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Posted on 08/31/2004 6:47:54 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
This may be the age of precision airstrikes and satellite supremacy, but much of modern warfare is still up to the grunts on the ground.
They have always been the Army’s heavy lifters — the riflemen and machine-gunners; the squad and platoon leaders who bear the burdens of long-term combat.
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are demonstrating, again, that all the latest gee-whiz firepower in the world will never fully replace the enduring value of boots on the ground.
Symbolic case in point: The Pentagon’s "decapitation strike" of stealth bombers and cruise missiles launched to kill Saddam Hussein as the war began came up empty-handed. Nine months later, special forces troops and 4th Infantry Division soldiers pulled the toppled despot out of a "spider hole" and into U.S. custody.
The Army is relying on infantry combat skills now more than at any time since Vietnam because the war on terrorism is about to stretch into its fourth year, and as of Aug. 25, there were more than 150,000 foot soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Tens of thounds of more "legs" are in the Philippines, Yemen, Georgia, Djibouti and other far-flung locations.
Moreover, the Army is aggressively increasing its infantry ranks while requiring every soldier — infantry or not — to hone the skills of a rifleman.
"Dirty work requires boots on the ground," said Infantry Center Command Sgt. Maj. Mike Kelso. "You can’t take out a small group of insurgents without direct fire — by that, I mean rifle and machine gun."
At the beginning of August, the Army began offering thousands of dollars in new bonuses to keep its seasoned ground-pounders in the ranks while increasing recruiting bonuses to attract more soldiers to join for an infantry military occupational specialty.The boost in financial perks is part of the Army’s strategy for adding another 30,000 soldiers to the force to fill out at least 10 new combat brigades by 2007. That increase largely will be infantry troops.
And the Infantry Center and School at Fort Benning, Ga., has beefed up its Initial Entry Training base to handle the roughly 40 percent increase of infantry recruits expected in fiscal 2005.
The Army is not just putting more recruits through the infantry MOS pipeline, though. It’s redesigning Basic Combat Training to make sure recruits in all specialties receive more warrior, or infantry, skills. That effort began in late 2002, when it became clear to senior leaders that everyone from mechanics to truck drivers would be expected to shoulder his weapon and help the infantry fight insurgents in Iraq.
The message was drilled home last October when Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker declared that every soldier must consider himself "a rifleman first."
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, soldiers from every active combat unit have deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq at least once and are likely to go a second time. Maybe more.
Suddenly, infantry pays
To help relieve the tremendous strain on the force, the Defense Department authorized the Army to bump up its active force by 30,000 soldiers to help create 10 more highly modularized combat units, dubbed Brigade Combat Teams (Units of Action). Infantrymen will be key to these new units, which will serve as the model that the Army’s existing combat brigades will follow.
To make this happen, the Army has started throwing money at its more seasoned infantrymen, from specialist to staff sergeant.
For example, earlier this year, no bonus was offered for these ranks to re-enlist for 11B or 11C, except for such special circumstances as assignments in South Korea. But as of Aug. 2, soldiers in these ranks with 17 months to 10 years of experience can get up to $10,000 in a lump-sum bonus for re-enlisting for three or more years. So an infantryman at the rank of specialist, ending his first three-year term, can get $7,372 for enlisting in the infantry for another three years.
Infantrymen can get up to a $20,000 bonus for re-enlisting for the 75th Ranger Regiment for three or more years. And SRBs that took effect Aug. 26 provide up to $15,000 for infantrymen and others to re-up for the new Units of Action. (See the bonus list on Page 24.)
Recruitment bonuses for infantry also increased as of Aug. 2. Now recruits can get up to $3,000 for a two-year enlistment compared to the old level of $2,000 for a two-year hitch. It’s $5,000 for three years, $8,000 for four years and $12,000 for five years. The old level was $3,000 for three years, $5,000 for four years and $7,000 for five years.
Benning’s Infantry Training Brigade has also ramped up its facilities for an influx of infantry recruits.
In fiscal 2005, Benning is expected to train about 24,767 new infantry soldiers — 7,060 more than originally projected for that year, said Maj. Jay Pitz, operations officer for the Infantry Training Brigade, who added that the training load increase likely will continue until 2007.
The Infantry Center has added two reserve training companies to supplement the seven already mobilized, resulting in an increase of about 180 cadre personnel, Pitz said.
Lessons learned the hard way
The fighting in Iraq also has forced the Army to recognize insufficient preparation for a different brand of warfare, one in which battle lines were collapsed and units traditionally in the rear found themselves in the fight. And that exposed the deficiencies in combat skills among troops in support specialties.
This point was driven home March 23, 2003, when Iraqi forces ambushed soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company out of Fort Bliss, Texas, killing 11 and capturing six, when the unit became separated from a supply convoy.
An analysis of the incident led to the conclusion that, among other things, the support unit might have better defended itself had it been better trained in infantry skills. The tragedy prompted the Army to focus on ways to develop a warrior ethos in all soldiers to ensure they are always ready to fight, regardless of their job. A large part of this effort involves the redesign of the nine-week Basic Combat Training course that all soldiers receive upon entering the Army.
That began with a pilot program in January and focuses on a recently approved set of 40 "Warrior Core Tasks" and nine "Battle Drills" that every soldier must know.
In the past, Basic Combat Training covered only about half of the new standard. The warrior tasks focus heavily on increased weapons training with an emphasis on such crew-served weapons as the M2 .50-caliber machine gun, the M240B machine gun, the M249 squad automatic weapon and the MK19 automatic grenade launcher.
There also are new battle drills, such as how to evacuate wounded personnel from a vehicle and how to set up security at a halt or stop.
Schoomaker directed the Army to ensure that every soldier headed to battle is outfitted with the best gear available, signaling the end of the practice of giving the best only to "first-to-fight" combat units.
Boots-on-the-ground basics
Soldiers in noninfantry jobs serving in Iraq have had to learn a lot of these infantry skills on the job. In many cases, artillerymen have had to leave their gun positions and help search for weapons and insurgents.
"This type of war has certainly pointed out that all solders have to be competent in what used to be thought of as infantry skills," Kelso said.
One artillery officer who served in Iraq in the hostile area of Najaf said that training with infantry troops helped prepare him for the war zone.
"It was interesting. We had a pretty steep learning curve," said 1st Lt. Andrew Chavez, 2nd Platoon fire direction officer for Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Division, who has since redeployed to Germany.
The battalion anticipated the possibility of urban operations before deploying from Giessenin in April 2003, and so, the battalion cross-trained with the infantrymen of 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, both at home and in Kuwait.
"Those guys were tremendously helpful. We went through a lot of mock operations and simulations and walked us through something that’s not second nature" for artillerymen, Chavez said. "By the time we got toward the end of the year [in Iraq], it became second nature."
The cannons of the 2-3, a unit of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, were stationed in the most dangerous area of central Baghdad, the Adhamiya sector, where the unit survived dozens of roadside bomb attacks and conducted scores of dismounted patrols and raids — not the kind of work artillerymen are used to.
"That’s been a great experience. Dangerous, but really great," said Sgt. Wilson Adorno, 29, of Puerto Rico, a cannoneer with the 2-3.
"For me, it was the action. The night of our first raid, they attacked us. It’s not like you see in the movies. When they shoot at you, you actually see the bullets," said Adorno, a section chief. "In the first few moments, it was confusing, but when we gained control and saw that everyone was all right, it was just a tremendous experience."
Still, Adorno said he would never consider switching to infantry. "I like the work, but not the road marches," he said.
The soldiers of another 1st AD unit, the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, were also stationed in the heart of Baghdad for a full year and fell back on basic infantry skills over and over.
During an exercise in a training field at Baghdad International Airport in late May, the artillerymen of Charlie Battery practiced wedge and column formations and other infantry skills just a month after they and other 1st AD units found out they were being extended in theater an additional four months.
They were preparing for their first mission after a month off to refit the battery in the wake of a car bomb that killed eight of their fellow artillerymen.
Spc. Danny Lujan, 22, of Amarillo, Texas, said that in Baghdad they used their big guns, but only for a show of force.
The only time they got to shoot their guns, he said, was one day during certification on a range in Baghdad.
The soldiers of the 4-27 found themselves walking long distances to their objectives, with a different sort of mission than what artillery typically performs.
"Now we’re looking for IEDs and the people setting them off," said 2nd platoon sergeant Sgt. 1st Class Albert Butler, 46, of Lakewood, N.J.
During an after-action review at the conclusion of their field exercise, no one was particularly alarmed at what appeared to be slight disorganization. "It’s just growing pains," said platoon leader 1st Lt. Joe Dodd, 25, of Reno, Nev.
Before they concluded the AAR, Dodd opened the session to questions. There was only one, from a young soldier: "Hey, can we get an 11 Bravo in here to teach us this stuff?"
Into the fight
These recent moves to make the Army’s dismounted infantry prowess more potent come at the tail end of a long-term effort to abandon its Cold War design that called for super, high-tech combat systems designed to take out massive numbers of Soviet tanks and troops invading Western Europe.
"Our Army has transitioned from a Cold War … platform-based Army to a boots-on-the-ground Army," said retired Col. Bob Brown, whose last assignment was operations officer at the Infantry Center and School.
Case in point: The cancellation of the $11 billion Crusader program in 2002.
The auto-loading, self-propelled 155mm howitzer could fire much faster and farther than the outdated Paladin howitzer. But senior Pentagon leaders criticized the 75-ton howitzer and resupply vehicle system for being too heavy to be consistent with the Army’s need for a more rapidly deployable force.
And then in February, the Comanche, a futuristic attack helicopter conceived in 1983 to find and fight Soviet tank formations, was thrown out. In the end, the $14 billion RAH-66’s stealth technology was no longer necessary and too expensive, Army leaders said.
But the Army’s love affair with sophisticated, combat systems is far from over.
The Stryker infantry carrier, which will eventually equip five highly deployable Stryker Brigade Combat Teams, can carry a full nine-man infantry squad into combat, compared to the Bradley fighting vehicle, which has room for up to six dismounted infantry soldiers. One such team, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (SBCT), has been patrolling northern Iraq for almost a year. And the reviews have been favorable.
These Stryker brigades, and the 10 new combat brigades, are being equipped with the most advanced technology in digital communications, as well as the latest in such reconnaissance capabilities as unmanned aerial vehicles that can give commanders real-time imagery of enemy activity.
Such technology gives combat units a great advantage on the battlefield, but combat-seasoned infantrymen point out there are times when it doesn’t mean a lot when facing an enemy in a house-to-house fight.
"When you get in that fatal funnel — in that doorway — it’s me or him. It doesn’t matter how much high-tech you have," said 1st Sgt. David Kuhnert of the 82nd Airborne Division, an infantryman who returned from Iraq last spring.
"In Iraq, you have village after village after village … that requires search and clear" operations, Brown said. This type of extended guerrilla war, he added, "puts the infantry soldier back at the tip of the spear."
Good to see you can get a bonus for re-upping for the Infantry.
AIRBORNE Infantry! Good to the last drop!
Worth repeating.
This is true only because of the political correctness of the way war is fought today, especially this "holy shrine" shiite!
If we would lay waste to our enemies, we would not need the grunts.
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correction. we'll always need grunts. you can sometimes conquer with tech, but sooner or later, you often need to occupy and rebuild and that takes men on the ground.
preferably not men in bunny suits or chef hats.
A ping for the SBCT list.
Infantrymen can get up to a $20,000 bonus for re-enlisting for the 75th Ranger Regiment for three or more years. And SRBs that took effect Aug. 26 provide up to $15,000 for infantrymen and others to re-up for the new Units of Action. (See the bonus list on Page 24.)
Always nothing for officers...
Treadheads rule.
This has always been Marine Corps policy. It comes in right handy when the goblins are knocking at the door and the only ones inside are typists and cooks. Typists and cooks who can shoot.
The only observation I can make is that, in THIS war, we don't need Infantry.
We need MP's.
That's what the Army National Guard is re-training all its support troops to be. New MOUT centers, new training doctrine, all reflects the need for MP's. Entire artillery battalions are being pulled off the line, and re-trained: not as Infantry, but as MP's.
Infantrymen shoot things, blow things up, and bring down orchestrated murder upon the clearly ID'ed foes. They use overwhelming firepower, applied in defined areas.
MP's must be able to identify the one bad guy out of a crowded bazaar, know the rules of engagement as it applies to a local populace, handle crowds without drawing their iron, and know how to make an arrest so airtight that a Democrat lawyer can't spring the perp. They know how to detain a suspect, and secure a scene for evidence.
Infantry, Armor, and Artillery troops must and are be re-trained to do all these common MP tasks.
Nothing like driving into a kill zone in 65 tons of "hey, shoot at me!" Especially when grunts carry things like Javelin missiles.
We deploy faster, and we're what holds the ground. There just aren't enough tanks to do the job without us. And we go places you can never dream about.
Infantry (Light/Airmobile) - 11B4 502nd Inf Regt- 1982-1991
What's the most common military term used on a 82nd Airborne DZ?? "MEDIC!!!!"
Former Military Chick, in the Marine Corps, everyone is a grunt before they are anything else. After learning to be a grunt, I became a "scope-dope", directing friendly fighters on their attacks against the "bogeys".
The Sky is Blue because God Loves the Infantry!
We both know that, but my point is that if strategic power was applied without this "hands off it is a holy shrine" crap, we would not need 140,000 troops in Iraq now.
The fire bombing of Tokyo and Dresden and the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was done in order to win a war.
Wars should only be fought when total victory is the only option.
We never should have put 140,000 troops in Iraq with one half in handcuffs and the other half with one hand tied behind their back.
We should have gone after Hussein and all other leaders that support terrorism with assassin squads and laser guided bombs, not infantry divisions.
Groundpounders rule! Boots win wars
.
For...
..'WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...
...& YOUNG'
(Photos then)
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm
(Photos now)
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
http://www.lzxray.com/Ronnie3.jpg
.
The problem is that in this war, the enemy is not Iraq as a whole but rather a bunch of 'insurgents' who are being led from outside. The key to success will be getting and keeping the locals on our side; mass destruction might eliminate the locals, but it would not get them on our side.
I have long believed that the "Operation Iraqi Freedom" isn't really about Iraq, though freeing the Iraqi people is certainly a nice "bonus". I suspect the real target is and for awhile has been Iran. As to whether the efforts to free Iraq will pay dividends in dealing with Iran, that remains to be seen.
I agree.
However, we can't keep 140,000 troops fighting foot soldiers.
a] It is too expensive.
b] There are other countries with similar situations, like Syria, N. Korea, Iran et al.
Bush said he would fight "a new kind of war." I assumed he meant Special Forces, assassin squads, etc. and going after leaders of terrorism and leaders of nations who sponsor terrorism.
Fighting their foot soldiers with divisions upon divisions is crazy. It is too costly and it is impossible to win that way.
Our focus should be on strangling these nations financially (we still give BILLION$ to our enemies) and sending assassins in to eliminate the leaders. Instead of spending hundreds of billions fighting their foot soldiers, we could be more effective spending a fraction of that. In fact, if we strangled them financially, the money saved there could pay for the assassin squads. It is possible the war on terror could be fought COST FREE if we cut off the financial aid to terrorist nations, IMF, World Bank, the U.N. et al.
That to me is "fighting a new kind of war".
Yes, well that would require winning a certain war on our own soil.
The tragedy prompted the Army to focus on ways to develop a warrior ethos in all soldiers to ensure they are always ready to fight, regardless of their job.
That sounds really familiar, like this other branch of the service I keep hearing about...
We need MP's.
I almost agree 100% with you on this. We also need more engineers to destroy the thousands if not millions of tons of weapons and the ammo dumps.
Only addendum: Not engineers, but EOD guys. They're the ones making craters.
We had an EOD guy just join our unit. All sorts of spookiness, which even rattles us spooks. And one of our guys, made the jump with the 173rd. What a story HE'S got.
A couple of reminders, FRiend:
- We tried that with Saddam. Twice. And blew up neighborhoods for our trouble.
- William the Impeached did that in Kosovo. We wasted a salvo of missiles on a fake bridge. Low tech defeats high tech every time.
And assassins? We don't do that anymore.
They will have 36 PLS for this mission and would convoy every day hauling ammo. There are hundreds of ASPs and some are over 50 SQMI. Now, that's some firepower hidden in the desert. Some ASPs have yet to be inventoried.
bump for after work reading!
Gen. George Patton said it best, "I love my bitching, belly aching bastards in the infantry." "it is those men not us Generals that win wars."
Firebombing in Japan, 1.3 million killed in those raids, more than the Nukes combined still did not end the fighting. While the nukes were being built and Truman was told they would be ready by August, training was done and a plan was in place to invade Japan in November '45.
You cannot win without ground troops. No way, in any war can you win from the air, unless you drop a nuke.
As a Vet and a military history buff I can say the Infantry will never be obsolete, they will just get better weapons and different tactics. The only way to fight your enemy is be flexible and learn on the fly. Men can do that machines, satelites, drones, smart bombs, cannot think. You win hearts and minds by interactions with the people.
Alexander did not have to invade every city, because word traveled that he treated the people well, and cities opened their gates and welcomed his Army. The Germans realized the American soldier was not vicious. The Okinawans realized we were not murdering monsters as they had been told to believe. The Japanese people realized we were just human afterall.
Without men wars are not won.
Having the cannon-cockers hauling ammo makes perfect sense; they've got the equipment to drag their own bullets around, so they could easily do that mission, too.
But, what about the rest of the 13-series guys? Betcha they're getting 95-reclass training, just like OUR 13's up here.
I'll second that...and hopefully go a bit further. I believe the days of "massed infantry" are gone. I cannot believe any country would prepare a Hitler-esque surge into another country with combined arms having been staged beforehand.
That staging area will be found and destroyed long before any such attack could be mounted.
Therefore, it becomes a "war" of "come get me where I live". Our "leg" infantry will look different, train different, fight different, and use combined arms different than they did in the past.
The US military is now involved in what will become the typical "war" of the future. They are learning...fast!
Thank God we have a Don Rumsfield who recognizes this and is doing the grunt work to re-shape the fighting force for "tomorrow's conflicts".
And of course...thanks and a salute to our guys and gals in the military...learning as they go...always thinking, creating, winning.
That tradition will never change!
Isn't it reward enough just to be a leader for these fine men and women? ;o)
"Always nothing for officers..."
For them, it is up or out.
A friend sent me this article and said it would be a good reply to this thread. I hope you agree.
***
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
August 30, 2004
'Infatillery' Prefers Firing Big Guns To Patrol Duties
By Amy Schlesing, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
TAJI, Iraq - Spc. Trey Henry perked up from the gunner's mount in the back of a humvee when he heard about the afternoon's mission.
"We're firing charge seven? All right!" he said, leaning on his M-240B machine gun.
The news meant Henry would get to do the job he loves, firing a 105 mm howitzer artillery gun with a maximum charge. He's an artilleryman with the Arkansas National Guard's 206th Field Artillery Battalion, but in Iraq he doesn't get to practice his Army specialty as often as he would like. When the soldiers of the 206th were training last year with Arkansas' 39th Infantry Brigade at Fort Hood, Texas, they thought they would have to leave their howitzers in Arkansas.
At the brigade's base in Taji, however, the boom of artillery is heard almost every day.
The big guns of the battalion are only a part of the unit's mission, but they remain a favorite part.
"That's like the main thing I joined the Army for," Henry said. "Artillery is the king of battle."
From the armored bed of the next humvee, Spc. Casey Hobby of Benton yelled, "Not over here [in Iraq], man!"
On most of the missions, soldiers trudge on foot or ride in humvees down the roads and along the canals. That's not the typical field-artillery task but it's become the mission of the 206 th. "We had an idea we'd be doing a few things, but we didn't realize we'd have such a large role here," said Lt. Jonathan Priddy of Little Rock, executive officer of Charlie Battery.
The soldiers of the Russellville unit have been the security force for Camp Cooke since they arrived. They patrol in and around the camp, man the gates, train Iraqi National Guard forces, escort convoys to and from Baghdad and are the quick-reaction force for any clashes in or near the base.
Three weeks ago, however, the unit's responsibilities suddenly expanded. The 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment of the 1 st Cavalry Division was called to Najaf when fighting with the Mahdi Army escalated, so the 206 th was moved to help cover the cavalry's patrol area while they were gone.
"It's going pretty good," said Lt. Col. Keith Klemmer of Russellville, commander of the 206th.
"We're using more of our forces outside the wire [of Camp Cooke] now. And one thing I've found out is a lot of guys get bored doing the same thing day in and out."
Since taking over operations in the cavalry's zone, the 206 th has unearthed eight roadside bombs and found five large weapons caches.
"We'll patrol, come in and do a fire mission and go back out and patrol," said Pvt. 1st Class Matthew Harvey of Dardanelle. "We're Infatillery," Harvey said, using the term to describe the mix of infantry and artillery missions.
"We figured we'd be multitasked, but not this much," he said. "But this way you don't get burned out on one thing. It makes time go by faster."
They were running an escort mission in Baghdad on Saturday when a humvee plowed through a flock of doves.
Hobby was manning the gun in the humvee turret when he felt something hit his chest.
"I was covered in blood. I thought I'd been shot," he said, laughing. "Until I saw the bird laying there. I was hit by a bird!" Charlie Battery laughs every time they tell that story.
On Thursday the forward observer unit of the 206th rolled through the farmland north of Camp Cooke, looking for roadside bombs.
They searched vehicles and rolled past miles of canals and tiny towns.
"This is the best job I could have" Staff Sgt. Chris Pack of Hernando, Miss., said about quick-reaction-force missions. "This is the finest example of minuteman soldiers. As [quick reaction force], it's grab your crap, let's go."
On Highway 1 on Saturday, soldiers were manning a traffic checkpoint, guarding the exit ramp that leads to Camp Cooke. Spc. Michael Bettencourt of Warren, R.I., tossed boxes of milk to Ali and Tommy, two Iraqi boys who visit them every day.
They lend a hand when needed and clean up around the checkpoint.
The boys are 16 years old but have the physiques of 12-year-olds. In exchange for their work, the soldiers make sure the boys eat.
"They've got to grow," Bettencourt said.
Nearby, Pvt. Michael Sawdey of Pottsville stood watch near a concrete barrier.
Sawdey joined the 206th shortly before the 39th was activated. When he learned he was going to Iraq, he went to his Army recruiter and signed papers to become an active-duty soldier.
He's an artilleryman now, but he hopes to become an infantryman. The diverse mission of the 206 th helped him make that decision.
"I like being in the dirt a little more," he said.
Then he pointed at Ali. "Plus you have these guys to play with."+
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