By 1st Sgt. Vaughn R. Larson
Wisconsin National Guard
The Wisconsin Army National Guard's 32nd
Infantry Brigade Combat Team last saw significant infantry combat nearly 70
years ago. To maintain those fearsome battlefield skills that earned the Red
Arrow its reputation requires practice - but it's difficult to come by
large-as-life training scenarios. Homeland security missions as well as
deployments conducting missions such as base security, convoy escort and
detainee operations have also taken their share of training opportunities that
might otherwise go to large-scale infantry operations.
The 32nd Brigade's Warfighter exercise,
conducted May 7-16 at Fort McCoy, Wis., provided a virtual battlefield with realistic
demands designed to hone battle management skills and point the Red Arrow in
the right direction.
"This is something we used to do
quite a bit back before 2001," said Lt. Col. Michael George, 32nd Brigade
executive officer. "By and large, the young enlisted and junior officers
have not been on staff as long as some of us older guys, so they have never
been through one of these exercises. Then when you add in the complexity of all
of our digital systems, that adds another component or dimension. When you look
at what we've accomplished these past 10 days, I think it's
extraordinary."
The Fort Leavenworth, Kan.-based Mission
Command Training Program has put units ranging from brigades up through corps
through the virtual wringer since the 1980s to teach commanders and their
staffs how to manage offensive and defensive operations.
"We came here to meet some training
objectives," said Col. Thomas Christensen, commander of Operations Group
Bravo which ran the exercise, "and I think we did that. We've seen some
great improvement throughout the exercise."
One of the first casualties in the
exercise was the flow of information. As the Warfighter continued, staff
members and subordinate units improved how they communicated vital information
to paint the most accurate picture possible of the battlefield.
"What gives us agility? Our ability
to know our situation," Christensen said. "Commanders, we have
agility because we understand what is happening and we can adjust off the plan
… there's always something else we need to be looking at and tracking."
"That's really hard work [when] the
guys you get data from are fully engaged," said Col. Martin Seifer, 32nd
IBCT commander.
Maj. Gen. David Elicerio, commander of
the Minnesota Army National Guard's 34th Infantry Division, served as the
commander of the exercise's notional 52nd Infantry Division during the latter
days of the exercise. He lauded the 32nd Brigade as a learning organization.
"There was nobody in this
organization who said, 'We're as good as we can get,'" Elicerio observed.
"The trick is, how do we get to where we need to be? Look and see what you
can inculcate into your culture - that's when you're winning on this
thing."
Randy Anderson, a retired brigadier
general who served as a senior mentor for the exercise, agreed.
"If anybody feels bad about their
performance, don't - I think you learned a lot," Anderson said. "You
will never learn a lesson until you burn your fingers … We weren't expecting
perfection - we were expecting improvement."
Anderson said that many of the skills
called for in Warfighter exercises have atrophied over the past 10 years. 32nd
Brigade Command Sgt. Maj. Rafael Conde acknowledged that the learning curve was
steep.
"I think you guys came to the fight
and you had a hard task," Conde said. "I think we learned a lot. We
grew a lot in the last four days."
Conde challenged the brigade to consider
how to achieve a "return on investment" from the exercise within the
constraints of a limited training calendar.
George said the Warfighter succeeded in
revealing what the 32nd is good at and where it can improve.
"The exercise really gave us a look
at how we go from here into the future - how we set up and operate these
digital systems, how we organize as a brigade headquarters, how we conduct
planning," George said. "The exercise was useful in showing us the
big picture."
Seifer noted that the operation order
developed for the exercise contained specific training objectives, but winning
the battle was not one of them.
"As I look through there, we did
every one of [the training objectives] well, some better than others, and some
we did really well," Seifer said. "We took huge steps in the last 10
days."
Christensen applauded the Red Arrow.
"It was great to work with you guys
here," he said. "This is a great organization - the 32nd is
motivated, ready to learn, ready to get better."
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