As the Class of 2024 cadets’ inch closer toward graduation, every moment that allows them to engage and interact with past and current leaders is one more brick added to their leadership foundation.

Hence, the first-class cadets participated in the Mission Command Conference (MCC) from March 19-20 at Eisenhower Hall, along with staff and faculty while gathering insight from consummate leaders who battled adversity during a crisis. 

During MCC, officers and noncommissioned officers who had their boots on the ground in dire situations presented cadets with real-world challenges to help reinforce the importance of character and leading through mission command.

The MCC is a capstone event for first-class cadets taking MX400, Officership, which is a capstone course that challenges the cadets to become commissioned leaders of character who demonstrate virtue, honor, patriotism and subordination to civilian authority. It allows cadets to reflect on their own character development experiences while studying the enduring and emerging ethical challenges of the profession they are about to enter. The second-class cadets also attended the keynote address with the intention of previewing topics that will be addressed in MX400 next year to their class.

This year’s conference theme was, “Establishing Trust: A Legacy at Home and Abroad,” and it allowed cadets to listen and discuss with the panel members about trust relationships and their impact on effective use of mission command and creating cohesive teams within the profession of arms through arduous trials and tribulations.

The lead planner for the MCC was Maj. Gretchen Butt, MX400 instructor, and she was involved with everything from the theme and topic generation, to coordinating panels and panelists. She helped with determining required resources for the event and identifying key nodes and personnel who would be responsible for the events within the conference.

Butt explained that the MCC is “extremely important to reinforcing the essential characteristics of the Army profession.”

“This year, we focused on trust because as the bedrock of the profession, it enables the other characteristics to flourish,” Butt said. “The intention of the different panels this year was to expose the Firsties to different operational environments and mission sets that demonstrate how trust and character enables the principles of mission command. 

“Incorporating perspectives from NCOs, junior officers and senior officers across different branches was vital,” she added. “This approach not only provided depth but also breadth of experiences, complementing the overarching theme of trust and its impact on mission command.”

Mission command is the commander’s exercise of authority and direction using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in conducting unified operations on land and air. 

Retired Gen. David Perkins, U.S. Military Academy Class of 1980 and the ‘66 Chair for the Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic (SCPME), was the keynote speaker the first night, discussing the impacts of trust through the lens of mission command.

Butt spoke about how Perkins emphasized the pivotal role of trust in fostering mission command.

“He underscored that leaders’ ability to understand, visualize and describe are fundamental in cultivating trust within an organization,” Butt stated. “Furthermore, the manner in which leaders direct, lead and assess serves as the currency through which trust is utilized. Trust is analogous to a bank account; it requires ongoing investment to accumulate enough reserves, enabling leaders to make potentially unpopular decisions without encountering significant backlash when the need arises.”

Additionally, the final day of MCC offered four panels: 

• “Operation European Assure, Deter and Reinforce,” talked about the recent conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the myriad of affairs the military engaged in within the surrounding countries. 

• The “Battle of Mogadishu,” which was part of Operation Gothic Serpent on Oct. 3-4, 1993, in Somalia, and was depicted in the movie “Black Hawk Down.” The panelists addressed to the cadets about their two-day frantic odyssey to survive and complete the mission.

• “Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) – Hurricane Maria,” which was a Category 5 hurricane that did significant infrastructure damage in Puerto Rico in 2017. The military had to intervene and help coordinate operations with FEMA and other government agencies to aid the people who were suffering without food, drinking water and telecommunications.

The final panel was “OIF I – Operation Thunder Run,” which was the U.S. military’s lightning-fast assault on Baghdad in April 2003.

“The four different panels provided a variety of operational environments in which the panelists were able to highlight different trust relationships and how they are integral to the success of mission command,” Butt said. “These panels included NCOs and officers who discussed their firsthand experiences during combat operations, support to civil authorities, collaboration with allies and partners, or the significance of fostering critical family networks. Given the nature of how complex our operational environment is, it’s important for these future lieutenants to be exposed to a diversity of mission sets and concepts that will better enable them to navigate the challenges of officership.”

One of the first-class cadets who received this wealth of knowledge from these experienced leaders was Class of 2024 Cadet Jacques Schold, a Systems Engineering major who is the Brigade Honor Captain.

As the Brigade Honor Captain, Schold is able to collaborate closely with the leaders within SCPME and because of that relationship, received the chance to emcee the opening (Perkins) and closing (retired Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley) speakers of the conference. He was thrilled to accept the opportunity that allowed him to have personal conversations with these highly respected leaders.

“It was incredibly inspiring to have the opportunity to converse and interact with the distinguished panelists in discussions before, during and after the conference,” Schold said.

The most interesting panel to Schold was the “Battle of Mogadishu,” led by panelists retired Col. Lee Van Arsdale, retired Maj. Larry Moores, retired 1st Sgt. Matt Eversmann and Keni Thomas.

“When we talk about the topic of trust, very few organizations build trust quite like the United States Special Operations,” Schold stated. “The Battle of Mogadishu is a testament to that. Hearing these leaders recall the events from that battle and how they were able to operate in incredibly dynamic, unpredictable conditions was very inspiring.

“The point made by retired 1st Sgt. Eversmann really stuck out to me because he had little to no combat experience at the time,” he added. “From my perspective, he was approaching the operation with a similar lens as my peers and I will as new lieutenants. The majority of us have no combat experience, yet will be expected to be the steadfast leader when the targets down range start to shoot back.” 

 Schold then reflected on Perkins speech on the first night and said the most impactful part of it was talking about 1st Lt. Robert Ball, USMA Class of 2001.

“Within not even a (couple) years of graduating (from West Point), he found himself quite literally at the tip of the spear for the combat invasion of Iraq,” Schold said. “With the incredibly tense geopolitical climate right now, it is not unrealistic for my classmates and I to begin preparing ourselves mentally for that possibility. The day that we are called forward may be sooner than any of us think so we must utilize the time between now and then to train, learn and reflect so we are as prepared for that moment as best as possible.”

As for Schold’s reflection on the dialogue from all the panels and the impact on his growth as a young leader in the future, he said the panels were “valuable.”

“It allows us to be exposed to new perspectives and experiences that we do not typically hear about from our instructors alone,” Schold explained. “For instance, the DSCA panel was very informative as that is a very realistic mission set that we may face in our peacetime Army. Even though we are nearly at the end of our 47-month experience at West Point, it is important for the Firstie (senior) class to continue to take these conversations seriously because our development as leaders is a never-ending endeavor.”

 With MX400 being the culminating experience for all Firsties, the importance of the course and this conference has helped reinforce each cadet’s character and thinking about their leadership style as an Army officer in the near future.

“This conference helped bring a lot of topics we discuss during our class into real life,” Schold expressed. “Hearing from members of the operational force about all the topics we talk about in class verifies our lessons and provides us with a valuable perspective as to how they are actually operationalized.” 

Butt detailed that, overall, the cadets are receiving imperative information because the Army is a learning organization, which means that, “even when things have a negative outcome or effect, there are still lessons that can be learned.” 

“This enables us to limit the same situation from occurring in the future or to look at a scenario from a different perspective,” Butt elaborated. “By presenting both the favorable and adverse consequences of leaders’ decisions, we can leverage the beneficial outcomes in the future while mitigating the detrimental ones. As Perkins noted in his keynote, leaders take prudent risk, not random risk. Therefore, the more information that we have, whether drawn from past experiences or current operational landscape, the better equipped we are at decision-making and mitigating as much risk as possible.”

Butt was excited to see all the hard work of putting this conference together come to fruition, but said it is “most rewarding to see cadets engage with the panelists and prompting their intellectual curiosity for a topic or concept they may not have been exposed to before.”

She concluded by saying that often it is difficult to understand how the topics covered in class translate to real-life scenarios for cadets, but this conference gives a platform to connect it all.

“Our hope is to equip cadets with panels that showcase a variety of experiences,” Butt said, “therefore, by illuminating tangible implications of seemingly abstract concepts.”