Posted on 05/10/2016 10:50:54 PM PDT by pboyington
Six simple words, “Don’t worry General, we trust you.”
During the Gulf War in 1991, General Fred Franks, VII Corps commander spoke with several soldiers in the now deactivated, but once mighty, Third Armored Division. During the conversation, Franks appeared worried and tired. One of the soldiers looked at him and said, “Don’t worry General, we trust you.”
Those six words spoke volumes about the state of the military in 1991 and speak volumes about the wretched state of the military in 2016.
How many soldiers or Marines today would repeat those words to someone with stars on their shoulders? Sure, there are still a few tough, honest, brave senior leaders, but it’s more than obvious that the majority of the brass is more focused on protecting their sixes, aka their butts, than they are concerned about the troops, the institution and the nation they have sworn to protect.
The military’s senior leaders and particularly, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have stood by during the last seven years and watched without uttering so much as a whimper as the Obama Administration destroyed the traditions, readiness and the warrior culture of the military.
The lack of leadership, or moral fortitude and rectitude is reminiscent of the brass during the Vietnam War, which was selfish, careerist and which nearly decimated the US Army.
The US Army that went home from Southeast Asia was severely crippled, but not on the battlefield. The US Army never lost a major battle in the Vietnam War. It was bleeding from within. What saved it was a smattering of rock solid senior leaders who weren’t feather merchants and many young, field grade officers, (majors, lieutenant colonels, colonels) who were determined to stay on active duty, not because they were thinking of themselves, but because they were determined to rebuild the Army.
One of these young officers was Fred Franks. I have mentioned Fred Franks before, but not in any detail. To understand what is lacking in the military today and what needs to be done and what the results can be, it is important to understand officers like Fred Franks, who often referred to the hot blue flame that burned within him, a fixation, an obsession to fix the Army.
In a period of intense combat, while serving with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Franks earned the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star with V Device, the Air Medal, and two Purple Hearts. While fighting in Cambodia he was severely wounded, and after a series of unsuccessful surgeries, lost his left leg, which was amputated below the knee. Franks fought to remain in a combat unit, something not normally granted amputees, and was eventually permitted to remain in the combat arms.
Franks eventually rose to the rank of the Lieutenant-General and was given command of the VII Corps in Germany. The VII Corps, a gargantuan organization, also consisting of elements from V Corps, had 250,000 soldiers, thousands of tracked and wheeled vehicles and was the size of Patton’s Third Army in WWII. VII Corps was deployed to Saudi Arabia in December 1990 to provide the offensive combat power to oust Saddam’s legions from Kuwait and more importantly, to destroy the Republican Guard.
VII Corps’ mission was simple; conduct a massive left hook, Hail Mary sweep across Southern Iraq and then annihilate Saddam’s elite armored and mechanized formations of the Republican Guard.
During the first night of the ground war, on February 24, 1991, General Franks ordered the entire corps to halt for the night. Franks was worried about fratricide and concerned about elements that were still passing through the breach and the Iraqi defensive belt.
The following morning, General Schwarzkopf in Riyadh, 250 miles from the frontlines, went ballistic when he learned that VII Corps hadn’t moved farther and faster. The Schwarkopf/Franks battle would continue for the rest of the conflict, after the cease-fire, into the 1990’s and indeed is the subject of military roundtables to this day.
As time passed on the 25th of February, VII Corps continued to attack through Southern Iraq, mopping up frontline Iraqi units that were all too eager to lay down their arms to the Americans after a fusillade was fired off to preserve their own honor.
By the 26th, Franks knew that the Corps would hit the Republican Guard that day. In fact, VII Corps reconnaissance elements had made contact with Republican Guard reconnaissance units the night of the 25th. Franks was receiving intelligence that painted the Republican Guard and the armored divisions of the Regular Army in a hasty defense along the IPSA Pipeline Road, with three divisions up and two in the back.
Strangely, Schwarzkopf was receiving intelligence that portrayed a completely different picture. His intelligence told him that the Republican Guard was bugging out of the theater and the only way to finish them off was for Franks to move like a bat out of hell.
As is so often the case with the fog of war, both intelligence pictures were actually correct. Iraqi GHQ had ordered the Republican Guard to block VII Corps with the Al Medina and the Tawakalna Divisions, but their other divisions in the theater, the Hammurabi, the Adnan, the Al-Faw and a Special Forces Brigade were indeed retreating.
On the afternoon of the 26th, VII Corps made contact with the Republican Guard and began what would become a 12 hour battle along a 50 mile front. By morning, the Tawakalana Division, the 12th Armored, the 10th Armored and the 52nd Divisions were obliterated. By noon, the Al Medina Division would be destroyed by 1st Armored Division in the biggest tank battle since Kursk in 1943.
Whether General Franks should or should not have stopped on the first night of the 100 Hour War will be debated by military historians for the next thousand years. What is important is that the US Army had been rebuilt into a spectacular force that could field units like VII Corps.
As Franks said during an interview after the war, “Desert Storm wasn’t won in 100 Hours. It was won in 20 years at Grafenwoehr, on Reforger and at the NTC.”
I got to know General Franks during the production of a four hour Gulf War documentary in 2001. He was a polite, candid, poised man who still brooded over the feud with Schwarkopf and the reasons why he halted VII Corps on the night of February 24th, 1991.
While Franks probably believes his greatest contribution to history was leading VII Corps in the Gulf War, his biggest achievement could very well be participating and indeed becoming a key figure in the resurrection of the US Army during a time when the Army needed persons of conviction.
Fred Franks was a symbol of the Army in 1991. The common leadership traits 25 years ago seem nearly vanished among today’s generals; patriotism, courage and concern for the troops have been replaced by what can I do for the greater good of myself?
And, it shows. And, the troops know it. And, the troops deserve better. They bear the burden of our wars and receive very few accolades as the generals prim their massive egos, pin on a new star, or punch out with a guaranteed defense contractor position or a military analyst gig on cable news.
The troops expect generals to act a certain way; they are after all, generals. But, the troops also expect the brass to care about them. When they don’t care, is when the bottom begins to fall out.
The US Army, and the US military as a whole, is rapidly nearing dead on arrival status. Will it be resurrected, or will political correctness, militant feminism and moral cowardice condemn the United States of America to destruction and defeat in war and to the ash heap of history like other world powers in history?
Hey Pappy .... the combat leadership of our military and all the rank & file under should NOT be under civilian command or control . The so-called Dept. of Defence needs to be redesignated the War Dept . , with a Secretary of War. Forget the ‘ defence’ BS. If we aregoing to fight wars we need to fight to win . We have self limited ourselves as a nation & a people by placing the task of winning wars in the hands of clueless feckless civilians.
If Trump is elected he needs to take the gloves off , severely limit ROE’s and as C&C give basically one order : seek total victory ....
It makes me sick to see the Army I grew up with, served with and my family fought with, crumble before my eyes.
Ed
Look up HR McMaster. You’ll find an active Lt General cut from the same cloth as his one-time commander General Franks. In fact McMaster was one of Frank’s Captains in the largest tank battle of the Iraq War, 73 Easting.
I remember the sordid tale of Petreus and his General buddies in CENTOM in Florida a few years ago.
There was a civilian "socialite" off-post that had weaved her way into the military senior ranks.
There were all sorts of garden parties, dinner parties, social events, etc.
Turns out there were literally HUNDREDS of emails back and forth between Petreus, another General, and this socialite woman.......while Petreus was in theater.
From my personal experience as a field grade....
Over the past 10 years, every time I see a senior officer, especially when they are with each other, they are almost always laughing, joking around, and just yuckin' it up. Seems like they're having a great time!
It's a club. It's a big social club.
The modern General mostly attends conferences, meetings, dinner parties, garden parties, awards ceremonies, and crap like that.
They're basically debutantes.
The evening before D-Day, Eisenhower left SHAEF headquarters at 6 PM and traveled to Newbury where the 101st Airborne was boarding for its first combat mission. Ike arrived at 8 PM and did not leave until the last C-47 was airborne over three hours later.
In My Three Years with Eisenhower Captain Harry C. Butcher says, "We saw hundreds of paratroopers with blackened and grotesque faces, packing up for the big hop and jump. Ike wandered through them, stepping over, packs, guns, and a variety of equipment such as only paratroop people can devise, chinning with this and that one. All were put at ease. He was promised a job after the war by a Texan who said he roped, not dallied, his cows, and at least there was enough to eat in the work. Ike has developed or disclosed an informality and friendliness with troopers that almost amazed me". The famous picture of Eisenhower supposedly forcefully delivering last minute instructions to the troopers actually involved talking about his experience working in a store when he was a kid.
In Crusade in Europe General Eisenhower says, "I found the men in fine fettle, many of them joshingly admonishing me that I had no cause for worry, since the 101st was on the job, and everything would be taken care of in fine shape. I stayed with them until the last of them were in the air, somewhere about midnight. After a two hour trip back to my own camp, I had only a short time to wait until the first news should come".
Very good article! Thanks for posting!
I’m sure the troops will trust SOME generals.
Retired General Mattis comes to mind. . .
Tom Clancy wrote the book on Fred Franks’ end run there, and here’s the link to Into The Storm
http://tomclancy.com/book_display.php?isbn13=9780425196779
A picture is worth a thousand words; post a picture of the current Secretary of the Army.
This is amazingly similar to the hapless British Army under General William Howe while in Philadelphia during the American Revolution. General Howe grew tired of all the fun though and went back to London!
Excellent observation
we dont have GENERALS..... we have uniform wearing YESMEN
I have a distrust of generals.
IMO, the higher the rank, the more likely their position is political and they are perfumed princes and REMFs.
Generals generally do not face the enemy and die in battle. Their worldview is different.
The guy was the S3 OPS officer of the 2nd Squadron in August 69- Cambodia excursion when wounded. I can tell you that every 1st CAV infantry officer who went into Cambodia as a platoon leader or company CO I ever knew got a SS, BSM, AM, and ARCOM as a package deal unless he was a screw up. My IOAC class was loaded with First Cav types and 101st.
Worth noting that General McMaster was initially passed over for promotion to brigadier general because he wrote and published “Dereliction of Duty,” an exhaustive study of the military’s failure to stand up to LBJ and McNamara during the Vietnam War. Never mind that the culprits were long since retired (or dead) by the time McMaster published his best-selling book in 1997—or that his work was based on exhaustive research from the JCS archives. For telling the truth, McMaster came very close to never reaching flag rank.
Readers may remember the infamous Army promotion board headed by David Petraeus, who came back from his command in Iraq to lead that panel. It was that promotion board that finally gave McMaster his first star.
The Army has been ordered by Directive to make time for Lactation. Then 16 black female cadets at West Point give the black power salute. Unheard of in the 60’s - summer of 73 and the black power salute was first tried in the army in fall of 73. Almost every damn one of them was thrown out of the Army with Division JAG’s help.
“Dereliction of Duty”
A truly excellent book, exposing JFK’s incompetence and the incredible dishonesty of Robert McNamara and LBJ. All of which resulted in the deaths of thousands of GIs. I’m not as persuaded about the culpability of the JCS considering that JFK, LBJ and McNamara worked hard at keeping them from having any say over the war, but maybe I need to read the book more closely.
Interesting that Petraeus played a role in saving McMaster’s career and giving him his first star. Maybe Petraeus needs to be resurrected by a President Trump.
Dad did a tour in Vietnam in 1962 with MAAG and then was stationed at the Pentagon. I know that he and his fellow officers regarded McNamara as being on par with, oh, Satan.
This article talks directly about LBJ and the Joint Chiefs.
The Day It Became the Longest War
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/34024
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