Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Quote of the Day:

“When you face an enemy that regards death as a promotion, it is different.”

—Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, USA (Ret.), speaking in a panel on delivering intelligence to the warfighter.

West 2006, the annual conference and exposition sponsored by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute, began with a day of vital speeches and panels and ended with bagpipes and a videoteleconference with U.S. Marines in Iraq. The three days of conferences, speakers, panels and courses, being held January 10-12 in San Diego, is titled “Services Roles and Structures: What’s Right for the Way Ahead.” However, much of the first day’s content focused on lessons that continue to be learned in the global war on terrorism, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Among the many lessons still being learned is the effect the global war on terrorism is having on the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Appropriately, the day’s first speaker was Thomas F. Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs. Hall noted that 45 percent of U.S. defense resources are in the National Guard and Reserve, and their use is not always balanced according to skills. The role of the Guard and Reserve has changed forever, and the military is adjusting to this new configuration.

Thomas F. Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, gives the kickoff address at West 2006.

“The concept of weekend warriors is dead,” Hall declared. “We are transitioning to a strategic and operational Reserve.”

Accordingly, the Defense Department is changing the way the Guard and Reserve are treated. Instead of being mobilized for 18 months, the goal is to reduce that period to 12 months. The department also is trying to channel regular force benefits such as bonuses, health care and housing to Guard and Reserve personnel. For example, everyone who re-signs on for another stretch of duty in theater receives a $15,000 bonus.

Other challenges remain. It may take up to $25 billion to replace the equipment left in Iraq; to repair gear brought back to the United States; and to provide equipment for modularization, force generation and homeland defense.

However, Hall is heartened by the support being provided to Guard and Reserve personnel by U.S. businesses. Home Depot, for example, looks to hire veterans just returning from active duty. They are drug-free, honest, team players and leaders. “It’s a great untold story how the employers of America have stepped up to the plate,” he stated.

Hall took the opportunity to dash a couple of popular misconceptions. A total of 500,000 Guard and Reserve members have been called up since the September 11, 2001, attacks, but their presence is shrinking, not growing. A year ago, 185,000 Guard and Reserve members were on active duty, but now only 130,000—116,000 in the Army—are mobilized.

And, the Army, Guard and Reserve all recently exceeded their recruiting goals. More people are staying on active duty despite—or because of—the wartime deployment.

Saying that journalist Tom Brokaw was right in labeling the Depression/World War II generation “the greatest generation,” Hall declared that, “Today we’re building the next-greatest generation.”

Immediately following Hall’s address was the day’s first panel discussion, which focused on warfighters’ lessons learned. Some panelists expanded on Hall’s comments, while others focused on new issues.

Moderating this panel was Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, USMC, commanding general, Marine Corps Combat Development Command. Last year at West 2005, Gen. Mattis made remarks based on his combat experiences in Afghanistan that were widely reported as controversial. Referring to that incident, Gen. Mattis allowed as to how he truly was honored that he was invited back to speak at West.

This year, few would argue with his point that the military must undergo significant changes to deal with the enemy in the global war on terror. War is a human problem, he stated, and the United States must guard against being dominant but irrelevant. The enemy knows it cannot win through the ballot box, so it resorts to mass terror to attempt to achieve its goals. “We’re the good guys—I didn’t say perfect—and they’re the bad guys,” he declared.

Panelists discussing warfighters’ lessons learned from combat are (r to l) panel moderator Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, USMC; Col. Gary L. Crowder, USAF; Brig. Gen. Joe Dunford, USMC; Rear Adm. Charles W. Martoglio, USN; and Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, USA (Ret.).

Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, USA (Ret.), co-author of the book “The Iraq War,” declared that “our grandchildren will be fighting this type of war.” He challenged the audience by stating that the information age of the military is almost over, and that we now are entering a human, cultural, cognitive era of warfare. Our enemies have adopted this approach because the United States is dominant almost everywhere else. So, the country must build a military that can operate in alien cultures—“have cultural court sense,” he stated.

As far as the Navy is concerned, the global war on terror is always running in the background—sometimes in the foreground, according to Rear Adm. Charles W. Martoglio, USN, director of Strategy and Policy Division (N5SP). Conventional campaigns are still out there, but the enemy is practicing unrestricted warfare—such as using children as human shields—that the United States will not do to them. And, weapons of mass destruction offer to generate a strategic-level effect with only a small number of people implementing their use.

The U.S. military is not organized to fight this kind of war, stated Col. Gary L, Crowder, USAF, vice commander, 505 Command and Control Wing. Noting that the Defense Department budget is more than $400 billion and the State Department budget is about $25 billion, he urged that non-lethal resources be allocated to combat the influence of the enemy so that the country does not have to apply a military solution to every problem. “If all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail,” he said.

But, when it comes to lessons learned, much of what the military has learned is basically what it knew before, declared Brig. Gen. Joe Dunford, USMC, director of Operations Division, Plans, Policy and Operations, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps. The Corps is working to push voice, data and imagery down to the squad level so that the warfighter has a better situational awareness picture. But, “There is no silver bullet to this challenge,” he warned.

The U.S. Coast Guard is involved in both the Iraq War and in homeland security, and Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, USCG, gave luncheon attendees an outline of its efforts and its close cooperation with the U.S. Navy. Adm. Johnson, commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area Command, explained how the Coast Guard has huge responsibilities, including that of dealing with maritime Pacific threats, but it does not have all of the necessary resources to meet these challenges.

Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, USCG, commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area Command, gives Tuesday’s luncheon address at West 2006.

The Coast Guard must balance homeland security with commerce. Domestically, 14 million shipping containers are handled annually in the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach. If that port were to be knocked out—possibly by a container-delivered weapon of mass destruction—no other port could handle that traffic, and the “container conveyor belt” that stretches across the country would be interrupted. This would prove devastating to the U.S. economy. “Once we viewed the ocean as a protector, but now it is a highway,” the admiral pointed out.

Adm. Johnson allowed as to how he is pleased with the relationship between the commander, U.S. Navy Third Fleet, and U.S. Coast Guard Pacific. This cooperation has been improving, and now both services can take steps to “rethink and redefine the relationship” between the Coast Guard and the Navy.

“The timing is right to ensure interoperability between [Coast Guard] Deepwater assets and Navy ships,” Adm. Johnson declared.

For many attendees, the highlight of the day’s events came in the evening. One of the Copernicus Award winners, Sgt. Matthew Eunice, USMC, was unable to attend the dinner in their honor because he was serving with his regimental combat team in Iraq. So, conference organizers worked with the Marine Corps and with commercial telecommunications companies to establish a live videoteleconference link to the sergeant and his commander in that war zone. Dinner attendees could view the sergeant on a wide screen as AFCEA International Vice President Becky Nolan read the citation for his award to him. And, the sergeant could see and hear both that presentation and the prolonged standing ovation that he received from all of the dinner attendees. The videoteleconference link was kept open at a computer terminal throughout the evening, and the flag officers and government civilian leaders in attendance took turns congratulating the sergeant personally over that link.

—Scheduled for Wednesday at West 2006: Speeches by the deputy commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Vice Adm. Eric T. Olson, USN, and Dr. Linton Wells II, deputy assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration; along with panel discussions on special operations, warfighter information technology and military personnel issues.