By Ann Roosevelt
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla.–For seven years the Army has worked to sustain, prepare, reset and train its soldiers for ongoing operations, and that momentum must continue, according to the Army Vice Chief of Staff.
“Everyone here in this room understands that improving the capabilities of our soldiers, our Army, the men and women who face the greatest risk and bear the greatest burden in the defense of this nation must be, will be, a national imperative,” Cody said last week in his final speech before the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) before retiring later this year.
Improving these capabilities is not “a matter of affordability, it’s a matter of national priority,” he said, quoting from previous Chief of Staff Gen. Pete Schoomaker.
Cody has just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and shared insights and examples of how soldiers understand their environment today and are already employing the principles encapsulated in FM 3.0 Operations, the new service doctrine published Feb. 28.
The Army has understood how to conduct operations balancing war and operations other than war, he said. “Nation states do not have a corner on warmaking”…and there’s a blurring of the distinctions between war and operations other than war, Cody said, quoting another former chief of staff, retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan, now president of AUSA–who was thinking and writing about such unstable times in the early 1990s.
The Army has thought about the strategic situation and examining full spectrum operations in Force XXI in the late 1990s, and now is developing the Future Combat Systems.
“Since 9/11, while engaged in combat, we have mined and exploited critical operational experience from sergeants to generals, which has dramatically improved our doctrine, our organizational structure, our approach to training, leader development and materiel solutions across the board,” Cody said. “Your Army has not taken a knee in any area.”
It is the moral imperative of the leaders to ensure the momentum of change continues. Operational lessons learned are not learned unless they’re applied.
“Soldiers don’t just get full spectrum operations, they’re damn good at it,” Cody said.
Cody saw FM 3.0 Operations in action as he traveled in Iraq and Afghanistan in late February.
For example, Cody read the CJTF mission statement in Afghanistan: “In conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, joint, interagency and multinational partners, CJTF 82 will conduct full spectrum operations and disrupt insurgent forces in the combined joint operations area, develop the Afghanistan national security capability and support the growth of governance and development in order to build a stable Afghanistan.”
The mission statement was written in draft before FM 3.0 was published.
In another example, Lt. Col. Dave Woods, squadron commander for the 4th squad of the 73rd Cavalry Regiment, operating in Afghanistan, laid out his operation for Cody. “The enemy is not our objective here, they are just an obstacle to where we’re going,” he said.
The Army understands that people are the key to the evolving ground situation and that simultaneous offensive, defensive, and stability operations exist while trying to promote stability.
Information superiority is also understood, where the “radio in a box” in Afghanistan, a system of radio towers and receivers, allows the Afghanistan government, governors and district commissioners to reach out and inform people about what’s happening.
He’s also convinced that the Army is moving in the right direction. Army leaders and soldiers know conflict will persist into the future. “I don’t know the demand of it, but we need to be prepared for it. We can’t go into the next fight after Afghanistan and Iraq and have a decline of resourcing in the military and have a decline in end strength. We’ve seen the results of those in other battlefields and other wars,” Cody said.
The Army must continue to make the case for its equipment and manpower. If not, it just puts the burden on the next generation of leaders. “If we don’t get the Army modernized we’ll enter the next fight with the same issues,” he said.