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the rebirth of the US military

the rebirth of the US military During this last half of the twentieth century the US military was under siege from all sides, internal and external. The root cause of this situation can be traced back to Vietnam and the governments lack of true commitment. What resulted was the near destruction of the US military. The military managed to come out in the end to become perhaps the best military in the world by completely reevaluating itself and reorganizing almost every aspect . The primary focus will be on the reorganization of the Army and Air force, and how they were affected by the disaster of Vietnam. The US military managed to come out one top through completely reorganizing the way the military works and thinks. Focusing on real practical training and making sure units had experience even before combat with the use of simulations. Eliminating the menace of centralization and creating separate fully functioning forces.. Vietnam was the ultimate low point for the US military wich can be attributed primarily to the lack of political will, poor government intervention and a military system that defied logic. From the outset the military did not have what they truly needed to win the war. Johnson was to afraid to send in a large attack force for fear of provoking a further escalation of the war by bringing in the Chinese or the Soviets. Johnson simply wanted to keep things low key in Vietnam and not have to put a real combat force in that was capable of winning the war .Johnson is quoted as saying: "I don't want to be dramatic and cause tension". Most of the problems stems from President Johnson's inability to listen to his generals and his constant interference in daily military matter's. "Johnson demanded the final word on tonnage, timing, and targets of air strikes against North Vietnam. He insisted on being informed of every troop movement". Even as the troops and material began to mount in Vietnam, there was no real plan on what to do with those assets among the highest levels of government. In the future after Vietnam, the military was adamant that this would not happen again. The crucial discussions among the highest echelons of the government prior to war in June and July 1965 focused on the number of troops that would be provided rather than for how and for what ends they would be used. The military would never forget the governments ineptitude especially in the area of off limit targets. The North Vietnamese Army had virtual sanctuaries were they could shuttle supplies and forces from, due to the fact that Johnson didn't want to escalate the conflict. The restriction of bombing, mining, and blockade in the North and on attacking sanctuaries in North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia severely constrained the military strategy of the generals. The added affect was for years to come there was distrust and contempt between the military brass and the government. Johnson not only became increasingly controlling of military matter's but neglected the domestic front. Presidential aides suggested the creation of a citizen's committee to mobilize support at the grass roots level. Johnson rejected this idea and others, public support programs weren't started until late 1967. By doing this he weekend the public's support for the war. Support started to decline rapidly as casualty rates went up. This had the affect of creating dissent at home and feeling of dissent for those who were fighting the war. This severely undercut the moral of the soldiers for year to come. The military complex itself defied logic. It had almost stopped becoming a fighting force and had turned it self into a bureaucratic nightmare, it needed to be turned around. One of the biggest problems in terms of the organization in Vietnam was the rotation system. The military had put into effect a system by which if you didn't achieve rank by a certain age you had to retire. Thus during Vietnam there was fierce competition and demand for commands in Vietnam in order to get the needed experience in order to receive promotion and stay in the military. So in order to get all the officers through the military instituted a six-month-and-out policy for officers. This policy made absolutely no sense, not only was it foolish and wasteful to force officers into retirement if they didn't reach a particular rank at a certain time, the rotation system was also dangerous. By changing commanders every six months units would just get to a point where they worked well and then would be forced to serve under a new commander. Most of the new commanders would be inexperienced and many needless casualties resulted from there initial period of learning and becoming experienced. There was an extreme need for further education programs for officers and NCO's. The centralization of commands and resources resulted in an extemely poor and slow way of doing things. All parts and repairmen were stationed at a central location, they would first have to receive the order, then travel to the site and many times would have to return to the supply yard because he needed a different technician for another repair. The result was that a vast amount of equipment were out of service for long periods of time and huge numbers of men were tied up by this process. The army for the most part suffered the most serious blow from Vietnam. This was due to the limitations of targets by the government and the lack of a true battle plan to defeat the enemy. The result was severe demoralization of the troops, needless casualties by ineffective leadership and poor tactics which lead to the degradation of the Army as a whole. The Army was near ruin and with the end of conscription the Army needed to find ways to attract recruits in the years following Vietnam. -It established major equal-opportunity policies, including mandatory work shops on Sexual harassment and ethnic sensitivity sessions to alert leaders to expected behaviour -It established a zero-tolerance policy on drugs, with regular urinalysis drug testing thus peer pressure began to move the soldier culture in a positive direction. -Women were actively recruited, and in 1980 women graduated from West Point. -Weight control programs were started. Passing physical-fitness tests became part of officer and NCO fitness reports The Army was on its way to slowly recovering it was ensuring quality now it needed to train them. TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command) and FORSCOM(Forces Command) were created to train the next generation of warriors. TRADOC was responsible for the Army's institutional educational system as well as to ensure that the Army was prepared for the next war. TRADOC would also write the operational doctrine for the Army forces as part of a joint team. This would help the Army modernizes and change much more rapidly. Now all of the forces would have a uniform training as well as the ability to change much quicker than ever before. FORSCOM for its part had the responsibility for the training readiness of all US Army components -the US Army Reserve and the Army National Guard. FORSCOM was also responsible for improving combat readiness and solving the Army's discipline problems. The next step for the army was to ensure that its leaders were trained and well trained. Now commanders would be constantly learning and gaining valuable knowledge. Prior to Vietnam there was no continued mandatory education program for its officers and senior NCO's. Vietnam had all but gutted the latter. The NCO's were now to go through progressive and sequential leadership schools to help in their advancement. Two such schools were created, the Basic Noncommissioned officer Course and the Advanced Noncommissioned Officer Course, NCO's needed to attend these courses in order to go up in rank. The effect of these courses was immense, the NCO's are in essence the backbone of the Army leading the troops in small units and is the closest to the soldier. By upgrading their training the Army was improved by leaps and bounds. By having better trained lower level officers it helps to permeate every aspect of the military, mistakes and poor judgement would now take place less often. Officer training was also increased, in 1986 a program called CAS3 was put into effect. The program was for all Army captains to go through an intense nine-week course, learning how to solve tactical problems and manage communications. Once again the result was one of improved overall standards of performance. The Army had come full circle since the days of Vietnam. Its units were now uniformly trained as well as extremely educated. There was now a firm doctrine in place for everyone to focus and strive for. The Air force itself had suffered grievously from America's longest war with undertrained people and a lack of vision. The obsession over nuclear bombing had severely undermined the Fighter corp of the Air Force and Navy. Nuclear bombing forces were given top priority during the cold war other methods of training were either downplayed or forbidden. As a result of this fighter squadrons suffered a great deal and dogfighting skills were lost or severely degraded. During Korea the kills ratio was six to one, in Vietnam it was less than one to one. By 1972 more than 1000 US aircraft had been lost to MIG's, SAM's and AAA. It was rather apparent that something needed to be done. Other problems plagued the Air force such as the problems of centralization. At times pilots would be sent off with a single bomb and guns to "intimidate the North Vietnamese another effect of the centralization was the incredible amount of grounded planes while waiting for repair crews to arrive. One of the most serious and dangerous problems that occurred in the Air Force and Navy was the adherence to the rotation system. It didn't matter if you were really qualified or not, it was important to get experience regardless of the cost. Even Bomber and tanker pilots were given a quick-checkout in fighter jets and sent off to war because no pilot was to spend over a year in Theatre. Because of this policy many pilots were needlessly killed or captured as well as a drop in effective air strikes. One of the biggest jokes of the 1960's was the evaluations of TAC air, the fighter groups. The General in charge created the Management Computation System. It kept track of every thing from bomb scores to bar bills being paid and base lawns being kept mowed and everything were equally weighted! In some cases commanding officers lost there jobs due to this ridiculous policy. It is absolutely ludicrous to have bars bills being paid on time to have same weighting as actual combat skills. These policies needed to be changed fast, if not the Air force would fall apart in the face of a real threat. One man that sought to restore the Air force to an operational platform was Bill Creech. His first reforms were to decentralize the systems and to restore confidence within the ranks. It was proven that centralization did not work, it was slow and lead to countless back ups in repairs and a lower number of flight capable aircraft as a result. Creech took over TAC in 1978 and sought to rearrange the system to work for the aircraft and mission capability not the other way around. Before his arrival the Air forces mission capability was horrendous and the time it took to get aircraft combat capable was simply inexcusable. When Creech first took command the overall mission capable rates were 50 percent or less, afterwards during the turmoil an stress of Desert Storm the overall mission capable rate was 95 percent. To correct this problem the centralization of supplies and work crews needed to be changed. Creech reorganized the entire system, flight line maintenance was now reorganized into product oriented squadron teams, in which electricians aircraft mechanics, and hydraulics specialists all worked together. Members of one specialty were given elementary training in other specialties. Repair crews would now have a better idea of the whole problem of an aircraft as they were now cross trained. They would be able to repair their aircraft much faster now that they would not have to wait for specialist to arrive from a central location. The centralized supply system was also completely dismantled. Now it would operate for the aircraft. All supplies relating to aircraft supplies were moved to the flight line, coupled with dedicated supply specialists who were devoted only to their flight line customer. With available repair crews as well as a dedicated supply system the only thing needed now was accountability. For that the system of dedicated crew chiefs was implemented. The crew chief was responsible for the aircraft, there name was painted on it and in essence it became they "owned" it. The crew chief was responsible for decisions about the plane, if the aircraft malfunctioned it was his/her job to explain what had happened. With this change came a sense of ownership and pride. With the changes came a clear cut accountability, it was now easy to problems. Instead of a lumbering monolith the Air Force had begun to operate as a fluid unit. Bill Creech's reforms truly revitalized the Air force, the before and after effects of his reforms are amazing: -the on average three and a half hours from the order of a part to its delivery shrank to eight minutes. -Pilot training sorties were doubled, increasing pilot skills and readiness. -the number of grounded aircraft for maintenance was reduced by 73 percent -Fighters that landed with problems were fixed more quickly. Before one out of five were flyable the same day, now it was four out of five. -The ability to generate combat sorties more than doubled. The Air force once again became a deadly fighting force. Its pilots were receiving more training, its repair and supply system now worked and The commanders were now capable of more combat power than ever before. All of these reforms were put into place with much more sophisticated systems and aircraft and yet the gains still held. What was needed now was to have the troops experienced before they actually entered combat. The US military is one of the strongest believers and users of war game simulations. This is for a very good reason, war game simulations provide valuable combat experience without actual combat. The result is a highly trained and seasoned fighting force without the actual risk of combat and casualties. For the Air force and Navy air it was much easier to do as all the electronics were already in place in the fighters. Aggressor squadrons were the start of the Air forces real life combat training. Using soviet Mig's bought from 3rd world countries and pilots trained in Soviet doctrine to go up against regular fighter pilots in simulated combat. This gives the pilots the invaluable experience of combat even before they fly there first combat mission. The pilots are able to go through what they did right and wrong in the aftermath. Now the pilots could improve there skills without the danger of actual combat, tactics could be tried and evaluated without dire consequences that could happen in real combat. This idea of real combat in the air force did not stop there. In 1973, the ambitious training program Red Flag based at Nellis commenced; this time it involved not only aggressor squadrons but ground based obstacles such as SAM, AAA, live bomb drops and mid-air refueling. Now the air element of the military could conduct all manner of live fire and simulated combat exercises. Having combat experience without actual combat is of utmost importance to the militaries Air branches do to the fact the in air engagements the winners and losers are usually sorted out in a matter of seconds. The Air Force was fully combat ready when desert storm arrived. The army itself was equally prepared but had to wait a little longer. The Army was interested just as much as the Air force in real combat simulation but for them it took longer to get the technology to make it feasible. That all changed with the introduction of the Multiple Integrated Laser Targeting System (MILES). MILES uses an eye safe laser beam that gets attached to the sights of a weapon and allows units to "fire" at each other, when the beam hit the receiver of a unit a light would go on signaling a "kill". With this system the army could conduct huge live fire exercises and experiment with various tactics. For that the army created the National Training Center at Fort Irwin. Here was the heart of the army simulated combat training program. Based at Fort Irwin was: -A professional opposing force (OPFOR). Its full-time mission was to emulate in maneuver, in war fighting, and in doctrine the most likely enemy of the U.S. Army -A core of maneuver experts to accompany the Blue (training unit) and to help advise them as they learned by doing. These people were called observer controllers.(OCs) Now unparalleled large scale engagements could be fought and knowledge would be gained by everyone that participated. One of the central aspects of Training at Fort Irwin was the focus on learning. After every engagement thee was to be and After-Action Review (AAR) . This was truly groundbreaking in its execution. "The seminars were broken down into many components: What was the unit trying to do? What actually happened? And why the difference? The key part of the AAR was to have subordinates speak up, comment both favorably and unfavorably on their commanders performance." what was so amazing about this system was that it promoted ideas to be generated. It was not just the commander that was the focus but his subordinates who could offer different insight in the battlefield. With this system commanders and subordinates were better able to learn from each other. This system helped to break down barriers and show that commanders are not infallible and that there is always room for improvement. The military was now having virtually every soldiers getting combat experience without combat. The results of Desert Storm would not have been nearly as successful without this training method. The results of the U.S. militaries turn around can be viewed no better than in the Gulf War during Desert Storm. In that engagement the U.S. military performed almost flawlessly. By just looking at the raw data of "Kills" on enemy units you can appreciate the effectiveness of the U.S. military and its allies. Iraq Equipment Losses Coalition Equipment Losses Type Lost On hand Lost On hand Tanks 4,000 4,230 4 3,360 Artillery 2,140 3,110 1 3,633 APC 1,856 2,870 9 4,050 Helicopters 7 160 17 1,959 Airplanes 240 800 44 2,600 Out of the thousands of soldiers that were involved in Desert Storm the U.S. suffered only 148 KIA (31% being from friendly fire) and 19 MIA. Another telling demonstration of Americas combat lethality is a statement from a captured Iraqi Battalion Commander. "When I went into Kuwait, I had thirty-nine tanks. After six weeks or air bombardment, I had thirty-two left. After twenty minutes in action against M1 tanks, I had none." the allies never lost a single engagement during the war. Americas military was truly a force to be reckoned with now. The air campaign went just as well as the ground campaign. Not a single allied aircraft was lost in air to air combat. Even before the ground war started the air war had devastated the Iraqi's. They had lost 48% of their tanks, 30% of their armored personnel carriers, and 59% of their artillery pieces. The military of the Allies performed almost flawlessly in the gulf with the U.S. at the forefront. It is truly remarkable how far and how fast the U.S. military came from the tragedy of Vietnam. By taking stock of its mistakes and building on its strengths the military came out a winner in every aspect. By doing away with ridiculous policies and poor practices the military reshaped itself. This coupled with real world training and investment in the future of officers created a world class military. Indeed the United States of America is the worlds deadliest and most intelligent military in the world. Anderson, David L. ed., Shadows on the White House, (Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1993. Clancy Tom, Gen. Horner, Chuck.. Every Man a Tiger. New York: Putnams' Sons, 1999. Clancy, Tom, Gen. Franks, Fred. Into the Storm. New York: Berkley Books, 1998. Kormer, Robert W.. Bureaucracy at War. Boulder, Col: Westview Press Inc., 1986. O'Hara, Scott and Others. Desert-Storm.com. http://www.desert-storm.com/War/. Schandler, Herbert Y.. Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1977. Bibliography: Anderson, David L. ed., Shadows on the White House, (Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1993. Clancy Tom, Gen. Horner, Chuck.. Every Man a Tiger. New York: Putnams' Sons, 1999. Clancy, Tom, Gen. Franks, Fred. Into the Storm. New York: Berkley Books, 1998. Kormer, Robert W.. Bureaucracy at War. Boulder, Col: Westview Press Inc., 1986. O'Hara, Scott and Others. Desert-Storm.com. http://www.desert-storm.com/War/. Schandler, Herbert Y.. Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1977.

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