Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

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exercise that looked at a NATO deployment to Atlantis, a hypothetical European country in conflict. Three guesses as to who Atlantis was. (Hint: It starts with the letter B.) This time the network was fairly large; the exercise lasted an entire month. Again we all learned some great lessons. Again the battalions were task-organized, but this time we sent out both battalion control elements (BATCONs). And the brigade put together a “joint SYSCON” (systems control element). Although the joint SYSCON had its supporters and detractors, the idea worked. It had a future. During this exercise, the 44th mainly supported the areas inside the immediate exercise box at Grafenwoehr, Germany, while the 72nd had responsibility for the western side of the network, which was everything outside Grafenwoehr to Kaiserslautern and Stuttgart. Although no one knew what the future would bring, the experience for the 72nd in command and controlling (C 2 ) an extensive network, widely spread geographically, would prove to be indispensable. I was on an autobahn overpass observing our convoy procedures when I had another foretaste of the future. My Mobile Radio Telephone (MRT) rang, with the ”Brigade Three” giving me a warning order to deploy yet another Tacsat team to the Bosnia theater—this time to the island of Brac for support of a high-level intelligence mission called Operation LOFTY VIEW II. The team deployed in early December 1994. This should have been an omen for us, but there was too much to do, and the future was probably the last thing on our minds at that time. Near the end of 1994, the priority for the entire brigade was the coming move from its home in Karlsruhe to Mannheim, Germany. It was a move that consumed all of us for at least 6 months, maybe a bit more. Again, the lessons from Operation MOVE TO MANNHEIM were many. The first for us was in organizing large-scale movements by rail. We had no idea at that time that this would later prove to be the transportation of choice to Bosnia. Second was in wargaming and establishing subordinate organizations in two locations, Mannheim and Karlsruhe, while continuing 5
all training, maintenance, and other programs. This split operation proved to be the “straw-man” for split operations for the 72nd in Bosnia. Third was the lesson in conducting split operations themselves throughout the entire battalion: what information was critical, what absolutely needed to be tracked, how did you conduct meetings in two places, how did you keep critical members of the organization informed in real time, how did you keep team cohesion over a large geographic separation? These lessons proved to be greatly beneficial when we got ready to do the deployment. In late May 1995 while we were still in the midst of the move, the brigade got a good scare: Deployment looked likely, and we did some intense planning. This planning helped a great deal in getting us ready later. However, some new plans came out of this intense time. The U.N. was losing control; the fighting was reaching a new level of intensity. There was a lot of concern about U.N. peacekeepers getting captured as well, especially in the so-called U.N. safe havens of Gorazde, Srebrenica, Bihac, and even Sarajevo. Even as we were planning for helicopter airlift to get the peacekeepers out of these safe havens, Srebrenica and then Gorazde quickly fell to the Serbs. It seemed like Bihac would be next. Brigade plans at that time had the 44th, with its battalion headquarters in Italy, controlling all the reach-back locations from Italy to Central Region. The 72nd was supposed to support downrange with its battalion headquarters at Zagreb because it was already controlling the assets there. The Mountain Shield series of exercises was born out of this planning. They were supposed to simulate the Southern European Task Force (SETAF) performing helicopter rescue of U.N. peacekeepers in Bihac, with assistance from V Corps aviation. The 44th had the lion’s share of these exercises, since SETAF was supposed to be executing them from Italy. We supported with tactical satellites and set up our BATCON at our Heidelberg switch location, which was the reach-back for the Zagreb and Skopje missions. The first exercise was in June 1995. We were supposed to use a new bird for our tactical satellites, 6
Page 1 and 2: WARRIORS IN PEACE OPERATIONS Edited
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS FOREWORD .................
Page 5 and 6: FOREWORD The Personal Experience Mo
Page 7 and 8: seldom practiced. The actual practi
Page 9: BATTALION COMMAND I assumed command
Page 13 and 14: company training and log efforts, a
Page 15 and 16: the USAREUR staff was thought up an
Page 17 and 18: new times. Ops Center at the battal
Page 19 and 20: like the Jewish exodus wandering ar
Page 21 and 22: marvelous job of coordinating the e
Page 23 and 24: it. They did not want us there or n
Page 25 and 26: containers as well. I told him I un
Page 27 and 28: promptly chambered a round in his p
Page 29 and 30: techniques, we found the railhead a
Page 31 and 32: answer. He quickly made himself and
Page 33 and 34: Tacsat systems with two independent
Page 35 and 36: CHAPTER 3 THE BLUE FALCONS IN BOSNI
Page 37 and 38: monograph. My omission of such elem
Page 39 and 40: their advance around the safe haven
Page 41 and 42: unusual. In today’s environment,
Page 43 and 44: He also provided his timeline for J
Page 45 and 46: Within about an hour I was reminded
Page 47 and 48: eter. Even along these paths, I had
Page 49 and 50: for deployment. The pre-deployment
Page 51 and 52: a rehearsal for leaders, using a ve
Page 53 and 54: • Heavy weapons platoon from E Co
Page 55 and 56: The Blue Falcons exited the aircraf
Page 57 and 58: esponsibility for the base security
Page 59 and 60: sandbagged for force protection. Th
Page 61 and 62:
Weather continued to deteriorate ov
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east-west roads crossing the Zone o
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needed from his forces. This coordi
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This COP was manned by a reinforced
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attalion commander was executing a
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creativity in accomplishing every a
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On February 11, TF 3-325 began coor
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their security. Hence, the title em
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deployed with the battalion to the
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at a confrontation going on at a ch
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he was deadly serious. I was convin
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As I reflected on the emotions I wa
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three times. The first time some ke
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pressure, intensity, and rigor of a
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gaining the sense of teamwork and s
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from 4-67, and now three tank plato
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Although the setup had changed in t
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trains per day to that point, thus
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soldier why there were differences
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One piece of frustrated cargo defin
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soldiers who deployed into an area
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support. After several false starts
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Group leaders, who were not paid pr
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Another lesson I learned was the ve
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We also developed a rotational gunn
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CHAPTER 5 COMMANDING A FIELD ARTILL
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Target Acquisition Battery (B/25 FA
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Rather than the anticipated three w
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DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY HEADQUARTERS
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usiness taking their husbands away
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transportation, shopping, and perso
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were required to carry these 12 rul
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The remaining combat elements of Ch
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As we departed Baumholder, I felt c
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140
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Figure 7. 1st Armored Division AOR.
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forcing Service Battery to expend a
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Zvornik to regain control of the se
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likely a key storage site for a mec
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deployment. When offered the opport
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was due to retire from the Russian
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equipment for turn-in both at Baumh
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assume the FSG advisor role for the
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assigned weapons. It was a great co
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This created a daily stop at every
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(at all times) and constant reporti
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CONCLUSION The opportunity for batt
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A. He did not countermand the major
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CHAPTER 6 THE 28TH TRANSPORTATION B
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deactivation of the 53rd Transporta
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factors allowing us to stay ahead o
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drivers could not operate a motor v
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tied up with A/DACGS, CSCs, EAGLE E
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heat I received from the families b
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260th TTD relied entirely on the 28
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When I split my battalion headquart
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no IG or congressional inquiries re
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unit home to Wuerzburg, Germany. Un
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Drivers were also beginning to show
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unnecessary wear and tear on his un
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mileage during my first year in com
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logistics operations in support of
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The 127th ASB is a Combat Service S
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along with a myriad of situations t
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the battalion movement was not sche
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INITIAL SUPPORT OPERATIONS, ISB Aft
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SUPPORT PLAN The aviation brigade w
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commander while assigned to the 1AD
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The ground/air refuel and supply fu
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Force protection became a necessary
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military. As early as 1993, some si
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command, because the National Comma
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soldiers up at 1130 for a formal se
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actions—all at the same time. Onc
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eing, load-bearing equipment (LBE)
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teams and had one team erect the EM
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was ours. Once we received this add
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hospital area and our consequent ab
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our soldiers in a U.S. facility, bu
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• Treated 19,899 Outpatients •
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and Steve Walker, commanders of the
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the unique tasks required for the u
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could do to change it now. The good
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THE SUBORDINATE REAR DETACHMENT COM
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to Grafenwoehr for deployment-speci
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Those were some of the major missio
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kept track of the classified inform
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considerable time updating the book
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Fortunately, we never had to deal w
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• Good rear detachment commanders
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AFTERWORD Dr. Douglas V. Johnson II
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Colin Powell’s philosophy—we we
show all

Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

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