “repeatedly and strongly” pushed to keep the unit in Dongducheon, the report said, citing unidentified diplomatic sources.

Officials from South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff would not comment Friday. But earlier this month, South Korean officials said the U.S. would not leave residual forces along the DMZ, though American officials didn’t rule out the prospect of leaving some troops behind “temporarily.”  (Stars & Stripes)

I guess this all hinges on what the word temporary means.  The Fires Brigade could be there temporarily until North Korea is no longer a threat.

Japan PM Abe seeks summit with South Korea's Park amid frosty ties http://t.co/uGa49VWlKd #KoreaNews

— Korea News Summary (@ROKreport) September 19, 2014

This has to be the fastest revision of AR 670-1 ever:

The Army dialed back some controversial rules on tattoos and women’s hairstyles in an update on Tuesday to the regulation governing appearance and uniform wear.

In March, the Army issued a heavily revised Army Regulation 670-1, a move that spurred grumbling in the ranks and a protest on Capitol Hill with newly restrictive language about a number of appearance issues.

The more stringent tattoo policy issued in March remains largely unchanged, retaining the limits on the size, number and location of tattoos. Full sleeve tattoos are still banned, for instance, and no more than four small tattoos can be visible on lower arms and legs. The rules were meant, the Army said in press release Tuesday, “to maintain the professional appearance of the force.”

While tattoos in violation of rules issued in March could be grandfathered, soldiers with grandfathered tattoos couldn’t seek a commission or appointment without receiving a special exception. That changed Tuesday.

“The updated regulation takes into account that previously authorized tattoos should not prevent a soldier from becoming an officer, but that candidates are to be evaluated based on the whole soldier concept, or all characteristics of a soldier,” the Army said. [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more about the changes to hairstyles as well at the link.

Via One Free Korea comes this article from a ROK Drop favorite Bruce Klingner

Unilateral US actions against Iran, combined with diplomatic pressure, led other nations to impose their own financial and regulatory measures against Tehran. Collectively, the international sanctions have isolated Iran from the international banking system, targeted critical Iranian economic sectors, and forced countries to restrict purchases of Iranian oil and gas, Tehran’s largest export.

Just as strong measures induced Iran back to the negotiating table, more robust measures are needed to leverage North Korea. The United States should use its action against Iran as a model for imposing the same severity of targeted financial measures against North Korea.

Targeted financial measures are directed against entities that violate U.S. laws by exploiting their need to access the global financial network. Even the most isolated regime is vulnerable given the centrality of the U.S. financial system. The U.S. dollar is the global currency of choice for international trade, and the requirement that any dollar-denominated transaction anywhere in the world must go through a U.S. Treasury Department-regulated bank give Treasury the power to exclude North Korea and its third country enablers from the U.S. financial system.

Compared with trade sanctions, targeted financial measures are precision guided munitions against violators, rather than economic carpet bombing against a population. For banks, wire services, and insurance companies, there are catastrophic risks to facilitating – even unknowingly — illicit transactions. [Korea Economic Institute]

I highly recommend reading the whole thing at the link, but I agree with One Free Korea’s opinion that the old ideas in regards to North Korea have failed.  The targeted financial measures that Klingner mentions were proven to change North Korean behavior when one looks back at the 2005 freezing of North Korean money in the Macau bank Banco Delta Asia.  The bank was hit with targeted financial measures because it was being used to launder counterfeit US dollars.  After the money was frozen there was a noticeable change in the short term in North Korean behavior until the ill-gotten money was returned.  Since then North Korea has found new ways to launder and move money around.  Imagine the affect on Kim regime behavior if they continually faced Banco Delta Asia type of crisis from targeted financial measures.  Unlike Banco Delta Asia I would hope the US would not give North Korea their ill-gotten money back either.