FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
During Michael “Tony” Grinston’s first few days in combat in Iraq as a first sergeant, he was sleeping in a gym, didn’t have any radios, his vehicle was attacked and one of his soldiers lost part of his foot.
“There’s still is a lockbox with a letter that I wrote (to my daughters) 20 years ago because I really thought there's no way I'm going to live through all that, because that was my first four days,” Grinston said.
Grinston, who spoke as part of the Defense Logistics Agency’s Warfighter Talk series Dec. 16, went on to serve as the 16th Sergeant Major of the Army from 2019 to 2023.
During his Warfighter Talk, he discussed his deployments, including his time as a field artillery soldier during Operations Desert Shield and Storm, and his time as the Army’s senior enlisted leader.
As Sergeant Major of the Army, he worked to improve housing, childcare and other quality-of-life issues for soldiers', including securing $1.2 billion in funding to improve barracks.
His time as Sergeant Major of the Army also spanned the COVID-19 pandemic and several incidents of protest and civil unrest in the nation.
Updating the Army Combat Fitness Test was a challenge during his time as the Army’s senior enlisted leader, but the change was necessary to improve soldiers’ performance, he said.
Before the changes, he said he received conflicting input on whether the new standards were too hard or not hard enough. Others told him the traditional physical training worked in the past, so it should continue to work now.
“Sometimes you're going to have to compromise to get change, and then over time it's going to get a lot better,” he said. “‘Pushup, sit-up, run’ will not do well in the next combat. You’ve got to be lighter, you’ve got to get faster. It’s going to be more lethal. … What you had a long time ago is not going to work.”
He now serves as the director and chief executive officer of Army Emergency Relief, an official non-profit of the U.S. Army that supports soldiers and their families.
"I think everything I do as the CEO of AER impacts readiness," he said.
Housing is still an issue that impacts today’s troops, he said.
“The No. 1 thing that people ask for assistance with is still housing, and more so than probably 30 years ago is that the cost of housing is unbelievable,” Grinston said. “You move, you lose money.”
Talking about potential future conflicts, Grinston said the battlefield will be increasingly dangerous. He stressed the need for lighter equipment and new strategies to protect troops from evolving threats.
“The battlefield will be much more lethal than what we've ever seen,” he said, noting that drones are the improvised explosive device of the future.
Despite the danger and pressure he faced in his military career, Grinston said he wouldn’t change a thing.
“It's the greatest profession I've ever seen, and I’ve been alive for 57 years,” he said. “I would say I would do it all again, selfless service to protect other people and be willing to do it.”
A recording of the event is available to DLA employees on the Campaign of Learning page (a DLA Common Access Card is required).