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Army Begins Training For The Next War

Army Begins Training For The Next War

By Rick Montgomery, The Kansas City Star (TNS)

FORT RILEY, Kan. — For more than a decade, troops here have been schooled in counterinsurgency.

“Mission-specific” training, they call it: going house to house, busting down doors, rooting out terror cells, recognizing crude explosives.

Now, after a pair of mission-specific wars, an Army in transition aims to get back to the future.

The training needed to fight full-scale, more conventional battles has suffered, Army leaders contend. So Fort Riley is putting soldiers such as Staff Sgt. Gilbert Monroe back into big tanks and simulating wars on a scale grander than Iraq or Afghanistan.

“This is what I signed up for,” Monroe said.

He began his military career 14 years ago in an M1 Abrams tank. But he spent tours in Iraq commanding more nimble armored vehicles, rolling on eight tires and lacking the heft to blast a target from 2 miles out.

With Americans still assessing what was gained from fighting two drawn-out conflicts at the same time, are they ready to start thinking about the next war — maybe even The Big One?

“You hope it wouldn’t be World War III, but you have to prepare for the worst,” said Lt. Gen. Robert B. Brown, commanding general of the Army’s Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth. “We need to be ready to play against the pro teams, not just the amateurs.”

By that he means a nation such as North Korea, even Russia. A “pro team” could even be a band of radicals with the means to acquire nationlike resources in a hurry — such as those fighters who call themselves the Islamic State, recruiting through the global reach of the Web.

In Army-speak, the training needed to fight that brand of enemy is shifting away from “mission-specific” toward “decisive action.”

And that requires the reacquainting of soldiers with epic battle plans featuring tanks, surface-to-air missiles, Apache choppers and military precision exercised over a broad and rugged terrain.

“That skill set has perished,” said Timothy D. Livsey, Fort Riley’s deputy garrison commander.

“It’s a paradigm shift for the Army,” Livsey said. “With Iraq and Afghanistan, it was all about COIN — counterinsurgency. We still need to train for that. But we also have to get back to bread-and-butter skills such as precise artillery, precise gunnery.”

Fort Riley officials say decisive-action training blends yesterday’s emphasis on battlefield prowess with the people skills required of troops more recently focused on counterinsurgency.

At a time when U.S. military action has become defined by targeted airstrikes, ships jockeying in the South China Sea and a reluctance to place boots on the ground, the Army is seeking to reassert itself on the strategic stage, experts say.

Now facing steep troop reductions planned by the Pentagon, “the Army really is looking for a strategic framework in which to remain relevant,” said Kelley Sayler of the Center for a New American Security, an independent research organization.

“And you do need to train for the prospect of an epic war, even if there’s a low likelihood of it happening,” Sayler said. “You don’t want battlefield skills to atrophy.”

Nora Bensahel, a defense policy expert at American University, agreed.

“You have to prepare for the full spectrum,” she said.

Generations of U.S. military planners have gravely miscalculated that the next war would be like the last, Bensahel said.

“You just don’t know what the next conflict will entail.”

Don’t think of the activities at Fort Riley as training for a “conventional” war, said Brown of the Combined Arms Center.

“A nation-state fighting against another nation-state would be so complex these days, so unlike World War II, you could hardly make a comparison,” he said.

Future wars wouldn’t compare even with Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 land assault in which a multinational force drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. Brown said technological leaps since then, plus threats posed by cyberattackers, have transformed conventional battle plans.

“No enemy today would be stupid enough to allow us months and months to build up forces,” as was the case in Desert Storm, he said.

Livsey said Fort Riley provides the perfect stage to replicate a complex battle across a vast landscape.

Home to the nation’s 1st Infantry Division, known as “the Big Red One,” the fort boasts more than 75,000 acres of deep-rooted grasslands that quickly rebound from the tank tracks, fires and other scars of mock battlefield maneuvers.

In combined-arms exercises slated for next month, “we’ll have a synchronization of artillery, aviation, howitzers, tanks … everything we’ve got,” said Maj. Steve Veves. His tank group fired at long-distance targets last week.

The Army’s National Training Center in the Mojave Desert has long been a site of intensive battlefield maneuvers for deploying troops. The military is shifting more of that training to home stations such as Fort Riley, and some of them have already been working on the new training.

Relying also on simulated training, Fort Riley this year became the first in the Army to use gaming software developed at Fort Leavenworth’s simulation laboratory. The software allows moving soldiers to become their own fighting avatars, surrounded by a virtual battleground they view through helmets.

“You become immersed,” said Bill Raymann, chief of training at the fort’s Close Combat and Tactical Training campus.

“If a simulation is done correctly, it’ll take the brain about 15 seconds to adjust back. You walk out the door surprised: ‘Oh, I’m really in Kansas.'”

Indoor simulators helped Pfc. Christian McClure get down the mechanics of loading an Abrams tank.

“They help, but nothing can simulate like this does,” McClure said just before wedging into a real tank and practicing live action on the firing range.

Although many experts, including some top Pentagon brass, question the Army’s need for heavy tanks and howitzers for future conflicts, McClure and tank commander Monroe would rather be nowhere else in battle.

“You can always use a tank,” Monroe said. “And, unfortunately, there will always be wars to fight.”

Miles away from the erupting battleground, Fort Riley commanders can monitor live maneuvers and coordinate them with drills around the globe.

A beach landing in California, infantry moving through a crowded Asian city and sea support from somewhere else, all linked together, make for what Army officials call “the ultimate scrimmage” for the ultimate war.

Military analyst John Pike said troops trained in counterinsurgency ought to prepare for that war, too.

“The Army has kicked down a lot of doors in the last dozen years,” said Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. “And North Korea could break out any minute.

“It’s a big world out there. … Best as I can tell, peace isn’t breaking out all over.”

Photo: Capt. Brian Kossler talks about the features of a M1A2 Abrams tank simulator on Thursday, May 21, 2015, at Fort Riley in Kansas. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/TNS)

Higher Jobless Rates Reported For Iraq, Afghanistan Vets

Higher Jobless Rates Reported For Iraq, Afghanistan Vets

By James Rosen, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Military veterans are having better luck finding jobs, outpacing their civilian counterparts in many states, but younger former troops who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan still lag behind.

Veterans in North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky are faring relatively well, while those in California, Idaho and Mississippi are having less success finding jobs.

Nationwide, the average unemployment rate last year for all veterans was 6.6 percent vs. 7.3 percent for the country as a whole, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, 9 percent of military personnel who served since the Sept. 11, 2011, terror attacks were without jobs, and in that group the unemployment rate leaps to 21.4 percent among veterans 18-24 years old.

Jim Reed, who grew up poor on an Arizona cattle ranch and now lives in Pinehurst, NC, served nine deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq as a military nurse anesthetist. Now 48, he retired from the Army in 2011.

Despite his skills and background, Reed has been laid off from hospitals twice since leaving the military, most recently in December. He’s currently working about half-time pulling temporary shifts in his specialty.

“I risked my life routinely over there (in the two wars),” Reed told McClatchy on Thursday. “I was a lieutenant colonel in the Army with tons of experience and boatloads of combat experience. I thought that might give me some advantage, but it hasn’t because people don’t understand the military.”

Rosalinda Maury, research director with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, said veterans who are women or belong to ethnic minorities also face more difficulties finding work.

“Age is a big thing,” Maury said. “We know that younger veterans have a higher unemployment rate compared to their non-veteran counterparts. Gender and race are factors as well.”

Dan Goldenberg is executive director of the Call of Duty Endowment, a Los Angeles-based group that funds nonprofit programs to help veterans find jobs.

“There’s no question that vets make great employees, and over the long haul they do well,” he said. “The problem is with the post-9/11 vets. It’s these young vets who are suffering. They ostensibly have more skills than their civilian peers, yet their unemployment rate is higher.”

The problem will get worse, Goldenberg said, if the Pentagon follows through on its plans to cut the Army by 80,000 and reduce the Marine Corps by 20,000.

Frederick Wellman, a former senior aide to retired Gen. David Petraeus, the former top military commander in Iraq, is now CEO of Scoutcomms, a Fredericksburg, VA, firm that works with businesses and nonprofit groups to develop employment programs for veterans and military families.

“There has been progress, and companies are doing good things,” Wellman said. “But we still have a challenge with younger and new vets coming out of service finding employment. We need to keep our eyes on the ball and help these younger vets match their skills with jobs in their areas.”

Photo: Cosmic Smudge via Flickr

Cheating Inquiry Finds ‘Systemic Problems’ In U.S. Nuclear Force

Cheating Inquiry Finds ‘Systemic Problems’ In U.S. Nuclear Force

WASHINGTON — Nearly half of the officers responsible for maintaining and operating nuclear-armed missiles at a Montana base have been implicated in a widening cheating investigation, a sign of deep cultural and command problems in the nuclear force, the leader of the Air Force said Thursday.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said at a Pentagon news conference that 92 of 190 launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base had been suspended because of the investigation into the sharing of answers on a proficiency test last year.

For the first time since the Air Force disclosed the cheating scandal this month, officials acknowledged that the cheating stemmed from a climate of fear created by commanders, who decided which officers on launch crews would be promoted based on whether they scored perfectly on monthly tests.

“I believe that we do have systemic problems,” James said. “The need for perfection has created a climate of undue stress and fear.”

The number of implicated officers has nearly tripled since Jan. 15, when the Air Force announced that 16 had shared text messages with answers to a monthly missile proficiency test and that 17 others were aware of the suspected cheating but took no action.

Air Force officials continued to say they had no firm evidence that cheating went beyond the single test last year or that it had occurred at the two other Minuteman III missile bases, one in North Dakota and another in Wyoming. They acknowledge, however, that a climate of fear exists at all three installations.

The 550 launch officers at the three bases take three written tests each month on missile safety, handling of launch codes and classified war plans. They also complete a monthly test in a simulator and an annual inspection, along with periodic unannounced inspections.

Eight times a month, a two-man crew completes a 24-hour shift in an underground launch center.

The cheating investigation is focusing on a “core group” of about 40 officers at Malmstrom who are believed to have been most involved in sharing test answers, said Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, head of the Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees missiles and long-range bombers that carry nuclear weapons.

The rest were aware of the cheating but may not have used the answers, he said.

With all 92 officers under investigation suspended from launch duty, the remaining crews at Malmstrom have been required to work more shifts, and senior officers have been moved back to launch duty to keep the base’s 150 missiles operational, Wilson said.

Wilson said he had a “force improvement program” to fix what were described as systemic problems that the intercontinental ballistic missile force faces. He said commanders would be disciplined if they were found to have contributed to those problems.

“We’re going to take this wherever it goes,” he said.

Some former launch officers say that cheating in various forms on the tests has been common for decades, though they say the pressure to achieve perfect scores has increased in recent years — ironically, as the importance of nuclear weapons to U.S. national security has declined with the end of the Cold War.

After a 2007 incident in which nuclear weapons were mishandled at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, the Air Force created Global Strike Command to reinforce the need for rigorous attention to the secure and reliable handling of the weapons.

The result was even more pressure on launch crews and more tests, said Bruce Blair, a former Minuteman launch officer and co-founder of Global Zero, an organization that advocates worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.

“Suddenly there were nothing but inspections going on constantly,” he said. “This new organization (Global Strike Command) needed a mission, and it meant that testing took on a life of its own.”

AFP Photo/Spencer Platt

Panetta Will Certify Gays Don’t Destroy Military

Newly-appointed Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is poised to certify on Friday that gays and lesbians serving openly in the armed forces would not damage unit cohesion or retention or otherwise undermine the ability of the world’s most powerful military to wage war.

This comes in the wake of Congress passing and President Obama signing last December a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), the policy that made it illegal for openly gay people to fight for their country. The new law requires the president, defense secretary, and service chiefs to sign off before a 60-day wait period for equality to breach the ranks.

Of course, even Barry Goldwater, conservative icon, is known to have remarked, “You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.” Too bad it took the GOP decades–and even then, only a few of their senators voted for repeal of DADT–to catch up with their 1964 presidential nominee on this issue.