Perhaps now more than ever before the U.S. military is called on to perform tasks that are outside its normal/traditional purview. Recent wars--Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, for example--have demonstrated the need for the U.S. military to do more than find and defeat a clearly defined enemy. At all levels of the war theater (conflict area), the military is involved in assisting with security, facilitating governance, peacekeeping, and helping to establish the opportunity for economic stability. To address the broader issues facing the military, new programs have been introduced that allow commanders greater flexibility to better understand the operating space for which they are responsible. And many of these new programs bring with them a rise in educational opportunities unique to the military. The Department of Defense has developed several initiatives either to anticipate or to react to enemy actions. One of the more innovative concepts developed by the U.S. Army is the Decision Support Red Team (DSRT). DSRTs (referred to as Red Teams) are designed to bring full-spectrum (holistic) critical thinking to an operational environment (OE) in an effort to provide commanders with both alternative perspectives and ideas for improving plans. Even the most talented group of planners and critical thinkers cannot identify their own oversights, and are sometimes unable to see the overall big picture. Red Teams "provide the commander with an independent capacity to continuously challenge OE concepts, plans, and operations from partner to adversary perspectives." This article examines the U.S. Army's development and implementation of DSRTs. The authors review the education of Red Team members, the structure of the education and use of adult education principles, and how teams use their training to help make sense of complex military environments. (Contains 2 figures.)