Colonel Kent Park has served in the U.S. Army as an Infantry officer for over 25 years. Most recently, he was the Joint Base Commander of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, leading one of the Army’s largest and most complex installations. During his career, Park commanded at every level and deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan in support of combat operations. Park served in key strategic assignments, including U.S. Army Pacific and Combined Forces Command, Republic of Korea, where he advanced U.S.–ROK military cooperation and combined defense planning.

A graduate of West Point, the U.S. Army War College, and Harvard Kennedy School, Colonel Park has shaped Army modernization, installation management, and international security policy. His leadership has spanned combat operations, strategic planning, and institutional reform, reflecting a career dedicated to national defense and the profession of arms.

00:12 – Introduction

01:10 – The next major war

02:35 – The paradox of combined operations: combined, fast, precise

04:06 – Why segregating different national armies into separate areas doesn't work

04:27 – Interoperability challenges as the root cause of failure of combined operations; types of interoperability

07:20 – Examples of cultural interoperability

08:53 – Solutions for interoperability challenges

13:36 – Crisis action SOP

17:50 – What's needed at the tactical echelon to help with cultural interoperability

Referenced in the episode:

-https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45319/the-charge-of-the-light-brigade

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Balaclava