The U. S. Army Future Concept for the Human Dimension

8-4. Conclusion

S&T has always played an important part in warfare. War frequently stimulated new developments in both weaponry and medicine that often found their way into peaceful uses. This chapter outlined future trends in scientific and technological developments that the Army must be able to take advantage of and integrate as they emerge. As new technologies become available, the Army must explore their potential use. The Army must reconcile the requirements and potential of the physical and cognitive components of the human dimension with the moral component. While S&T will determine what is possible, it is the men and women of the Army who must determine what is acceptable. This generates a debate on ethical and moral issues that requires a cognitive investment on a par with the efforts devoted to scientific exploration. Future adversaries will do all they can to capitalize on technology to overcome military disadvantages. The Army must balance this volatile race for S&T with all other components of the human dimension.

Preceding chapters include a number of recommended imperatives, things the Army must do to adjust to the changing future operating environment. Combining human dimension imperatives with S&T solutions is a leadership challenge. The next chapter shows leadership as an integrating function weaving throughout this entire concept.

Vignette

Captain Joe Tignor, Commander of B Company, 1-5 Infantry, 1^st BCT, 4^th Infantry Division, at Fort Carson, Colorado, had just returned to Carson from a rotation at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California. His battalion of the new FSVs in all their variations had undergone a grueling four week rotation in the hottest time of the year. The OPFOR used some of the most unconventional and unpredictable means to stymie Joe’s battalion’s efforts to execute a forcible entry operation. Fortunately, brigade chose Joe’s battalion to execute mounted vertical maneuver to insert the fighting companies in multiple landing areas where the enemy was not located.
Flying in the huge Condors, the Army’s newest tilt rotor aircraft, had been an incredible experience for B Company. Each crew remained with their vehicle tied in digitally with the rest of the company and battalion and able to change plans rapidly using the joint en route mission planning and rehearsal system. In spite of the OPFOR’s clever use of cell phones, global positioning system jamming, and computer network attacks, Joe’s entire company made it in to Objective Area Aerie in just over two hours undetected and unopposed. Joe appreciated the role the unmanned aerial systems that scanned the proposed landing area played in their success. He marveled at the fact that there had not been a single voice transmission during the entire insertion. As he oversaw his company unloading their rucks and duffles in the motorpool his cell rang. It was Lieutenant Colonel Rick Stacy, his battalion commander and the screen flashed secure!
“Joe, this is Secret, are you clear?”
“Yes sir.”
“Saddle your company up now, 8 days load. This is the real deal, REDCON 1. We’re wheels up in 10 hours. I’ll fill you in on the details when you fire up your system. Alert the company first, and then check in.”
REDCON 1? Joe tingled. They were going into combat! Thank God they’d used pre-stocked equipment at the training center. They would need to draw their basic load and some other provisions, but everything else was already loaded.
“Frank!” he shouted to First Lieutenant Hubbard, his XO. “REDCON 1! Wheels up in 10 hours, make that 2300, 9 plus hours. Battle drill 15, Frank. Get the leaders on their systems now. Standard combat load. I know we just got back—communication blackout other than LandWarNet¹⁸²
B Company swung into instant action as Soldiers and NCOs received the word. Mama was on everyone’s minds, but this was the real deal. This whole division hadn’t been in combat since 2009. Everyone knew there was something going on down in Sumatra—one of their designated areas of interest. The whole training rotation was modeled on that operation. It looked like old Ibn Ander must have acted up. Maybe they’d get a chance to say goodbye to their families and girlfriends before they flew.
No longer the butter bar, newly promoted First Lieutenant Brian Wilson thought he was a seasoned platoon leader, but he’d eaten enough humble pie in his short year as a second lieutenant to know he had lots to learn. Tignor’s alert gave him an involuntary thrill, a sense of excitement akin to the butterflies he’d felt before hitting the ice with the Notre Dame hockey team.
He’d drilled his platoon about as hard as he could in preparing for the dreaded table 8 and then Irwin. They’d done well, especially Deans’ crew, the guy he’d joined the division with only 5 months earlier. He had hoped to spend some more time with Jillian, but it could wait. He wasn’t sure he was ready to propose, and if they were going into a shooting war he might not come back. Maybe it was better that they had cooled it. Jillian was an Army brat. She knew the score, but she wasn’t real pleased with him heading off to the training center. She’d texted him nearly every day, but they had talked only twice in the month he’d been gone.
Sergeant Billy Deans was mad as a hatter when he got the word. His crew was looking forward to a barbeque once they got off work. His wife, Andie, had it all prepared. Now he couldn’t even call her to turn it off! He thought about his guys. Most of them were married like he was. They would be okay. He wasn’t so sure about the new guy. He’d done fine on the rotation, but he was sure green.
“Man,” he thought, “The real deal and us just back from Irwin. This really sucks!” He climbed into the hatch of his FSV-G and fired up the system. Colonel Stacy and all the company commanders were signed in along with reps from every platoon. Deans logged in as a monitor-only participant. Soon his screen filled with text and graphics as the outline of the plan appeared. The map was central Sumatra instead of Fort Irwin, but the graphics were nearly the same, including AO Aerie. So they were actually going to execute the plan! He wondered how they were going to get close enough to do the mounted vertical maneuver forcible entry operation. Soon he saw the plan appear. Their vehicles and equipment were going by C17 to Darwin, Australia. The crews would join them via commercial air. The Condors were self-deploying with skeletal crews from the battalion. They’d all marry up in Darwin with parts of the rest of the brigade and the division now designated TF Green. A good deal of the TF was pre-positioned in the region both afloat and ashore. This was going to be the biggest show since the capture of Baghdad. It still sucked, but Deans was fired up.
When people thought about 2007 in 1987 few could imagine nearly everyone having a cell phone and ubiquitous Internet with such unknown words as Google and Facenet, or any number of other commonly accepted tools that S&T has put in the Army’s hands in twenty years. This fictional account of a unit gearing up to go into combat is a glimpse into a future perhaps no more than 10 years hence. S&T matters and will make a major difference in how the military operates in the future. Accepting that, the Army cannot afford not to adapt and adopt new technology as it emerges. At the same time, the Army must never forget Patton’s dictate that wars may be fought with machines but they are won by men and women.