The Modern Louisiana Maneuvers - US Army Center Of Military History

GENs Marshall and McNair intended to
shake the Army out of its prewar, peacetime
mentality, accelerate preparations for war,
and focus the Army on the daunting challenges
of the impending global conflict. The
overall effect of the fast-paced maneuvers
was electrifying-both for the soldiers involved
and for the Army, which sensed it was
much better prepared for war as a result of
the extensive field exercises .4 The importance
of the Louisiana Maneuvers for the
Army's success in World War II and the significant
degree to which they influenced
structural change throughout the service left
a lasting impression on the institution's culture
and lore. Indeed, the very name, "Louisiana
Maneuvers," connotes bold experimentation
and a willingness to take risks .5
As GEN Sullivan began his term as Chief
of Staff, he believed that America's post-Cold
War Army stood in need of changes as great
as those the Louisiana Maneuvers had
wrought. An avid student of history, Sullivan
had thought at length about Marshall and
the actions he had taken to prepare the Army
for World War II. Sullivan knew the significance
of the Louisiana Maneuvers in galvanizing
the pre-World War II Army, and believed
that the post-Cold War Army would
have to make similarly wrenching innovations
, though for different reasons 6 Sullivan
also had reflected upon the statements of
GENs J. Lawton Collins and Matthew B.
Ridgway on the country's dangerous proclivity
for cutting Army size and readiness below
safe levels in the aftermath of World War
II and Korea. To simply "go along" with such
measures "to get along" was a formula for
disaster. 7
While serving as Deputy Commandant of
the U.S. Army Command and General Staff
College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, from
1987 to 1988, Sullivan had been concerned
with the issue of effecting change. Among his
concerns in that assignment was the need to
ensure that the Army's modeling and simulations
capabilities kept pace with those of the
rest of the Department of Defense and that
the Army built its own self-sustaining pool of
2
experts in the field B He had first begun working
with simulation-based training while serving
as Assistant Commandant of the U.S.
Army Armor School under MG Frederic J.
Brown from late 1983 to mid-198S.
What he saw at Leavenworth so impressed
him with the potential of the microprocessor
as a facilitator of Army training
that he even suggested in his end-oftour
interview: "I think that the Army could
do a 'Louisiana maneuver' in the early 90s,
using the microprocessor, and have XXIII
Corps , the Leavenworth School House
Corps, play one corps and III Corps , out of
Fort Hood, play the other. I think that's
doable."g He was also aware of the work of
Dr. Christopher R. Gabel, a staff college
instructor at Leavenworth, who was in the
process of revising his dissertation on the
Louisiana Maneuvers for publication.lO
During his next assignment as Commander
of the 1st Infantry Division at Fort
Riley, Kansas , Sullivan contemplated establishing
a special training relationship with
the Combined Arms Center at Leavenworth.
This relationship would have used the increasingly
sophisticated capabilities of the
modeling and simulations community at the
Combined Arms Center to enhance the training
and readiness of his own unit through a
combination of live, virtual, and constructive
simulation exercises . These exercises
would have taken place under the rubric
"Louisiana Maneuvers," a term that was only
the latest expression of Sullivan's habit of
using historical terms and catch phrases Y
Overtaken by other priorities and by
Sullivan's short tenure at Riley, this idea never
reached fruition, but the seed planted at
Leavenworth continued to grow. 12
As Vice Chief of Staff from 1990 to 1991
and then as Chief of Staff, Sullivan again
showed his proclivity for using historical
references in staking out his obj ectives . He
frequently used the shorthand phrase "No
more Task Force Smiths" to warn against
replicating the experience of the pre-Korean
War Army. Speaking to a wide variety of audiences
, Sullivan reminded them of the dan-
The Modern Louisiana Maneuvers