February - Fort Sill - U.S. Army

Interview: Think Fire Support
exercises through REFORGER [return
of forces to Germany] and moves to and
from training areas over those distances.
I understand you used a technique to
shrink the commander's decision cycle in
the 3d Infantry Division, called the
"One-Fifth—Four-Fifths Rule." Would
you explain the concept and its impact
on executing fire support?
Our approach in the Marne Division
was to try to be more timely in the
decision making and orders process so
we could maximize the time available
to those who must prepare for and
execute operations. Typically, one uses
a rule of thumb of
"one-third—two-thirds" to allocate the
time from the commander's receiving
the mission until he issues the order to
subordinate commands, so that
two-thirds of the time available can be
used to prepare to execute the operation.
Giving the commander a full one-third
of the time seemed to me to be a
disproportionate rule of thumb. It also
gave us too much time, and we prepared
overly complex orders and plans that
were too difficult too execute.
So we adopted the thesis that, for this
operation, less is better. We maximized
the time available for preparation and
execution and emphasized executing an
"about right" but simple plan. To do that,
we allowed a commander only one-fifth
of the time to issue the order.
That created a challenge for the fire
supporter. He clearly couldn't execute a
measle sheet—plan a great number of
detailed targets. So, in the 3d Division,
we kept it very simple. We developed
"about right" fire plans and groups of
fires at the company, battalion and
brigade levels, and used a process we
called the "percolator." Just like a
percolator, the commander's concept
went from top to bottom, then each fire
support echelon nominated and adjusted
targets and sent them back up for
integration, deconfliction, simplification
and approval. Then they went from top to
bottom again for final planning and
preparation.
It all starts from the commander's
concept. The commander has to give
you a concept for movement and fires.
In fact, we used standardized
subparagraphs to Paragraph 3B ["Tasks
to Maneuver Units"] of the Operations
Order. Subparagraph 3B(1) was always
the commander's assessment of what
the most probable enemy course of
action would be; 3B(2) was the
commander's scheme of maneuver; and
3B(3) was the commander's scheme for
fires.
The commander must visualize and
articulate what he wants his fire support
to do as part of his concept of operations.
That's not the fire support coodinator's
job. The fire support coordinator's job is
to make it happen.
Where should the fire support
coordinator [FSCOORD] position
himself to be most effective on the
battlefield?
He needs to postion himself so the
commander can best use fire support
during the fight. Artillerymen have a
great penchant for doing detailed
planning and then being disturbed when
the battle plan doesn't fit the situation. I
know that from my own experience.
Most plans don't fit the battle situation
as it develops. It's a chaotic
environment—some mistakes are made,
but a lot of opportunities also present
themselves. Through it all, the fire
support coordinator's primary mission is
to ensure fires are integrated into the
operation as it goes down. Fire Support
can make a big difference.
We have many fire support
coordinators, from the company through
the corps levels, who want to build a
nice, neat plan and then execute it in
isolation. You can't do that. You must be
relevant—and to be relevant, you've got
to get fire and maneuver at the right place
at the right time. So, the fire support
coordinator must be wherever on the
battlefield the commander is to influence
his decisions.
At the company level, the fire
support coordinator—the FIST [fire
support team] chief or COLT [combat
observation lasing team] chief—is
mainly in the execution business. He's a
big-time shooter. He must see the enemy
and pull the trigger. The maneuver
company commander is also in the
execution business. Both are very busy
leaders upon whom the success of our
operations hinges. Both must see and
understand the battlefield the same.
They need to have a common perception
of the battlefield and good
communications between them. That's
one of the primary reasons for their
being habitually associated. Effective
teams speak a special shorthand with
very clear, very specific understanding.
But at the moment of execution, the
company commander may need to be in
one location and the FIST in another. So,
if the FIST is in the business of
executing, he may not be with the
company commander. Occasionally he'll
be able to be in the same location.
Offensive operations and
movements-to-contact pose different
challenges than prepared defensive
operations.
At the battalion level and above, the
fire support coordinator should be within
arm's reach of the commander. He
should be "cheek-by-jowl" with him
when they're formulating the concept
and executing the operation. During the
planning and preparation phase,
frequently the fire support coordinator
will be out supervising the work of other
fire support coordinators. But during the
concept formulation and execution
phases, he needs to be right beside his
commander.
What involvement did you have in the
targeting process as the Commander of
the 3d Infantry Division?
That's a good question because the
division commander's focus is basically
a simple one. Though he fights as part of
a corps on a complex battlefield and he
isn't isolated, he primarily focuses on
executing a number of close battles.
Brigade commanders are the primary
agents for integrating the combined arms
teams and executing a particular battle
given them by the division. The division
commander must ensure enemy artillery
is kept off their backs and the plan is
adjusted as required to accomplish the
mission. That type of targeting is fairly
straightforward.
That doesn't mean the division
commander is oblivious to all else. He's
always looking a day or two
downstream—always posturing for the
next battle. In doing so, he has a very
active dialogue with the corps
commander on what
forces—targets—are going to show up
and his preferences, needs and priorities
to set up the battle so the division can best
execute it. There's a dialogue between the
staffs to ensure all have a common
perception of future battles that must be
set up.
The division commander has great
interest in what targeting the corps is
doing. That's his business as well as the
fire support coordinator's.
As far as intelligence is concerned, the
commander must be the best in the division
8 Field Artillery