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

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Rather than the anticipated three weeks of highintensity training, we quickly shifted our main effort to accommodate a compressed 2-week schedule of non-stop and relentless peace enforcement training. All this was no surprise to me, however, for all the “old guys” in the battalion suspected that Bosnia might, in fact, become a reality. In hindsight, these 2 weeks at the CMTC proved to be the most realistic mission essential training I had experienced in almost 20 years service. The CMTC did everything within its power to prepare the force for Bosnia. The CMTC Observer/Controllers worked overtime to ensure we practiced under stress in all the likely peace enforcement tasks in Bosnia. My soldiers had difficulties in understanding fire base operations and thus received constant “harassment” from the Observer/Controllers to “get it right.” At one point, the Senior Observer/Controller informed me that if the Field Artillery troops did not start to catch on and meet established standards, we risked failing to earn certification for the deployment. This caused me to pressure leaders to get more personally involved and hands-on in what we were trying to accomplish. I expected sergeants to personally dig 4-foot fighting positions if they were unable to persuade their troops into achieving the standards by normal mentoring. Needless to say, one of the main lessons we captured from the CMTC experience was direct involvement in the business of the troops. Sergeants had to do more than bark orders. Instead they had to supervise and involve themselves in what had in the past been considered mundane tasks (e.g., constructing fighting positions, patrolling, guard mount). One point worth mentioning is that when we returned from Bosnia, I wrote a memorandum to the Field Artillery Observer/Controllers expressing my appreciation for their efforts during the pre-deployment train-up. Their efforts more than replicated Bosnia, and, in my opinion, they 123
deserve a great degree of credit for the success of the IFOR. In my opinion, the training environment at the CMTC was in many ways more challenging than that actually encountered in Bosnia. As the unit returned from Grafenwoehr and the CMTC to home station at Baumholder, we continued to train specific skills necessary for success in Bosnia. These included the basics of mine awareness, patrolling, squad level forward observer activities, cold weather survival, and Rules of Engagement. It was finally clear to most of the battalion that Bosnia loomed in the near future—the question was simply how soon. I made clear to the battalion the urgent need to prepare immediately for future contingency operations (See memorandum shown in Figure 3). We could not waste time; the clock was working against us. Officials were meeting in Dayton, Ohio, and it was only a matter of time before we would deploy. The news of our deployment actually came down via CNN. We were aware Armed Forces Network (AFN) had scheduled a special program from Washington, DC, regarding the results of the Dayton Peace Accords. As I remember, it was a Monday evening somewhere around 1830 hours, and many of the troops, having already been released from work detail, were hanging around to see the news. Many of my leaders were positioned in front of the television in the battalion dining facility when the official announcement was delivered. Many of the soldiers were despondent because of the news, and I simply told them to go home, and there would be more news to follow. However, that night we must have received more than 25 telephone calls from concerned wives inquiring when we were leaving, etc. My standard answer was, “Yes, we were likely to deploy but any other information has yet to be released.” The fun was just starting. Once alerted for deployment, the battalion progressed in an orderly manner to meet all predeployment requirements and activities. The soldiers accepted the mission without 124
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WARRIORS IN PEACE OPERATIONS Edited
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CONTENTS FOREWORD .................
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FOREWORD The Personal Experience Mo
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seldom practiced. The actual practi
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BATTALION COMMAND I assumed command
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all training, maintenance, and othe
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company training and log efforts, a
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the USAREUR staff was thought up an
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new times. Ops Center at the battal
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like the Jewish exodus wandering ar
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marvelous job of coordinating the e
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it. They did not want us there or n
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containers as well. I told him I un
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promptly chambered a round in his p
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techniques, we found the railhead a
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answer. He quickly made himself and
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Tacsat systems with two independent
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CHAPTER 3 THE BLUE FALCONS IN BOSNI
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monograph. My omission of such elem
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their advance around the safe haven
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unusual. In today’s environment,
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He also provided his timeline for J
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Within about an hour I was reminded
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eter. Even along these paths, I had
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for deployment. The pre-deployment
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a rehearsal for leaders, using a ve
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• Heavy weapons platoon from E Co
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The Blue Falcons exited the aircraf
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esponsibility for the base security
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sandbagged for force protection. Th
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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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Page 94 and 95: As I reflected on the emotions I wa
Page 96 and 97: three times. The first time some ke
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Page 104 and 105: Although the setup had changed in t
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Page 114 and 115: support. After several false starts
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Page 118 and 119: Another lesson I learned was the ve
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Page 122 and 123: CHAPTER 5 COMMANDING A FIELD ARTILL
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Page 141 and 142: As we departed Baumholder, I felt c
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Page 145 and 146: Figure 7. 1st Armored Division AOR.
Page 147 and 148: forcing Service Battery to expend a
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Page 153 and 154: deployment. When offered the opport
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Page 163 and 164: This created a daily stop at every
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Page 167 and 168: CONCLUSION The opportunity for batt
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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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