Army War College changing officer curriculum at last

Re: Army War College changing officer curriculum at last


Was that class you took in 1956 or something? The Air War College has included Middle East Studies since the 1970s. Your "professor" was a bit out of touch...

Re: Army War College changing officer curriculum at last


My classes were in 2003-2004-2005. My instructor was a professor at the Army War College until his retirement in 2000. He said Army officers were unprepared to deal with Iraq, it's culture and language, which has been evident in the problems we civilians have learned via the Media and soldier reports.

Maybe the Air War College curriculum was better than the Army's, which is strange as it is the most in need of such education. I'm not talking about training for specialized units. The Army are the boots on the ground in contact with the people. Who, more than anyone needs such education?

The Army finally realized it's officer corps education needed to be changed and it has done it---finally.

BBB

Re: Army War College changing officer curriculum at last


Those "boots on the ground" don't attend War College.

Just as a point of reference here - War College is attended by officers which make up ~10% of the entire military force. And even then it is the senior level Professional Military Education so you have to be a Colonel (0-6) to attend. That limits it to the top 5% or so of the Officer Corps. Most of those who attend are sitting in the Pentagon or are field unit commanders.

Of the "boots on the ground" in Iraq, it is easily less than 1% that have attended.

But even then, the fact that any of the War Colleges may have left them unprepared isn't surprising. There is no single middle east culture to teach so the best they can do is general overall views.

Fishin
Fishin wrote: "Those "boots on the ground" don't attend War College.
Just as a point of reference here - War College is attended by officers which make up ~10% of the entire military force. And even then it is the senior level Professional Military Education so you have to be a Colonel (0-6) to attend. That limits it to the top 5% or so of the Officer Corps. Most of those who attend are sitting in the Pentagon or are field unit commanders.
Of the "boots on the ground" in Iraq, it is easily less than 1% that have attended.
But even then, the fact that any of the War Colleges may have left them unprepared isn't surprising. There is no single middle east culture to teach so the best they can do is general overall views."

The Army General who wrote the new field manual (with the help of others) was interviewed by Charlie Rose in January or February 2008. He explained that the intent was to provide such education to the leadership level of the boots on the ground. He said the Army had learned it's lessons from the Iraq war that this was essential to military success as well as political success of the invaded peoples.

I would like to find that interview in Rose's archives. I will see if I can find it for you.

BBB
BBB

Revolutionary change coming to Army operations
Revolutionary change coming to Army operations
TRADOC commanding general unveils new FM 3-0, Operations
By John Harlow/TRADOC News Service

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (TRADOC News Service, Feb. 28, 2008) -- "This change in operational doctrine is designed to ensure that our Soldiers have the very best tools, training and leadership they need to succeed." Those are the words of Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the commanding general of the United States Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., when describing the latest edition of the Army's operations manual, FM 3-0.

At the Association of the United States Army Winter Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in late February, the commanding general of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, Gen. William S. Wallace unveiled the new FM 3-0, the 15th edition manual - the first major update of Army capstone doctrine since 9/11 and the first update to the operations manual since June 14, 2001.

Today's Army is about half the size it was in 1970, but the U.S. military's involvement around the world has tripled since the collapse of the former Soviet Union," Wallace noted in the foreword to the TRADOC information pamphlet for FM 3-0. "The next several decades, according to many security experts, will be an era of persistent conflict that will generate continuing deployments for our Army."

"We must emphasize doctrine as the driver for change," said the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George W. Casey Jr. "You can't cement change in the organization until you adapt the institutions. That change begins with doctrine."

The rise of transnational terrorist networks, religious radicalism, ethnic genocide, sectarian violence, criminal networks and failing nation-states all imperil the United States and its national interests.

FM 3-0 is the "blueprint for operating in an uncertain future." With our nation at war for more than six years, lessons learned from that experience has driven this change in the way the Army operates for the next 10 to 15 years.

"A tremendous amount of change in FM 3-0 has come from lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Caldwell. "It was important for us to go back and take those lessons that we have learned over time and incorporate them into our doctrine, training and leader development."

There are several changes in the new operations manual.

The operational concept and the operational environment;
The stability operations construct;
The information-operations construct;
Warfighting functions;
The spectrum of conflict;
Defeat and stability mechanisms;
Joint interdependence and modular forces.
FM 3-0 institutionalizes simultaneous offensive, defensive, stability or civil-support operations as the core of the Army's doctrine. The concept of full-spectrum operations, first introduced in the 2001 manual, still represents a major shift in Army doctrine - forces must be able to address the civil situation at all times, combining tactical tasks affecting noncombatants with tactical tasks directed against the enemy.

According to Caldwell, FM 3-0 is revolutionary. There are four specific points in the manual that are revolutionary:

The importance of stability operations is elevated to co-equal with combat (offensive and defensive operations).
The critical nature and influence of information on operations.
An operational concept that drives initiative embraces risk and focuses on creating opportunities to achieve decisive results.
The critical role of the commander in full-spectrum operations, bridging battle command and operational art in leveraging the experience, knowledge and intuition of the commander.
Stability operations are viewed as important - if not more so - than offensive and defensive operations in the new operations manual. Soldiers will consistently operate in and among the people of the world, conducting operations in an environment fundamentally human in character. When operating among the people, the efforts of the force focus primarily on the population they are working in. These efforts - stability tasks - improve their safety, security, social well-being and livelihood; they shape a "whole of government approach" that integrates the activities of a wide array of military and civilian participants; and they fulfill our legal and moral obligations to The Hague and Geneva Conventions.

"Whatever we do and wherever we go in the world today, fundamentally, the operations are going to be conducted among the people," said Lt. Col. Steve Leonard, chief, Operational Level Doctrine, Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, and one of the lead authors of FM 3-0. "The operations are going to be focused on the well-being and the future of the populations we are operating in. The lesson that we all brought home was that the mission we completed was a little bit different than the mission we set out to do. We all had a much greater appreciation of the importance of stability operations and the need to integrate stability operations with the traditional combat operations that the Army performs."

Winning battles and engagements is important but not decisive by itself; shaping the civil situation in concert with other government agencies, international organizations, civil authorities and multinational forces will be just as important to campaign success.

The new operations manual institutionalizes the need for cultural awareness, which is critical to understanding populations and their perceptions to reduce friction, and prevent misunderstanding, thereby improving a force's ability to accomplish its mission.

Soldiers and leaders must master information. To the people, perception is reality. Altering perceptions requires accurate, truthful information presented in a way that accounts for how people absorb and interpret information with messages that have broad appeal and acceptance. This is the essence of information engagement.

"We have come to recognize that in the 21st Century, the information domain is a critical component," said Caldwell. "It is how you perform information operations, how you perform psychological operations, how we take and embed and link all of these together while we are performing non-lethal forms of stability operations. This is a major change and one of our key elements of combat power."

The new operations manual asks leaders to embrace risk, focus on creating opportunities to achieve decisive results and take initiative. With our Soldiers fighting door-to-door one minute and rebuilding schools the next, they have to be able to adapt and make the right decisions in any given situation.

"We're not teaching Soldiers what to think in the school and centers, we're teaching them how to think, how to think critically and how to think creatively," said Caldwell. "There is no way that we can properly prepare Soldiers for the challenges and diversity of the threats they will face on the battlefield today. They are too diverse. The asymmetrical threats are absolutely unpredictable and will continue to be in the 21st Century battlefield. Therefore, we must ground Soldiers in the principles and the art of creative and critical thinking. That has been what we are pushing back into the school houses."

FM 3-0 brings a philosophical shift of how Soldiers and commanders are empowered to complete their mission and adapt to their surroundings.

"This manual moves away from the focus of the 90s which was more on process, science and technology," said Leonard. "It emphasizes the human dimension of command and leadership. One that focuses instead on the commander as a leader who draws on experience, intuition, knowledge and the human aspect of what leadership is about. When this is applied in an operation, it provides the flexibility, adaptability and creativity that are necessary to operate in what we recognize as a fundamentally dynamic and volatile operational environment."

The Army's senior leadership has been hands-on with the creation and writing of FM 3-0.

"This manual was shaped by the senior leaders of our Army," said Leonard. "It has the flavor of combat. It has the experience of mid-grade officers who can communicate between the senior leaders and the junior leaders and noncommissioned officers. It was fundamentally shaped by senior leader engagement. With a manual of this importance, we made sure that what we presented to the force was something that rings true from that new Soldier coming off the street, to the most senior leader in the Army, the Chief of Staff."

FM 3-0 is revolutionary. The doctrine will evolve over time as we learn new lessons and apply them to the way the Army operates. The concepts provided by the new doctrine will only be successful because our Soldiers are the centerpiece of the Army and represent and provide the strength of our nation.

Wallace presents state of TRADOC at AUSA Winter Symposium
Wallace presents state of TRADOC at AUSA Winter Symposium
By John Harlow/TRADOC News Service
General Wallace AUSA Winter Symposium Speech (Video 43 Minutes)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (TRADOC News Service, Feb. 28, 2008) -- In his presentation to the Association of the United States Army Winter Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Gen. William S. Wallace, the commanding general of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, put to rest some myths about the quality of Soldiers in today's Army, introduced the new field manual for operations, FM 3-0, and spoke of the importance of land power.

In 2007, the Army met its goals for active-duty and Reserve recruiting. Retention numbers are historically high, especially since it is a time of war. Currently, the Army has recruited 18,829 active-duty Soldiers and 8,667 for the Army Reserves. Those numbers have active-duty recruiting at 101.2 percent and the Reserve at 93.7 percent toward the 2008 mission. The general believes that the trends are showing that Reserve recruiting numbers will climb in March, April and May.

The general also addressed a myth about the quality of the American Soldier. In 2007, between the Active and Reserve Components, 107,410 young men and women raised their right hands and pledged to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Of that total number of entering recruits, 79 percent did not require a waiver of any kind. Throughout the year, the Army granted a total of 22,186 waivers to recruits. Of those waivers, 1,492 were granted for previous drug or alcohol use; 8,637 were for pre-existing medical conditions and were granted by medical doctors for conditions that were treatable with modern medicine, and 12,057 were moral-conduct waivers. Of those 12,057, 598 had been previously convicted of a felony charge. Before any young man or woman enlists in the Army with a felony conviction, their case is reviewed by 10 officials, including a general officer.

"When you look across this great nation of ours, all felonies are not created equal," said Wallace, noting some of the legal differences among the states. "But America is about opportunity - not about denying opportunity. While the waivers ultimately grant a recruit a second chance to possibly rectify past mistakes, Wallace in more concerned about the output than he is the input. "It's really about the put or the product than it is the raw material."

The general challenged members of the audience to visit and observe Soldiers who have completed basic training rather than spend time critiquing their pre-entry characteristics. "I challenge you to go to see a young Soldier at Ft. Jackson, Ft. Knox, Ft .Benning and Ft. Leonard Wood, or those in Iraq or Afghanistan, and make your own assessment."

Wallace noted some of the changes made throughout TRADOC over the past year. Basic combat training extended from nine to 10 without the addition of any new tasks.

Advanced individual training drill sergeants were replaced with platoon sergeants, and platform instructors became squad leaders. According to Wallace, that has changed the ratio from leader to led from one per 50 Soldiers to one for every 15.

TRADOC is also working to support the implementation of the Army Force Generation Model, or ARFORGEN. The command has taken steps to shorten Noncommissioned Officer Education System courses and provide mobile training teams to bring the NCOES courses to home station.

"We have an inventory of 20 MOS (military occupational skill) that we take to the Operational Army that we take to home station to conduct ANCOC (advanced noncommissioned officer course) and BNCOC (basic noncommissioned officer course)," said Wallace. "We found that because of the pace of operations, units were not releasing their noncommissioned officers to come back to the institution for training. We as an institution have the obligation to provide that education, whether it is in the school house or at home station."

TRADOC currently has 349 mobile training teams that will takes NCOES courses to the installations, rather than forces Soldiers to travel to a particular training site to complete the required training.

TRADOC is taking lessons from the Soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and adding them to what is being taught to initial-entry Soldiers. Combat lifesaving is now taught to every Soldier in basic combat training.

"Every Soldier leaving basic training is certified as a Combat Lifesaver," said Wallace. "Folks in the field said that when a Soldier is injured in combat, the injured Soldier is stabilized not by a combat medic or doctor, but by a fellow Soldier, and our standard first-aid training just wasn't enough. So we made sure that every Soldier comes out of basic combat training as a Combat Lifesaver."

This training doesn't just help Soldiers in the field, but it helps citizens on the highway.

"We had a Soldier who was heading to the airport as he was returning from Christmas leave who came across a very bad traffic accident," said Wallace. "He applied his combat-lifesaver skills to triage and stabilized several causalities in that accident. That tells us that this training was the right thing to do."