WASHINGTON — During the “Leading Change Brief” at the annual AUSA Annual Meeting & Exposition in Washington D.C. on Oct. 15, 2024, Sgt. Maj. of the Army, Michael A. Weimer, announced the U.S. Army has completed and released a digital Blue Book with a companion website. The Blue Book development was announced at last year’s AUSA Annual Meeting.
“You can’t build standards and discipline in a time of crisis,” Weimer said last year. “If we’re really going to be truly ready for large-scale combat operations, we have to have those standards and discipline before we get called upon for that.”
Command Sgt. Maj. Raymond S. Harris, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, was tasked to lead the Blue Book development.
“To meet the SMA’s intent, we had to ensure that we created a digital version that can be accessed anywhere at any time on any device and that is what the team was able to do,” Harris said.
The purpose of the Army Blue Book is to support history, heritage, lineage, and standards and discipline while simultaneously reinforcing trust at echelon and strengthening the Army profession. The book also includes commonly violated or misunderstood standards. The Blue Book is based on the original intent of Baron von Steuben’s Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States and will serve as the base for all unit standards books to create commonality and consistency throughout the Army.
The TRADOC team traveled to several installations across the Army to gather input for the Blue Book. “We wanted to hear from the force during Blue Book development,” said Sgt. Maj. Tyson Crosby, TRADOC Enlisted Initiatives Group and Blue Book lead planner. “We traveled to five installations, engaging with students and cadre from our Non-commissioned Officer Academies. We also solicitated input and insight from senior Army leaders.”
Although TRADOC was tasked with developing the Blue Book, Crosby said they wanted to ensure NCOs outside of TRADOC had input as well.
“The Blue Book mission was not a singular effort. We received great input and feedback from across the Army, making it a collaborative work. The Blue Book is for the entire Army and our overall plan reflects that,” Crosby said.
The final version of the Blue Book is 23 pages (three chapters), designed to be the first three chapters of a unit-level Blue Book. Once a user opens the Army Blue Book through the QR code, they can download the Blue Book PWA using the phones settings, which will create an app on the phone’s screen. In terms of useability, this will act no differently than app from an application store
Through Army University, TRADOC also developed a progressive web application centered around “Strengthening the Profession.” The webapp will serve as a leadership development and Army professionalism hub. It will also give users the ability to print a Blue Book PDF version. The Strengthening the Profession site will be contemporary and user friendly and will include hot topics, links to relevant sites, and professional articles all relevant to strengthening the Army profession and leadership. TRADOC will be the proponent of the site with regular reviews and updates.
The webapp can function like a native, downloadable app from an application store, but will require a QR code or the weblink to access first. When on the site, users can download the app that will take them directly to the site.
“The Army Blue Book was best developed as a PWA,” stated Matthew MacLaughlin, Army University’s mobile division chief. “The instructional designers determined how the info in the book would be optimized for the format, and then the computer scientists built the framework to ensure the execution is seamless and for all screen sizes.”
He added that while native applications have their place, the PWA format for publications allows for faster updates and provide a native-app experience for the user. The website can detect the user’s device type and will format accordingly.
Weimer said the Blue Book is for living by a standard and enforcing that standard amongst teams that are preparing for combat.
“Be disciplined and be brilliant at the basics,” Weimer said.
TRADOC will review the Blue Book content often and conduct updates as necessary.
The new Blue Book can be viewed online through the Central Army Registry website.
By SGM Jason Stadel
