In a crowded classroom above the lawns of the U.S. Naval Academy, midshipmen are getting a dose of reality from a muscular Marine officer in desert fatigues.
"You have to have the willpower to make a decision even when you don't have all the answers, even when your decision is going to get someone killed," growls Capt. Ted Greeley. "Everybody's going to be scared, physically exhausted, unwilling to go on ... but you have to."
Greeley led a Marine rifle company through fierce fighting in Fallujah, Iraq. Now he is at the academy teaching leadership, a subject that has undergone a retooling as the role of military officers in battle evolves.
Driven by the hurricane of change in the kind of adversaries the United States faces today, and in the way wars are fought, the military is increasingly relying on small-unit leaders in a way not seen for generations.
Great fleets once fought naval engagements; today, a single officer decides when and how to execute three hostage-holding Somali pirates. In Afghanistan, huge armies have swept the plains seeking to subdue tribesmen; today, most patrols and firefights are conducted by a few dozen soldiers or Marines and perhaps a single officer.
In response to the growing demand for officers who can command successfully under extreme conditions, the military schools, including West Point, the Air Force Academy and Annapolis, are taking unprecedented care to turn military students into leaders.
"This is core to why we're here," says Navy Cmdr. Stephen C. Trainor, a veteran helicopter pilot with a flock of advanced degrees who chairs the academy's leadership department.
The environment in which today's midshipmen will serve as commissioned naval or Marine officers is described as "hybrid warfare," a lethal brew of extremism, terrorism and more conventional warfare in which stalwart leaders will be valued.
Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, warned last month of the increasing risk of foreign conflict ignited by financial collapse and growing Islamic extremism, especially in Europe.
"Our enemies' capabilities will range from explosive vests worn by suicide bombers to long-range precision-guided cyber, space and missile attacks," reads a recent report by the Joint Forces Command. "The threat of mass destruction - from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons - will likely expand. ... "
