Photo By Spc. Russell Savage | Leaders from across 1st Armored Division host a panel to answer questions at the Iron...... read more read more
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EL PASO, Texas - The 1st Armored Division held its Iron Summit 2025 at the Abraham Chavez Theatre in downtown El Paso December 9-10, bringing together more than 1,000 leaders from across the Fort Bliss and El Paso communities.
The Iron Summit is an annual leadership forum 1st AD and Fort Bliss leaders use to provide operational updates, set expectations, develop leaders, build team cohesion, and foster unity, particularly through Operation Ironclad.
Operation Ironclad is a division-wide initiative that ensures Fort Bliss leaders have the knowledge and resources to develop cohesion, trust and expertise in their respective units through clearly defined lines of effort.
In his opening remarks, Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, commanding general of 1st AD and Fort Bliss, articulated a key update to the division objectives that enable his leaders to prepare their units for future combat.
“Last year, we had three priorities; lead, maintain [equipment] and train. This year, we added a fourth priority … innovate. Really that was driven by the changing character of war,” said Taylor.
Command Sgt. Maj. James Light, senior enlisted advisor of 1st AD and Fort Bliss, in his comments to the audience, focused on the actions that he expects leaders to take and the impacts that effective leaders have on their Soldiers.
“[Through] maximizing technical and tactical expertise, building trust with our teams, we raised confidence and reduced fear. Reducing fear will change how Soldiers respond to the experience [of war],” said Light.
This combination of the definitive lines of effort for the division and the effects of leadership, demonstrated the thematic line of discussion for the Iron Summit, which can be viewed as the intersection of people and technology as it relates to unit readiness. This year’s summit was meant to help division leaders begin to think through the challenges they face while confronting those aspects of their duties.
Day one of the conference focused on the people aspect of leadership. Guest speakers featured bestselling author James Kerr and NBA Performance Consultant David Nurse who spoke about leadership, team culture, and optimizing self-performance by getting into the flow state.
There was also a panel discussion with senior NCOs about how to connect and care for Soldiers in a way that balances the discipline required for war and the engagement necessary to treat Soldiers with respect and foster trust. In particular, the panel discussion emphasized the repeated topic of having clearly identified purpose.
“Leaders have to understand their purpose in order to provide purpose to their Soldiers,” said Sgt. Maj. Janina Simmons, panel member and the first enlisted female to earn the prestigious Ranger tab.
Day two focused on the human aspect of leadership and innovation. It started with a talk from retired US Army Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, former commander of US Forces Korea, who addressed establishing leadership practices and connecting with subordinates on a human level.
“You want to get the best out of your Soldiers, get under their skin [get to know them personally]… Lead the way you would want to be led,” said Brooks.
While Brooks maintained that the human aspects of leadership remain constant, he acknowledged that the job of military leadership has become more complex with the evolving character of war. New technology and expanding areas of operation have added layers of complexity to the work that leaders must do. This problem is one that the latter half of Iron Summit also addressed.
Subsequent day two speakers focused on topics such as how to leverage data systems to improve Soldier and unit readiness as well as lessons learned from the technological evolution that is occurring in modern conflicts, which included a live First-Person Drone flight inside the theater.
Iron Summit’s final speaker, bestselling author P. W. Singer, clearly defined the challenges that evolving technology presents to military leaders on a multi-domain and global scale.
Singer closed his comments by suggesting that it is imperative for leaders to think about technological innovation in the context of what has gotten leaders through past wars.
“The future winner of tomorrow's war will be the general who figured out how to bring together the best of tradition with the newest ideas,” said Singer.
Overall, Iron Summit reinforced the division’s culture and promoted conversations among all echelons of leaders who attended. And, as James Kerr noted in his address, “Culture is created in conversation.”
The key take away from this year’s summit is that success for the 1st AD will depend on leaders’ ability to understand how their most precious resource, Soldiers, overlaps with the challenges and opportunities for innovation on future battlefields.
“What we've got to do is find those folks, unleash their incredible talent, and give them the opportunity to plan and execute,” Taylor stated. “Ask them how we should innovate for an unrestricted future. If we do, we will continue the 85 Year Legacy of this Division.”
| Date Taken: | 12.10.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.11.2025 15:30 |
| Story ID: | 553910 |
| Location: | EL PASO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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