4 Star General Ann Dunwoody Retired: A Conversation

Ann Dunwoody became the U.S. Army’s first female four-star general. She commanded over 69,000 people and an annual budget of $60 billion. She was in charge of the the army’s total global supply chain. Her new book, “A Higher Standard”, talks about her years of service, her pride for the army, and her principles for leadership. She is a delightful person and this is a friendly conversation but she identifies serious problems in military procurement. She expresses the United States has a serious and growing national security problem because of our inadequate industrial base. She is also concerned about the waste in procurement and tracking army purchases. She had to step over command to bring modern tracking systems to the military. One of the first projects to tackle was the “iron mountain” – the term for 40,000 shipping containers in Iraq that the military didn’t even know what was inside. General Dunwoody also talks about the ethics crisis in the military where hubris and entitlement attitudes are affecting military integrity. She also talks about how the military could save money if Congress was less erratic, how one-year of public service for all eighteen to twenty-eight year old Americans would serve them well and serve the nation well, and how undeclared wars are difficult for our democracy and our military.The Tim Danahey Show discusses economics, government, social issues, history, and non-fiction books in a magazine format featuring in-depth conversations with guests. Politics and inflammatory conversations are discouraged as they are divisive and counter-productive. Instead, the show seeks under-reported topics and delves into facts, different perspectives, and ramifications of each perspective. The show does not espouse a political agenda. Danahey’s strength is to take complex subjects, talk with experts and make them comprehensible and entertaining for average listeners.