my guys

Sometime back in March I got what is called an RFO- request for orders. On that was my assignment to the 4th BCT (brigade combat team) of the 82nd Airborne Division, so I can now follow them to some extent in the news and ask around about my future unit. I can also stalk them via their Facebook page, and this morning I saw they had posted this news article about the 1-508th PIR (parachute infantry regiment) from the Military Times. I'd say the article is pretty indicative of what most units are doing over there. 4th BCT is currently in Afghanistan until about September, so I will join up with them about 6 months after they have come back.

And while the 1-508th is in the same brigade that I am assigned to, I probably won't serve with them directly. I got the chance to talk to the soon-to-be G4 (head logistics officer) for the 82nd Airborne Division at the Battle Command Conference this week. He said that I (and the other new quartermaster/logistics officers) should expect to be assigned to the 782nd BSB (Brigade Support Battalion) right away and take command of a platoon of some type. So I'll be working with the infantry/artillery/cavalry/special troops battalions of 4th BCT, but in a support role.

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By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Apr 12, 2010 8:55:31 EDT

FORWARD OPERATING BASE MIZAN, Afghanistan — Army Sgt. Rigoberto Munoz would rather be staring down the Taliban in Helmand province. He doesn’t even try to hide how jealous he is of fellow members of the 82nd Airborne who are seeing all the action.

Munoz and his men, 41 mostly 20-something paratroopers, are here in Zabul province, finding schoolteachers and opening a shopping bazaar — work that many airmen do as members of provincial reconstruction teams.

Never did the members of Terror Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, imagine that their job would be to bring this region of 19th-century villages into 2010.

“We are kinda like fobbits here,” said Munoz, Terror Platoon’s Alpha team leader. “I’d much rather be out there fighting the enemy.”

Still, the Alpha team has its priorities straight: Mission always first.

Mizan district is rural, not one of the urban areas that the U.S. is focused on securing from insurgents, but it is a major route for Taliban fighters making their way from neighboring Pakistan to Helmand province.

If the paratroopers can win over the villagers by helping irrigate their fields or making their children safer on the way to school, the enemy will have to set up another supply line.

In mid-March, the soldiers, along with their Afghan counterparts and members of the Afghan National Police, went into Mizan to meet with village elders. They heard stories of how Taliban fighters had demanded food for their journeys to Kandahar and Helmand.

The fighters started coming through Mizan after coalition forces “put the squeeze” on their positions along the Arghandab River, about three miles to the north.

“We have had significant success disrupting the [anti-coalition militia’s] jet stream, but like a jet stream, high-pressure areas build up to the south and north near places like FOB Lane and Mizan,” said Army Lt. Col. David Oclander, commander of Task Force 1 Fury, the unit that oversees U.S. forces in Zabul.

“So we needed to bring in an aggressive group of soldiers to deal with that, and these paratroopers are known for that,” he said.

An uneasy peace

Relatively speaking, FOB Mizan is quiet, but the soldiers know the enemy is not far off.

Only a ridge line next to the base divides Mizan from about 200 Taliban fighters, according to Badamgul Qalamyar, commander of the local Afghan National Police force.

The commander of the Afghan National Army unit in Mizan warns more Taliban fighters are headed this way.

“As more Americans go to Helmand, more will come here,” said Capt. Hamza Jawid, the Afghan National Army’s 2-2 Kandak commander.

Village elders remember two years ago, when the Taliban used fear to rule the region, carrying out kidnappings in the middle of the night and burning schools.

“We would send our children to school if there was security, but we are afraid,” Abdul Halib told Sgt. 1st Class Victor Delvalle, Terror’s platoon sergeant, at a March 11 meeting.

Re-establishing some sort of normalcy in Mizan is a priority, Delvalle said. To do that, the 508th plans to work with the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police to open an abandoned shopping bazaar and a school.

“The people need something normal again, like schools and roads,” said Qalamyar, the police commander. “I am hopeful we can open the school and the bazaar.”

If the U.S. soldiers fail to offer a better way of life, Oclander worries the poor farmers who make up most of Mizan will remain targets of Taliban recruiters.

Led by Delvalle, the soldiers travel from village to village to find out what the elders need. Sometimes they have to walk as far as 10 miles round trip — up and down rolling hills, loaded with up to 60 pounds of kit.

“We have to make our presence known out here,” Delvalle said.

The elders want medicine, their fields irrigated or a school for their children. Mostly, though, they want to be safe — from mines, from Taliban attacks at night.

“If you secure the area, then we will come,” Altaji Mihullah told Delvalle when asked what it would take to convince his villagers to shop at the bazaar and to educate their children.

Security is something the paratroopers feel comfortable providing — opening the bazaar and the school less so. Still, Oclander said he is confident the young NCOs and officers of the 1-508th can do whatever they have to.

“I wish I had a magic bullet training to send them to get ready for stuff like this … but instead we have to depend on guys to be inventive and think outside the box,” he said. “This is problem solving.”

Delvalle has shown he knows how to trouble-shoot. More than once, elders have told him that reopening the bazaar would put shopkeepers in danger.

Through an interpreter, Delvalle asked the elders what they wanted sold at the bazaar.

“Cigarettes, sugar and tea,” they replied.

Delvalle thought about it for a second.

“Why don’t we just go to Qalat [a city six hours away] and buy our own cigarettes, sugar and tea and sell it ourselves?” Delvalle suggested to 1st Lt. Sean Snook, the temporary platoon leader. “Once we get one shop open, all of these guys are going to want to come down here and open their own.”

Snook nodded.

A melting pot

No bigger than a Wal-Mart and surrounded by razor wire, FOB Mizan is home to the 42 paratroopers, seven Romanian soldiers, 52 Afghan National Army soldiers and 15 members of the Afghan National Police.

Led by Romanian 1st Lt. Andrei Neacsu, a member of the International Security Assistance Force Operations Mentor and Liaison Team, the Romanians serve as the liaison between the U.S. and Afghan soldiers.

The mix of language and cultures adds to the mission’s complexity.

Each day is a new lesson for the Afghan soldiers and policemen as they try to mimic the U.S. soldiers. Afghan 1st Lt. Mohammad Neda and 1st Lt. Mohammad Sedique watched intently one day as Munoz and three other sergeants — Jonathan Dean, Timothy Mitchum and Colin Hanks — demonstrated how to zero their M16s on the shooting range.

At first, the shots fired by the Afghans sprayed all over the target. Over the next hour, Neda and Sedique took better aim; their shots drifted closer to the center.

“You can see that these guys want to learn,” Dean said.

Other Afghan soldiers, though, have failed to impress the Americans.

“Some of the officers would just walk off when we were talking to them, and that’s frustrating because we are essentially here to help them,” Spc. Christopher Barlow said.

Oclander, the commander of the unit that oversees U.S. forces in Zabul, thinks the Afghan soldiers have made “tremendous progress” since the two forces started an “embedded partnership.” Rather than a mentorship, the Afghan and American forces depend on each other just like any other ally.

“When we adopted that principle, it made the Afghans hold themselves accountable,” he said. “We have been able to build that mutual trust.”

Before the partnership, Oclander said, the Afghan National Army went on two patrols a week in Zabul. Now, they go on patrols almost every day, even helping conduct night patrols.

“It’s about accountability,” said Snook, the temporary platoon leader. “Now the Afghans can hold us accountable in the same way we can.”

The night before a mission in March, Delvalle briefed the details to the U.S., Afghan and Romanian troops in the FOB’s gym. If the Afghan soldiers make a recommendation, the platoon sergeant was not afraid to alter the plan.

Sedique, one of the Afghan first lieutenants, warned that the road Delvalle had planned to take the next day could be laced with mines. He recommended the coalition walk the patrol.

“If they want to walk, then we’ll walk,” Delvalle said.

The day of the mission, the Afghan soldiers led the patrol down the same dirt path they had advised Delvalle against taking.

“I thought they were worried about [improvised explosive devices],” said Delvalle, shaking his head in bewilderment. He then patiently recommended that the Afghans move their patrol out of the road.

The paratroopers here realize the sooner the Afghans become self-sufficient, the sooner they can go home. Delvalle and Snook often urge the Afghan soldiers to take the lead on all sorts of duties, especially meetings with the village elders. Lately, the soldiers have seen the Afghan officers take the initiative.

At a meeting in an orchard, Neda, the other Afghan first lieutenant, pleaded with an elder to send men from his village to join the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police.

“If you just sit and do nothing, it can’t improve,” Neda told the elder. “You need to go to the bazaar, and you need to give your young to the ANA.”

Oclander agreed the ANA and ANP must start to recruit villagers. Task Force Fury has already started talks to recruit locals to help police the road leading from Mizan to Qalat. Mizan elders have told Fury’s leadership they could get up to 300 men to join the army or the police.

“I wish I could bring in all 300, but right now we are going to only start with 100 because that’s what I have the funds for,” Oclander said.

Neda and Jawid, the Afghan army commander, said they believe villagers are the only ones who can truly bring a lasting peace to Mizan.

“The local people must give their people to the ANA and ANP,” Jawid said. “Then finally the Taliban will be afraid of the people of Mizan.”

Wal-Mart is good for small business

Who on earth would say such a thing? Well, this man would:

This man is Mike Duke, the CEO of Wal-Mart who I had the opportunity of hearing speak this week as part of my Strategic Management course. The head of the Leadership and Management Studies (LMS) Program is a former Wal-Mart executive and I guess still has connections enough that he was able to arrange for us to listen to the leadership perspectives of the head of the largest company in the world. Pretty cool opportunity I think. The LMS chair, Dr. Hennelly, thinks that business leaders often study military leaders for leadership lessons, but military leaders rarely study business leaders for leadership lessons. Can you name the greatest CEO of the 20th century (according to Fortune)? None of us could. It's a shame because there really are relevant lessons that cross the business-military line, yet we too seldom consider those lessons. So it's appropriate that 60 or 70 future Army leaders got to talk with Mr. Duke.

As an aside, Mr. Duke began his talk by flashing up the cover of a recent Fortune magazine:

His point is that businesses are targeting military leaders (pun very intended) for their management teams, which is very true. Does anyone else see the irony of this? I thought it funny that he began his talk with a magazine cover that has the headline "World's Most Admired Companies" which I would say Wal-Mart is not. But that's all besides the point.

Mr. Duke did share some of his leadership philosophy, something that all leaders should have (even I do). He had five talking points to offer:
1. trust is key. It comes from demonstrated integrity, no skill is respected or maximized without truth, it is measured most accurately in your lowest/weakest of moments
2. compassion- caring for other people is critical, especially with 2.1 million associates (employees), it should be practiced on an individual level as well as corporate such as how Wal-Mart has assisted in the earthquake response in Chile
3. performance- the numbers do matter, "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it" (not sure I agree with that quote), a company does have obligation to make money for the shareholders, not measuring performance is like not keeping score at a sporting event
4. leadership- on the individual and corporate levels, lead social responsible areas like sustainability (reducing packaging, compact fluorescent light bulbs, efficiency of trucking fleet), figure out where you are going to be a leader and make a difference and then do it
5. global nature of business- "just part of my job"

Mr. Duke shared his three core principles: respect, serving customers, and striving for excellence. Then it was time for questions (I've shortened/simplified his answers):
Q: Do small businesses in other countries not like Wal-Mart?
A: "not at all"
Q: How do you respond to criticism of Wal-Mart being hard on small business?
A: If you go to the average Wal-Mart, you'll be surprised at the number of small businesses that have popped up around it, stores that offer services Wal-Mart doesn't. Wal-Mart was a small company too at one point, it's the way that free enterprise works.
Q: How do you translate/transfer your company's values into other countries?
A: bottom line: hire good management
Q: What are you doing with waste compact fluorescent light bulbs?
A: Wal-Mart will figure out the reverse logistics for light bulbs, for now there are other more pressing things that they need to focus on. (the concern is those light bulbs ending up in landfills I believe)
Q: How can Wal-Mart compete with organic food stores like Whole Foods?
A: There are huge inefficiencies organic food supply chains, and that is one area in which Wal-Mart traditionally excels.

So what did I think of all this? Well, as far as leadership points go, Mr. Duke's comments were general and not that remarkable. He must be doing something right in his office as a business manager because he really wasn't inspirational at all as a leader. Also, his piece about Wal-Mart being good for small business is a load of crap. I hope he wasn't looking at me when he said that because I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes pretty dramatically.

ATFP exercise/SOSH run

I wrote this yesterday but am posting it today, so just substitute "yesterday" everywhere you see "today."

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So apparently the best way to assess the readiness of West Point to react to a terrorist situation, specifically an "active shooter," (similar to what happened at Fort Hood recently) is to tell us when/where the mock attack is going to happen. I know I've only had limited logic education and tactical training, but something about this just doesn't make sense. I can't quite put my finger on it...

In classic cadet fashion, our company did come up with a plan to gain accountability of the company...the night before. Highlights of the plan include the company commander saying that "there’s also a good chance that I will be drugged up from the dentist" and a direction for the company First Sergeant to "wrassle with the shooter and subdue him." The actual plan calls for a formation to get accountability, so that means gathering a bunch of people in one, small, confined area...which is exactly what you want to do in the even to of a terrorist event. Wait a minute...turns out this plan didn't come to pass and instead we just didn't get accountability of our people. Well done.

So I was taking a nap when I heard a loud boom outside and then someone yelling in our building "active shooter!" So we pretended to have a formation, decided that a better accountability plan was for everyone to send one person an email, then I went back to sleep. The results of the whole thing? I don't know, they haven't told us. If I had to venture a guess, I would say it was a resounding "soup sandwich."

At the same time this was going down, a time-honored West Point tradition was going down: the SOSH run. It is a huge term paper for our International Relations course and people typically 1) wait until the last possible minute to do it and 2) dress up in goofy costumes to turn them in. My friend Alex had two of us dress up to be his PSD (personal security detachment) for the SOSH run (you can see one of the MP vehicles from the ATFP exercise in the background, also the crowd that gathers to witness the SOSH run):

There are people who dress up in banana suits, people who run in with flaming papers, people rollerskating in their underwear, basically all things absurd. Some cadets inevitably dress up as terrorists and soldiers, which of course involves carrying a weapon. The counter-terrorism exercise was still going on at this point, and it just happened to be in the same area as the SOSH run. So imagine Military Police on station during a terrorism exercise and cadets running around with rifles. Yeah, they sorta got detained and searched, probably in trouble of some sort. But it was friggin' hilarious for the rest of us!

LT Collins

This is just a quick blurb for y'all about LT Collins, I briefly mentioned his death last week. This news article has a quick low-down on the situation:

"Army First Lieutenant Robert Collins, 24, died April 7 in Iraq when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device near Mosul in northern Iraq, military officials said.

Lt. Collins, a 2004 graduate of Sandy Creek High School and a 2008 graduate of West Point Military Academy, is expected to be flown into Peachtree City’s Falcon Field Airport sometime Thursday. The funeral will be 10 a.m. Saturday at New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville.

Citizens are encouraged to participate in Thursday’s procession by lining the route and waving flags to honor Lt. Collins as the motorcade passes by.

Besides Lt. Collins, who was the platoon commander, the roadside explosion also killed the vehicle’s driver, Pfc. William A. Blount, 21, of Petal, Miss., according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Defense.
The incident happened near Tall Abtah, northern Iraq (near Mosul) on April 7. Collins and Blount were both assigned to the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

Lt. Collins’ unit was based in Tall Abtah and among its tasks were operations to improve security and the quality of life for the Iraqi people, he wrote on a recent update to his platoon’s Facebook page. The 2nd platoon also helped provide security for the recent national election in Iraq.

In the note, Collins wrote proudly of his soldiers’ accomplishments and expressed thanks for the continuing support from those stateside."

There is also this flyer that tells some more about him and gives details for anyone wishes to donate to the memorial fund established in his name.


LT Collins will be sorely and truly missed by all who knew him, please keep his family in your prayers.

Battle Command Conference

I mentioned yesterday about this thing we call the Battle Command Conference. It is officially the "THE CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE IN USMA'S PROFESSIONAL MILITARY ETHIC EDUCATION AND FOCUSES ON BATTLE COMMAND IN THE CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENT." It's actually in capital letters, so I think they are really serious about it. And they're calling it the 13th Conference, but I'm calling "bullshit" because last year was the first time I've ever heard of it happening. Maybe they're counting the 11 times it happened back in the 1800's or something.

The one panel that we had today was from 6 leaders from C company, 1-26 Infantry Regiment in the 1st Infantry Division. Kelly Kennedy is an Army Times reporter and recent author of a book (that I've of course put on my Amazon wish list) about C Company's deployment to Iraq in 2006-2007- They Fought For Each Other. Kennedy's website offers this quick run-down of the situation:

"In December 2006, 19-year-old Ross McGinnis threw himself on a grenade to save four friends. He received the Medal of Honor.A Humvee rolled over a roadside bomb, killing two soldiers and severely burning the others. In June, a Bradley hit another bomb, and it killed five soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter.Soon after, a well-loved first sergeant in the battalion, 1SG Jeff McKinney, killed himself in front of his men after not sleeping, eating or drinking for several days. Then, a second Bradley hit a bomb, instantly killing four soldiers. The platoon I embedded with was accused of mutiny after they refused to go out after the second Bradley was hit. They said they feared they would kill everyone they saw if they went out because they were so full of rage. Charlie Company lost 14 men, and Second Platoon came home without nine of their friends."

As you can see, C Company had a really rough deployment. All in all, there were 14 KIAs and 30 WIAs, the price just one company paid in executing the Iraq "surge" (which in case you missed it in the news, because they really didn't report on it much, the surge was hugely successful). It was appropriate for leaders from this company to come and talk to us on the topic of Family Readiness Groups, or FRGs. They are groups composed mostly of families of soldiers that are an official support system for those families while the soldiers are deployed. Before and during the first years of the wars, FRGs were thought of mostly as just army wives meeting and complaining about stuff. Now especially, they really are a well established and legitimate support channel for those who stay home during a deployment. One of the harshest tasks for a FRG is making death and casualty notification, the C Company FRG group unfortunately had lots of practice.

The panel consisted of the company commander, the first sergeant, a platoon leader, a platoon sergeant, the rear detachment-FRG liaison, and the FRG leader (who is many times, and was in this case, the company commander's spouse). I just thought I'd share some of the nuggets of wisdom that they shared.

-one of the FRG's main missions is information flow and rumor control for the families
-if extra units are attached to your company for the deployment, make sure to include their families
-send out a newsletter whenever you can (maybe use a blog?)
-the Army gives your battalion some funding but you might need to fund raise
-it is not an extension of the chain of command, any soldier's spouse could be the leader
-single soldiers should/must be included too, especially their parents
-it is the company commander's program, but if your company doesn't have one don't just sit by and do nothing
-be wary of soldiers getting married 2 weeks before deployments, especially if they don't speak the same language (true story)
-know the families just as well as you know their soldiers
-make sure someone goes to visit the wounded warriors in the hospital
-C Company had a great FRG and the leaders believe that was a huge part of their unusually high re-enlistment rate
-keeping information (especially the bad stuff) from your loved ones isn't healthy, they want to be in the loop and know what you are doing
-and keep an eye even on the upper level leaders, they'll need help too

under pressure

I'm amazed at how many people have told me that they are reading what I write, which probably isn't that many people in the world of blogging, but now that I know I have a few readers besides my mom and Nana (love you!) I feel that I have to keep writing as much as I can, especially since there are only 39 more days for me to write here!

I don't have anything revolutionary for today/tonight, as I was away all weekend. Our family flew to Juneau, Alaska for the baptism of Gilbert Cyr Coyle, my brother and sister-in-law's new-ish baby. He has a pretty cool name if you ask me. I was at 7 different airports this weekend and not a lot of time in any one place, so I haven't had time to think too much about blogging or writing or any of that.

This week we are hosting a Battle Command Conference, so tomorrow we'll be in workshops all day and I should hopefully come away with something to share at the end of the day. And the best part about tomorrow? No classes!

Georges Clemenceau

Ever heard the saying "war is too important to be left to the generals"? This is one of the more memorable quotes from "the Tiger," France's Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau who started this position in late 1917. He is the subject of one of the chapters in my current book Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime by Eliot Cohen (seems I'm reading a lot of military books lately, can't imagine why). Cohen's big idea is that while some people think that politicians have no place in dictating the conduct of war, it is in fact the opposite. Cohen believes that the best wartime politicians are those that are intimately involved in the strategic decisions of their armed forces. He writes about Abraham Lincoln, Clemenceau, Winston Churchill, and David Ben-Gurion.

Anyway, I thought that this was a great quote from the Clemenceau chapter and I can't help but think "Amen" when I read it.

"There is no honor of the army, honor of the judiciary, or the Council of State any more than there is an honor of farmers or cigar sellers. There are personal faults whose consequences should fall only on the guilty...The army is composed of civilians, clothed in a certain fashion and subordinated to a special regime for a certain purpose. Men are neither better nor worse if they wear red pants or gray, a kepi or a bowler hat."

Now I know I have to tread lightly on this topic. The military is consistently the most respected profession in America, so it's unusual to be of the opinion that it's members aren't much more special than the average "farmer or cigar seller." Clemenceau was not a pacifist nor was he any enemy of the military, he just had very defined (and strict) views of how it should conduct itself and be used by the government. And I think they point that he is trying to make and that I would concur with when he says that "there is no honor in the army..." is that you aren't automatically better or worse just for signing up. I think also much of his seeming disdain for the military probably comes more from the leaders and less from the average soldier, those who would do "military adventurism." Our soldiers do extraordinary things and I am happy that we have such heroes who volunteer to do the country's bidding, but what Cohen would say is that we have to keep an eye on the generals. Fortunately right now we have a lot of great leadership in our military starting from the Secretary of Defense, service chiefs like General Casey, theater commanders like General Petraeus, and area commanders like General McCrystal.