The Modern Louisiana Maneuvers - US Army Center Of Military History

Appendix F
OWNING THE NIGHT
A CHRONOLOGY OF ARMY ACTIONS, 199 1-1995
22 October 1991-GEN Gordon R.
Sullivan, Chief of Staff, Army, asked GEN
Frederick M. Franks, Commander, TRADOC,
"Freddie, I keep being told "we own the night"
what does that mean? Is it true? Are you comfortable
with this notion? If not, what are we
going to do about it? Lets discuss at some
point in the future."l
29 October 199 1-GEN Sullivan discussed
with the General Staff Council his
tasking to Cdr, TRADOC, to verify or comment
on the statement that "we own the
night." TRADOC will respond and, if appropriate,
provide plans for ensuring that this
statement becomes a reality. He also directed
the Chief of Public Affairs to publiCize Army
efforts underway in the night vision are, spe­
Cifically commenting on the excellent work
being done at the Army Night Vision Laboratory
at Ft. Belvoir, VA 2
November 1991-0DCS-Concepts,
Doctrine, and Developments (DCS-CDD),
TRADOC, began its assessment of Army
night fighting capabilities.3
6 November 1991-DCS-CDD,
TRADOC, tasked schools and MSCs to provide
an evaluation of night fighting capabilities
and shortfalls within their areas of
responsibility. On hand are responses from
the Commandant of the Field Artillery
School, Ft. Sill, OK (17 December 1991),
and the Commander of the Signal Center,
Ft. Gordon, GA (19 December 1991).
Cmdt, FA School, responded that there were
many areas within the fire support BOS in
which the Army did not own the night, particularly
in terms of the limited capabilities
of current fire support vehicles and in
the numbers of night vision goggles (NVG)
allocated within fire support units. Cdr,
SigCen, also noted a need for more NVGs
within Signal units. More importantly, he
discussed at length a broader topic: "To insure
that maneuver commanders 'own the
night,' we must proVide the continuous
command and control information system
support necessary to fight and win on the
extended battlefield. Central to the thought
of 'owning the night' is a continuous near
real-time command and control capability."
He then goes on to list the various fielded
and developmental systems that would provide
those capabilities. Responses from the
Infantry and Armor Schools are not available.4
January 1992-TRADOC DCS-CDD IPR
for GEN Franks at which he directed the assessment
continue with TRADOC and other
agencies.5
12 February 1992-Briefing for DCS­
CDD on status of the "owning the night"