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

9-4. Conclusion

Leadership is the thread that ties this Human Dimension study together. It permeates every chapter as the essential integrator that will ensure the Army’s continued success in accomplishing its mission. Leadership is the penultimate human endeavor. In the future, limiting the amount of force Soldiers apply and controlling the Soldier’s urge to lash out may be as difficult as getting Soldiers to act in the extremes of ground combat—killing other humans, often face-to-face.

Preparing Soldiers for leadership in canned classroom cookie-cutter fashion simply will not do, nor has it ever sufficed. Preparing future leaders to deal with uncertainty, prolonged persistent conflict, and increasing complexity while building cohesive competent units as described in this concept will require innovative and imaginative approaches in all the domains of DOTMLPF. The required capability chapters of the six other U.S. Army functional concepts list some of these approaches (see app A).
Selecting leaders in the future may require changing the existing career paths for NCOs and officers in order to groom those most suited and motivated for leadership positions. There is a danger of elitism in pursuing this change, but there is a concomitant danger of failing to select the very best leaders. Seeking balance, this concept also suggests that the Army will need an increasing number of specialized Soldiers skilled in linguistics, anthropology, and a variety of technical skills. The implication for personnel management will be creating meaningful career paths and opportunities for advancement for all Soldiers without favoring those in leadership tracks.
This chapter deliberately leaves the description of leadership to other documents such as FM 6-22. It focuses on an evolving picture of the future in which the nature of warfare does not change fundamentally, but where leadership challenges change largely through quantitative increases in information, complexity, and long duration in persistent conflict.
As the Army struggles to identify what the future will demand and how to prepare leaders for those demands it needs to be wary of trying to create leaders that are jacks of all trades as the Army has tended to do in the past. If the Army wants masters of the trade of battle command, it must cull out those best suited for the challenge and tailor their careers to capitalize on those experiences that will produce and encourage truly extraordinary practitioners of the art and science of battle command.

Vignette

Task Force Green Command Post, Darwin, Australia
“Sir, AO Aerie’s been compromised,” Major John Taylor reported to Major General Tasker, Commanding General of TF Green.
“So I heard, John. The Rangers got out with only two killed in action, right?”
“Yes sir.”
“And the 1^st Combined Arms Battalion is en route as we speak. Colonel Odermann?”
Jim Odermann, the division (TF Green) Chief of Staff turned from the flexible display covering the entire end wall of the shelter replying, “Operations already sent them the divert code, sir. Brigade signaled receipt and approved en route change in landing area to AO Foxden. They’ve got about an hour for an en route rehearsal.”
“Thanks Jim. I want to leave them alone and watch the rehearsal from here.”
Lead Condor aircraft somewhere over the Arafura Sea approaching easternmost Indonesia
The 1st Combined Arms Battalion lead element consisted of the first elements of the RSTA Company now mounted in six Condors less than 30 minutes out from their new landing areas in AO Foxden. The virtual rehearsal had gone pretty well considering that they had prepared it as a branch plan and had actually done an excursion like it on the last training center rotation, but Captain Toby Brown was not at all pleased.
“Top, I don’t care how much data and feeds we’ve got on the landing areas in Foxden, nothing is as good as eyes on the ground! Why couldn’t they get some other special forces in there?” he grumbled, knowing the First Sergeant didn’t have a clue. They’d been awake for at least 32 hours with almost no break from deplaning from the C17s and uploading the Condors. Not much chance of resting on the tilt rotors either, especially with the change in plan and the virtual rehearsal. Brown’s company was good. The best in the battalion if not the brigade, friends told him, but his guys were tired. Now they would be hitting the ground essentially blind except for the video and digital images sent by satellite and some Air Force drones. His mission was reconnaissance, intelligence, surveillance, for crying out loud, not bloody forcible entry!
“Touch down in two!” The chief engineer shouted.
RSTA crews in all six Condors were already mounted in their FSV-Rs. Gunners brought bands of ammo to the receivers of their weapons, locking and loading. Drivers sat poised to hit the starter as soon as the ramp went down. Infrared systems and millimeter wave radars were up and running drawing power from the umbilical cable connected to the Condor.
Condor 1 landed in a plowed field pointed west. As the crew dropped the ramp, flares lit the sky exposing the monstrous quad tilt rotor and its precious cargo. The FSV-R roared off the ramp which was already coming up as pilot, Army Reserve Captain Marcus Lee pulled pitch with all he had. Where the flare came from was anybody’s guess, but one thing was certain: It wasn’t friendly.
Toby Brown saw his other vehicles moving east to the edge of the field as they’d rehearsed. He wondered if the sound of the Condors triggered the flare. OPFOR used that trick at the National Training Center to keep from having to watch the whole damned desert for potential landing Condors. How long would he have before the shooting started?
Not long enough, as it turned out.
0404 hours, eastern portion of AO Foxden
Six FSV-Rs spaced more than 200 meters apart rolled quietly in the direction of Pekanbaru International Airport some 50 kilometers to the east. Their mission was to recon lanes and clear routes for the rest of their battalion vehicles as they arrived in Foxden. The rest of the RSTA Company should arrive in two sorties about 15 minutes behind Captain Brown.
“Clear. No mines. No IEDs. No sign of hostiles,” Sergeant Topping noted quietly. “Driver, let’s swing northeast heading 060. I want to get a closer look at that power station that’s got our screens lit up.”

Topping’s crew scanned their helmet displays and looked down occasionally to get the fuller picture on the glass panels. They could see the rest of RSTA and, so far, not even a hint of a red icon to indicate threat.
“I wonder how long it’ll take Ibn Ander’s goons to react to that flare back there, sergeant?” Specialist Booth, the driver, asked as he took up the new heading.
“Not long at all if they’re half as good as OPFOR at Irwin, Ted,” Topping replied. “We all need to stay on our toes. The Hummingbirds and Wasp unmanned aerial system’s we launched ought to give us plenty of warning.¹⁹⁴ Besides TF Green is getting Predator and Global Hawk feeds. If anything heavy enough to light up their sensors moves it’ll be some pretty spectacular fireworks.”
“Yeah, assuming it’s bad guys. What happens if some farmer’s tractor pops up?”
“Well, that’s why us blood and guts RSTA guys are here, Ted,” Sergeant Topping replied thinking this marshy field and the looming jungle were a far cry from the Amphitheater at Irwin.
“Damn!” Booth yelled. “Did you see that?” he screamed jerking the FSV-R to the right to avoid a massive carcass that could have been a cow or an elephant.
It was barely warm enough to register with their thermals. Whatever had killed that animal was not very friendly. It looks like it had been shredded or butchered inexpertly. Topping tensed, remembering how the insurgents had mounted IEDs in animal carcasses in Baqouba.
“Scans explosive free, sergeant,” Specialist Mike Wright announced. He had the directional sniffer control as well as their 20 millimeter cannon to operate.
“Water buffalo,” Booth announced. “Looks like a mine got it. Sure there’s no explosive residue Wright?”

They rolled by the dead animal, senses heightened to the hidden dangers. Everything looked about right to Topping, but that made him especially wary. The mine threat made him contemplate dismounting some scouts. Before he could tap in that order RSTA 1-4 went red on the screen and then blank!
“Incoming!” Screamed a voice on the previously silent radio. No identification on the caller, Topping noted.
“Driver hit it!” Topping shouted. Casualty signals now lit up the screen near where 1-4 disappeared. They surged forward, the mine detector set on highest sensitivity. Topping couldn’t assume it was a mine that got his buddy’s FSV-R. Could be indirect fire, which meant someone, or something, was watching them. Best to keep moving recording the track which would automatically arrive on all RSTA screens as a cleared route.
Outside the FSV-R the air was thick with moisture and buzzing with insects. Booth, the driver, responding to digital commands from Topping zigged and zagged around obstacles he couldn’t even see. It was pitch dark making even their infrared and enhanced optics displays vibrate eerily. A loud explosion and huge ball of fire behind them shook the ground and rocked the FSV-R.
“Dear God,” Topping worried, “A Condor?”
What had started out as a stealthy security mission where TF Green had the advantage of total surprise now seemed like an orchestrated ambush, but where were the enemy icons? No reads from any of the overhead systems picked up anything.
Captain Brown in RSTA 6 on line with Topping’s position, tapped in a spot report and got an instant confirmation on the Condor and one of third platoon’s crews being lost. Insertion aborted. Alternate Landing Bravo, came the next message. They were on their own. Nothing to do but continue the mission and aim for linking up at Bravo with the rest of the battalion. Brown sagged in his seat, taking a pull from his Camelback, exhausted from more than 36 hours without sleep and drained of adrenalin reserves. “Must be missiles,” he thought. That would explain the absence of enemy icons. That also meant that the Anderian’s possessed standoff defenses more sophisticated than predicted.
He had to pull the RSTA Company together and get to Bravo before light, and do it from the middle of a booby-trapped jungle. He found himself longing for the OPFOR and Granite Pass at the National Training Center.
Should he check on 1-4 or go back to the Condor? “No!” his mind struggled, “The mission’s what matters.” The Captain ordered the protect battle drill which all his elements were doubtless executing already. Their systems were capable of picking up threats from on board and external sensors. Brown knew better than to rely on them alone, bracing for more Anderian surprises.
This continued account of a fictional battle only begins to paint the intensity of prolonged operations in a combat environment. Similar accounts taken from historical battles are rife with the sheer terror and total exhaustion the Soldiers coped with for sometimes days on end. What this encounter in AO Foxden demonstrates is that the stress experienced in combat does not necessarily require direct engagement in furious close swordfights. An asymmetric opponent taking advantage of his home turf and relatively simple and inexpensive devices can turn even the most modern and well trained force on its heels. Leaders in such an environment can freeze up, become fatalistic, and suffer rage at not being able to strike back. Loss of sleep, fear, loss of friends and major weapons systems thought indestructible, exacerbates the leader’s challenges.