One of the Youngest Leadership Teams in US Army History is Rocking the Boat

Army Secretary Eric Fanning eats MREs with soldiers and wins raves for his Twitter savvy. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley allowed you to roll sleeves. Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey asked soldiers to send him ideas for his first tattoo.

The Army’s most senior leaders are clearly shaking things up.

But they’re not just taking selfies or worrying about what a soldier’s uniform looks like.

This team, one of the youngest Army leadership teams in history, is aggressively pursuing enormous change in how the service conducts business.

They are fighting bureaucracy and connecting with soldiers in the midst of budget pressure, a shrinking force and increased global demands. They are speeding up acquisitions and laying the groundwork for the Army of 2025, overhauling professional military education and finding time for morale-boosting decisions on tattoos and socks.

"As we recognize how much more complex the world is getting and how much more creative our adversaries are getting, we have a vision on where our Army is heading, so our priorities are shaped in helping us get there," Fanning said.

The senior leadership team – Fanning, Milley, Dailey, Under Secretary Patrick Murphy and Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dan Allyn – "is a very tight working team that’s interested in responding quickly and getting out the Army story and taking care of soldiers," Fanning said.

Why the hurry?

"I do think it’s a combination of our personalities and how we operate," Fanning said. " … We’re all out there listening to soldiers, and when we hear something that just seems obvious or seems common sense, we’ll ask questions but won’t staff it in the traditional way. If we get it wrong, we can adjust."

Fanning, who was 47 when he was sworn in as the Army’s top civilian leader in May, is the youngest man to serve as Army secretary since Clifford Alexander Jr., who was 44 when he took the job in 1977.

Milley, at 58, is right at the average age of the men who have served as the Army chief of staff, while Dailey, who was 42 when he was sworn in, is the youngest ever sergeant major of the Army.

Murphy –  just 12 years ago – was a captain in the Army.


The combination of experience, energy and big, bold personalities has created a potent team, the men said.

Fanning is "young, energetic, smart," with deep knowledge of the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, the Navy and the Air Force, Milley said.

"He comes to the job with a lot of background experience and skills that benefit the institution of the Army," Milley said. "And he’s a man of tremendous moral courage and integrity, and it’s clear to me that he has the Army’s best interests at heart."

Fanning also connects well with soldiers, Milley said.

"He’s getting out and about, seeing the Army, and he’s broadening and deepening his understanding of the Army," he said.

In the short months since becoming the Army secretary, Fanning has built a strong social media following, especially on Twitter, where he presents snappy comebacks, responsiveness and a fondness for funny gifs.

Fanning said he’s active on social media to better connect with soldiers, commanders and the public, and his efforts are already bearing fruit.

Fanning said he and his team have found that young soldiers and commanders alike are looking at his social media posts.

"For young soldiers, it’s nice because it can be awkward when the secretary of the Army comes parachuting in," Fanning said. "But if they’re already anticipating it, engaging in one way or another, we’re bypassing that awkward stage, and the conversation is already underway before we arrive."


Commanders are responding as well, Fanning said.

"What’s really been interesting to me is I’ve had commanders say to me, ‘We’ve seen what you do on previous visits, and we’ve adjusted the schedule,’" he said. "When I travel, the general rule is I don’t want to do anything on the road that I can do in my office, so rule No. 1 is no PowerPoint."

Milley said he and Fanning share a good relationship.

"I think it’s a situation of mutual respect, and I think we complement each other pretty well," Milley said.

Fanning agreed, calling Milley "a very engaging, dynamic individual."

The two also share adjoining offices.

"The Army headquarters has something unique to the Department of Defense in the Pentagon, and that’s a door that separates the offices of the chief and secretary," Fanning said. "It doesn’t exist in any other office."

The adjoining offices allow Fanning and Milley to work more efficiently and closely together, Fanning said.

"We literally can walk into each other’s offices without walking into a hallway or a vestibule," he said.


Milley is a big believer in cutting through bureaucracy.

"Some of the things we’re emphasizing are speed of decision-making, common sense decision-making," he said. "We’re trying to create a culture that is adaptive, create a culture that decentralizes decision-making at lower levels that emphasizes empowerment. I think we have a very good chemistry, and I’m proud of that."

Murphy, who was the acting Army secretary while Fanning waited to be confirmed, is "a tremendous complement to Fanning," Milley said.

"He loves the Army, he’s enthusiastic, he’s a combat veteran of Iraq," Milley said. "He’s got boundless energy, and he’s always trying to do the right thing."

The chief also praised Dailey.

"I’m probably biased in my view, but I think Sergeant Major Dailey is the finest sergeant major the United States Army has ever had," Milley said. "He’s a soldier’s soldier. He gets out and about. He represents me, he gets things done."

Milley and Allyn round out the team.

"We’re guys with a lot of muddy boot time, a lot of combat experience," Milley said.


Since becoming the Army’s top enlisted soldier, Dailey had pushed for several changes that have undoubtedly raised morale across the force. This includes pushing the Army to reverse a strict tattoo policy that was almost universally panned by soldiers, and securing permission for soldiers to wear black socks during physical fitness training.

"Probably the best compliment I’ve received lately was from a soldier who said, ‘Thank you for being a very common sense senior leadership team,’" Dailey said. "That’s good that soldiers view us that way. Sometimes we tend to lose touch with reality, and sometimes that’s true because of the scale of what we’re doing, but one of my goals was to change that perception."

Quick, smart, common sense decision making is critical in the Army, Milley said.

"We’re a very large organization, we’ve got a large operating budget that we’ve been entrusted with, and we have a mission that is incredibly critical to the United States," he said. "So, with an organization that’s global and operating at a pretty high optempo around the world, you’ve got to have an organization that’s agile. You’ve got to have an organization that’s adaptive, and you have to have an organization where you have high degrees of trust."

The Army has tended in the past to overcentralize its decision-making, Milley said.

"I think we need to have the pendulum swing a little bit in a different direction," he said. "We need to encourage and then underwrite leaders who are willing to take calculated risks. Not gambles; calculated risks. We need to encourage and underwrite innovative thinking and problem-solving, creative thinking, innovative thinking, in order to solve complex problems."