Military Review English Edition March-April 2014 | Page 31

Extending SHARP
Best Practices
Does a Dearth of Published Lessons Learned
Reflect Disinterest in the Ranks?
Lt. Col. Heidi A. Urben, Ph.D., U.S. Army
Two weeks ago, I told my commanders that combating sexual assault and sexual harassment within the
ranks is our number one priority. I said that because as chief, my mission is to train and prepare our
soldiers for war.
Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, 4 June 2013

B

OTH SECRETARY OF the Army John McHugh and Gen. Raymond Odierno have been
clear and forceful in their proclamations that the Army’s top priority today is combating
sexual assault and harassment within the ranks. But has the message truly taken root outside the
Pentagon?
The Army’s two flagship professional journals—Military Review, published by Fort Leavenworth’s Combined Arms Center, and Parameters, published by the U.S. Army War College—
provide a sense of the state of the profession and its priorities from the field at any given time.
During the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they offered some of the best ground-level
observations and lessons learned from implementing counterinsurgency doctrine. Today, contributors wrestle with topics such as the future of land power, regionally aligned forces, and adaptation
in an age of austerity. Yet, largely missing from these pages is any independent thought, reflection,
and critical thinking devoted to tackling the Army’s number one priority of preventing sexual
assault. In fact, since the Army revamped its Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program in 2008 under the “I. A.M. (Intervene-Act-Motivate) Strong” campaign,
Lt. Col. Heidi A. Urben commands the 205th Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort
Shafter, Hawaii. She holds a B.A. in government and international studies from the
University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in government from Georgetown University.

(U.S. Army)