The Pentagon announced earlier this week that it was lifting the ban on women in combat positions in the U.S. military. And today Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and General Martin E. Dempsey shared with The New York Times why they made this historic decision. For both of them, it came down having met and talked to many women capably and bravely performing difficult posts. Said Panetta, “To go out now and to see women performing the roles that they are performing and doing a great job at it, I think it just encouraged me. I think it encouraged all of us that everybody should have a chance to perform at any mission, if they can meet the qualifications.”

These words made me think of this powerful TEDx talk from airwoman Jennifer J. Allara, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

“Iraq and Afghanistan — if you’ve been there, you have a story,” says Master Sergeant Allara in this talk given at TEDxScottAFB. “Mine starts at zero three thirty. For those of you who don’t know military time, that’s 3:30 am.”

In this talk, Allara tells the story of her final mission in Afghanistan, the comrade who didn’t make it through and how that day has affected her for years to come. She tells this emotional story to stress the importance of soldiers recognizing when they are not okay and need to seek help for the complicated emotions and thoughts that swirl around them. Allara encourages people to simply ask each other: are you okay?

TEDxScottAFB is one of several TEDx events held at military locations. We recommend watching more talks from the event, and checking out TEDxPentagon. Or watch the playlist “War Stories” » 

Geoff Mulgan: A short intro to the Studio SchoolAt TED, many have shared what they believe to be missing from our current education system — Ken Robinson says its space for kids to flex their creative muscles while Geoff Mulgan argues it’s a lack of hands-on doing. But in today’s talk, given at TEDxMidAtlantic, Powell gives a very different answer. He says that what kids really crave is structure.

To explain what he means, Powell tells his own story of growing up in the New York public school system. He admits that he wasn’t a very good student.

“I didn’t do well at all … straight ‘C’ everywhere,” says Powell, revealing that he felt lucky to be accepted into the City College of New York given his grades. “Then I found ROTC. I found something that I did well and something that I loved doing … From there, my whole life was dedicated to ROTC and the military.”

Powell says that it was the army’s sense of order that allowed him to change his course and become one of CCNY’s most famous graduates. And it’s a phenomenon he sees repeated whenever a new class of shows up for boot camp.

“The first thing we do is put them in an environment of structure — put them in ranks, make them all wear the same clothes,  cut all their hair off so they look alike … teach them to obey instructions and understand the consequences of not obeying,” says Powell. “The most amazing thing happens over that time. Once that structure is developed, once they understand the reasoning … in 18 weeks they have a skill, they are matured … We need more of this kind of structure and respect in the lives of our children.”

To hear Powell’s ideas on how to provide structure, and the importance of “the gift of a good start,” listen to his talk. And here, watch more talks by and about military generals.

Stanley McChrystal: Listen, learn ... then leadStanley McChrystal: Listen, learn … then lead A fellow retired U.S. Army four-star general, in this talk from TED2011, Stanley McChrystal gives unexpected thoughts on leadership. His take? That it’s as much about absorbing the wisdom of the people around you as it is about giving orders.

James Stavridis: A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global securityJames Stavridis: A Navy Admiral’s thoughts on global security In the U.S. Navy, admiral is the equivalent rank to general. Here, a talk from admiral James Stavridis, one of the few high-ranking military officers in the United States who tweets and blogs. In this talk from TEDGlobal 2012, he shares why he believes the security of the future will be built with bridges rather than with walls.

Peter van Uhm: Why I chose a gunPeter van Uhm: Why I chose the gun A retired four-star general in the Royal Netherlands Army, as well as his country’s former Chief of Defence, Peter van Uhm says that his career path has been motivated by a deep love of peace rather than a hunger for war. In this talk from TEDxAmsterdam, he shares his story.

Jennifer 8. Lee hunts for General TsoJennifer 8. Lee hunts for General Tso You may know him as a tasty plate of fried chicken in sauce — but who was General Tso? Was he even a real general? Journalist Jennifer 8. Lee investigates the origins of popular “Chinese food” dishes in America, including General Tso’s Chicken. In this talk, she tracks down the background of the Qing dynasty military hero and visits his distant relatives — who were shocked that the dish named after the icon was even considered Chinese.

Team Rubicon’s latest mission is called Operation: Greased Lightning. What does that mean, you ask?

In today’s powerful talk, given at TEDxSanDiego in 2011, Jake Wood shares his experience co-founding Team Rubicon, a disaster relief organization that uses veterans to do the difficult work of search and rescue, supply disbursement and debris cleanup, helping those in devastated areas while simultaneously giving veterans a renewed sense of purpose. It’s a powerful solution to two problems.

“The first is that there’s inadequate disaster relief. It’s slow, it’s antiquated, it’s not using the best technology and it’s not using the best people,” says Wood in his talk. “The second problem … is very inadequate veteran reintegration. It’s a topic that’s front-page news right now. As veterans are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, they are struggling to reintegrate back into civilian life … We can use disaster response as an opportunity for service for veterans coming home. And we can use veterans to improve disaster response.”

Wood served for four years in the Marine Corps, doing tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon returning, he and several friends founded Team Rubicon. Their first initiative sent them to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where an earthquake had ripped the country apart and relief supplies were moving far too slowly. (Watch Jake’s 2010 TEDxSanDiego talk about Team Rubicon in Haiti.) From there, Team Rubicon sent volunteers to help after the tsunami in Chile and floods in Pakistan. In 2011, the organization set its sights on domestic disaster relief as well, sending volunteers to help after the tornados in Joplin, Missouri.

Which brings us back to Operation: Greased Lightning. Over the past week, Team Rubicon mobilized to provide disaster relief in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy. Wood tells the TED Blog that the operation name was given because Sandy is the main character in the movie Grease.

The TED Blog caught up with Wood this weekend, while he was organizing Team Rubicon’s Hurricane Sandy response. After watching his moving talk, read the short Q&A with him below.

What were your first thoughts hearing about Hurricane Sandy approaching?

What can we do — and how quickly can we do it.

What are some of the things Team Rubicon is doing to pitch in for Hurricane Sandy relief? 

We have been working around the clock since the Saturday before the storm. In the first week, we ran search-and-rescue operations, shelter management and debris clearing. As the efforts are transitioning to the recovery phase, we are mobilizing and deploying over 1,000 military veterans to move into a single community to lead recovery efforts and establish a battle plan to return to normalcy. Street by street, home by home. It will be Fallujah, but with chainsaws and shovels instead of tanks and rifles.

You gave talks about Team Rubicon at TEDxSanDiego in 2010 and 2011. How has Team Rubicon evolved since then?

Since then, we’ve expanded exponentially. In 2010 we saw ourselves primarily as an international disaster relief organization that used military veterans and focused on medical triage and training. However, in that first year we began to realize just how powerful the continued service was to the veterans who were involved, and we began to think about ways to expand programs to include more vets. The natural avenue was to drop the medical emphasis and expand into domestic disaster response. Since doing that, we’ve grown from 300 volunteers to 5,000 and our mission tempo has picked up dramatically.

In the past two years, what have been some of the Team Rubicon efforts have you been most proud of?

We’re most proud of recognizing and capturing the spirit of service that was inherent in the military veterans who were involved.  Our nation’s veterans are such an incredible resource, and I think we have a unique opportunity to prove it to our country.

What was your experience returning to everyday life after military service? Do you think the general public has a good understanding of what it’s like to return, or is there something it’s hard for us to get?

The general public will never understand what it’s like — it’s just not possible. It is very difficult, but fortunately for me, I founded Team Rubicon with William McNulty only a few months after I left the service, so there wasn’t a lot of time for me to get lost.

What skills do veterans have that make them a good fit for disaster relief?

First and foremost, it’s their ability to stay calm in incredibly stressful situations. I think this too often gets brushed aside. Disasters are incredibly fluid situations, and many people often go crazy with the uncertainty; however, this is exactly the situation that veterans have found themselves in for the last ten years in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition to that, veterans have great leadership skills, the ability to work in teams, and a unique knack for living in austere conditions.  Finally, they have a lot of the hard skills needed: emergency medicine, heavy equipment operation, and high-speed communications knowledge.

You say in your talk that the experience of volunteering for Team Rubicon has for some been as good, if not better, than therapy. Why do you think that is?

Veterans lose three things when they get out of the military: mission, community and a sense of self. Team Rubicon is able to provide these things to veterans in spades.  We have a clearly defined mission that our veterans buy into; they once again find themselves on the front lines, only this time in their communities after disasters rather than in the Middle East.

For more on Team Rubicon, head to their website or follow them on Twitter.

“Walls don’t work,” James Stavridis declared at TEDGlobal 2012. A highly accomplished Navy Admiral, Stavridis recalls 20th-century phenomena like trench warfare and the Berlin Wall. “Instead of building walls for security, we need to build bridges.”

James Stavridis: A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global securityIn his brass-tacks talk, Stavridis lays down a vision of “open-source security,” which he defines as “connecting the international, the inter-agency, the private/public, and lashing it together with strategic communication.” The basic point: that to combat 21st-century threats like cybercrime, terrorism, trafficking and piracy, the military cannot work alone. Stavridis invokes the example of Wikipedia to make his point.

“Wikipedia is not created by 12 brilliant people locked in a room writing articles. Wikipedia every day is tens of thousands of people inputting information,” Stavridis says. “It’s the perfect image for the fundamental point that no one of us is as smart as all of us thinking together.”

Stavridis’ thoughts on security are surprising. Below, listen to 8 other TEDTalks that challenge you to think of war, peace and military life in new ways.

PW Singer on military robots and the future of war
Does having robots and drones in the field change the parameters of war? Absolutely, says military analyst P.W. Singer in this powerful talk. Singer argues that robotic warfare lowers the bar for going to war, and points out that terrorists can easily harness the same technology. While Singer rung the warning bell on the perils of drone warfare back at TED2009, the topic is still being hotly debated, including in the piece “The Moral Hazard of Drones” on The New York Times’ Opinionator blog today.

Keith Nolan: Deaf in the military
Keith Nolan grew up fascinated by military history, but heard “no, no, no” every time he tried to enlist. Why? Because being deaf is an automatic disqualification. In this talk, given in sign language, Nolan recounts his long-term fight to fight for his country, making the case for why citizens with disabilities should be a part of the military.

Inge Missmahl brings peace to the minds of Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, a country of 30 million that has been through intense warfare and unrest, there are only two dozen psychiatrists. Jungian analyst Inge Missmahi explains her work in the country, helping to address their trauma and depression and promote national healing.

Stanley McChrystal: Listen, learn … then lead
Four-star general Stanley McChrystal shares the thoughts running through his head during a parachute jump, from “Why didn’t I go into banking?” to “What does it mean to be a leader?” The former commander of U.S. and International forces in Afghanistan explains at TED2011 that, over his decades in the military, he’s come to realize that good leaders let you fail, without letting you be a failure.

Thomas Barnett: Rethinking America’s military strategy
In a classic talk from TED2005, military strategist Thomas Barnett makes the bold statement that to win a war, we need to win the peace. He advocates splitting the US military into a two-tiered power capable not only of winning battles, but of preserving international calm.

Paul Collier’s new rules for rebuilding a broken nation
Economist Paul Collier explains that 40% of countries recovering from war fall back into conflict within 10 years. He lays out a three-part plan for post-conflict aid, which doesn’t focus on the political quick fix.

Samantha Power on a complicated hero
Journalist Samantha Power looks at why we as a culture do not pay attention to genocide. She tells the gripping story of Sergio Vieira de Mello, a UN diplomat who traveled to the world’s most broken countries and navigated the “lesser-evil terrain” of negotiating with dictators to help their people survive.

Watch this talk on TED.com where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.