Re-run: The Sherpatudes

Happy U.S. Federal Fiscal New Year! Time to go back to basics, to start cooking the new books, and to visit this popular post from March 2012:

Here is a list of epigrammatic tips inspired by the most recent Red Bull Rising post. It's a mix of maxims regarding organizational analysis, knowledge management, and working in a tactical operations center ("TOC").

Behold, the "Sherpatudes":

1. Continually ask: "Who else needs to know what I know?"

2. Continually ask: "Who else knows what I need to know?"

3. Never speak with complete authority regarding that which you lack direct knowledge, observation, and/or suppressive fires.

4. Never pull rank over a radio net.

5. Let the boss decide how he/she wants to learn.

6. Let the boss decide how he/she wants to communicate.

7. "I am responsible for everything my commander's organization knows and fails to know, learns and fails to learn."

8. Know when to wake up the Old Man. Also, know how to wake him up without getting punched, shot, or fired.

9. The three most important things in the TOC are: Track the battle. Track the battle. Track the battle.

10. Digital trumps analog, until you run out of batteries.

11. Always have ready at least two methods of communication to any point or person on the map.

12. Rank has its privileges. It also has its limitations.

13. Let Joe surprise you.

14. Don't let Joe surprise you.

15. The first report is always wrong. Except when it isn't.

16. The problem is always at the distant end. Except when it isn't.

17. Exercise digital/tactical patience. Communications works at the speed of light. People do not.

18. Your trigger finger is your safety. Keep it away from the CAPS LOCK, reply-all, and flash-override buttons.

19. The warfighter is your customer, and the customer is always right.

20. Bullets don't kill people. Logistics kills people.

21. Knowing how it works is more powerful than knowing how it's supposed to work.

22. Cite sources on demand. State opinions when asked.

23. Work by, with, and through others. It's all about empowerment.

24. Do not seek the spotlight, Ranger. Let the spotlight find you. Then, make sure to share it with others.

25. Both the Bible and "The Art of War" make this point: It's never a mistake to put oneself in someone else's boots.

26. Humor is a combat multiplier. Except when it isn't.

From the Battle Desk: Division Warfighter Haiku

For illustration purposes, Army Tactical Operations Center personnel conduct network integration exercise at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. PHOTO: U.S. Army

In an event billed in news reports as "The largest Warfighter exercise is Army history (based on number of training audiences)," commanders and staffs of 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (34th Inf. Div.) and 10 brigades nationwide have converged on the Mission Training Complex at scenic Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Think of it as The Mother of All "Call of Duty" games, fought via a system of systems, and by a committee of committees. More than 2,000 citizen-soldiers are participating. That's a lot of bandwidth ... and M.R.E. pizza.

According to an Army news release about similar exercise last month, involving Texas' 36th Inf "Arrowhead" Div.: "Over 50 acres of Fort Leavenworth are dedicated to supporting the specialized training environment where fiction and reality go head-to-head. [...] While these scenarios are computer-driven, they offer a level of interaction that test commanders’ and senior leaders’ critical decision-making skills and offer a broader understanding to staff members."

In other words, there are lots of moving parts, bells and whistles, and machines that go "ping."

Given this exercise in command and controlled chaos, I humbly offer an exercise of my own: some simple reflections on such training activities, written as haiku:

1.
Back to force-on-force,
wars like grandpa used to fight.
Europe or Asia?

2.
How many of you
are from out of town? So much
for virtual war.

3.
Trash-talk in the TOC:
"I've got your SIGACT right here—
come and get it, Noob!"

4.

Artillery guys,
who can deliver pizza
on time, on target?

5.
"This is the Help Desk.
Your call's important to us.
Please leave a message."

6.
Keep workstations clean.
The only vermin in here
should be TOC-roaches.

7.
A.A.R. bullet:
We need more comfortable chairs
because ... war is hell.

8.
Don't be a hero—
exercise sleep management.
Battle-Caps need naps.

9.
Let me get this straight:
We can plan large air-assaults,
but fear D.T.S.?! 

For more such amusing (?) musings—albeit at a smaller-unit scale—make sure to check out "your squad leader writes haiku" in the current issue of The Pass In Review.

The Sherpatudes

Here is a list of epigrammatic tips inspired by the most recent Red Bull Rising post. It's a mix of maxims regarding organizational analysis, knowledge management, and working in a tactical operations center ("TOC").

Behold, the "Sherpatudes":

1. Continually ask: "Who else needs to know what I know?"

2. Continually ask: "Who else knows what I need to know?"

3. Never speak with complete authority regarding that which you lack direct knowledge, observation, and/or suppressive fires.

4. Never pull rank over a radio net.

5. Let the boss decide how he/she wants to learn.

6. Let the boss decide how he/she wants to communicate.

7. "I am responsible for everything my commander's organization knows and fails to know, learns and fails to learn."

8. Know when to wake up the Old Man. Also, know how to wake him up without getting punched, shot, or fired.

9. The three most important things in the TOC are: Track the battle. Track the battle. Track the battle.

10. Digital trumps analog, until you run out of batteries.

11. Always have ready at least two methods of communication to any point or person on the map.

12. Rank has its privileges. It also has its limitations.

13. Let Joe surprise you.

14. Don't let Joe surprise you.

15. The first report is always wrong. Except when it isn't.

16. The problem is always at the distant end. Except when it isn't.

17. Exercise digital/tactical patience. Communications works at the speed of light. People do not.

18. Your trigger finger is your safety. Keep it away from the CAPS LOCK, reply-all, and flash-override buttons.

19. The warfighter is your customer, and the customer is always right.

20. Bullets don't kill people. Logistics kills people.

21. Knowing how it works is more powerful than knowing how it's supposed to work.

22. Cite sources on demand. State opinions when asked.

23. Work by, with, and through others. It's all about empowerment.

24. Do not seek the spotlight, Ranger. Let the spotlight find you. Then, make sure to share it with others.

25. Both the Bible and "The Art of War" make this point: It's never a mistake to put oneself in someone else's boots.

26. Humor is a combat multiplier. Except when it isn't.

Convoy Communications 2.0

The bus ride from the middle of Iowa to Camp Shelby apparently takes about 16 hours, judging by this week's "radio traffic" on Facebook. The brigade has been moving out, piece by piece, unit by unit, on a nearly daily schedule.

Watching the Facebook news feeds has been a little like eavesdropping on the radio, with my fellow soldiers conversing between buses. Sometimes, they're even on the same bus.

Messages such as "I'm so glad that dog-and-pony send-off ceremony is over" to "Welcome to Camp Shelby, where there is no gravity, but everything sucks," clued me in to where people are on the map. Time between "dog-and-pony" to "Camp Shelby" message? Approximately 16 hours.

When I first learned how to do stateside convoy operations, we maintained communications via our FM radios. We were lucky to get a few miles out of them, from front of our first serial (or "stick) of vehicles, to the middle of our convoy. To talk from the front to the rear of our entire battalion, we'd have to relay messages, like a big game of tactical "telephone."

"Bravo-Tree-Six, THIS IS Bravo-Four-One. I have contact with Bravo-Two-Four. I will relay your message, OVER."

"ROGER, Bravo-Four-One, THIS Bravo-Tree-Six. What is Bravo-Two-Four's location and rate-of-march, OVER?"

And so on.

It helped pass the time, I guess. And the miles.

Some 20 years ago, on my first convoy move, our battalion had three sticks moving eastbound through my old stomping grounds in Eastern Iowa. There is/was a confusing split between Interstates 74 and 80. The unit was supposed to stay on Interstate 80.

Suddenly, some convoy-leading lieutenant--yes, I still remember his name; no, I'm not going to tell it right now--gets on the horn. His message over the radio sounds like something out of an old M.A.S.H. TV episode: "My location is ... I am passing a Red Lobster ... right ... NOW!"

As most of the radio net was laughing at the young officer's inappropriate choice of landmarks--identifying a mile marker or intersection would have been more useful--I realized something else. For many years, I lived in this particularly part of Eastern Iowa, and I knew this:

There is no Red Lobster located on Interstate 80.

The lieutenant, in other words, was mis-oriented and headed south, both figuratively and literally.

I tell that story not only because is sounds like Maj. Frank Burns fiasco, but because those days are pretty much over. During our travel up to Camp Ripley, Minn., for this year's Annual Training, most of our vehicles did not have FM radios installed. Instead, our company commander and his lieutenants tried to communicate via civilian civilian cell phones, because that's all they had. The problem was, no phone is loud enough to hear or talk over the noise of a Humvee engine. And putting your phone on "vibrate" doesn't work, either, because--believe me--the Humvee vibrates way more than your phone.

Downrange and in country, most of our vehicles will have Blue Force Tracker (B.F.T.) devices installed. We use a dismounted BFT device in the Tactical Operations Center ("TOC") in order to track the whereabouts of each vehicle in near-real-time. The position of each BFT-capable vehicle updates via Global Positioning System (G.P.S.) refreshes every few minutes, and is displayed on a map as a little blue dot or square. In Army terms, "Blue Force" is friendly; "Red Force" is bad guys.

We can also use BFT to text-message among vehicles and the TOC. It's great technology: Great for putting your finger on nearly everyone's location on the battlefield. Great for reaching out and touching people: "Hey, you're turning your convoy the wrong way!"

Then again, troops using Blue Force Tracker will never land a war story like the "Great Red Lobster Turnaround."

Traveling Light

On my very first Annual Training with Iowa National Guard, back in 1992, our Army communications battalion drove Humvees for two-and-a-half days--stopping to rest at two "overnight halts"--all the way to Camp Shelby, Miss.

As a new soldier, I didn't realize that such a large-scale, long-haul mission was so unique. Subsequent Annual Training missions were more likely to take us only a long-day's-drive away.

For example, when I joined a combat Engineer unit that used tracked Armored Personnel Carriers (A.P.C.), we'd either have our APCs hauled by other National Guard units specializing in Transportation--Army semi-truck drivers--or we'd borrow equipment from a motorpool at Fort McCoy, Wis. Think of the latter as an Avis or Budget rental service run by Uncle Sam: "Sir, will you be returning that M113 with a full tank of gas, or will you want us to fuel it for you?"

Just because our tracked equipment couldn't be driven on the highways, however, didn't mean that we couldn't be. We packed into our remaining Humvees and drove ourselves to where we needed to go.

When I was transferred to a "light" Infantry unit, however, we didn't even have enough organic Humvees and trucks to transport all our personnel and equipment. (In Army terms, "light" means that you're capable of walking everywhere.) That meant that most of our soldiers bussed back and forth to Annual Training.

So at least the Infantry guys in our brigade are trained up on how to cram themselves and their backpacks into a can, so that they can be bussed cross-country. To mash together an Army training rule-of-thumb with an old Greyhound slogan: "Fight like you train, train like you fight. And leave the driving to us."

Still, I'm not looking forward to the bus trip to Afghanistan ...

The Shapes of Things to Come

Archer and I have big plans, if only we could each figure out what we want to be when we grow up. Both of us are do-it-yourselfers, although he's probably got more tools and toys than I do. He's a mover and a maker, and just bought a bunch of high-tech fabrication tools that allegedly fell off someone's truck. Hopefully, they'll still be there in his garage, patiently waiting for him to get home from the deployment. Hopefully, his more-than-tolerant spouse will be, too.

When he's in uniform, Archer is a member of the 334th Brigade Support Battalion (BSB)--the unit that includes the transportation, maintenance, medical, and other functions the brigade requires to fight and keep fighting. It's not always the sexiest, most-glamorous mission, but it's good and challenging work. Archer often quotes some dead white general as saying, "Amateurs talk strategy, but professionals talk logistics."

If he doesn't already have one, Archer probably needs to get a Master of Business Administration (MBA), with a minor in Making Science-Fiction Fact. He reads a lot of organizational change-management books, and often talks about emerging trends like 3-D printing and automated agriculture. Archer, for one, welcomes our future farm-robot overlords, while I don't even know what a 3-D printer is. I can barely get mine to work in two dimensions.

I tend more toward the home-remodeling part of the brain trust, although here's where I probably should also own up to attending a few semesters at a local architectural college. While there, I was absolutely amazed by what younger, more-tech-savvy students could do. They thought nothing of virtually flying-through computer models of their designs. Or building structural models using laser-cutters. Or building objects using the school's 3-D printer.

Me? I could use a hammer. And a pencil.

I stopped by the BSB earlier this week, only to find a Transatlantic-cable's worth of Smurf-colored Ethernet cables spewing out of the unit's drop ceilings. This thing looks like a blue anaconda, stretching down out of the ceiling and onto the floor below. Archer and a couple of other soldiers were knocking down walls and pulling computer wiring into an old locker room. It looks like an episode of This Old House. Or a meth lab. "This is the new 'Battle Sustainment Laboratory,'" Archer says proudly, brandishing a 12-volt cordless drill. It's probably pearl-handled, like Patton's.

They're building a hardstand version of what I'm learning to do this week, except with tents and generators and stuff. It's very likely that some of our Red Bull units, particularly those like Archer's battalion and the brigade headquarters, may arrive in Afghanistan to occupy previously built structures. So the BSB commander has decided to learn by doing. "We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us," goes one of my favorite Winston Churchill quotes. Knock a few walls, knock a few heads, and thereby change the organization's culture, communications, and capabilities.

Interestingly, Archer and I each find ourselves working in experimental environments, exploring the applications of Churchill's remark in concrete terms.

Change is in the making.

Ezekiel Saw the System within the System ...

I'm pleased to report that, perhaps in part due to my earlier safety-related tantrums, the trainers on the our unit's Deployable Rapid Assembly Shelter (DRASH) systems--comprising tents, generators, and Environmental Control Units (E.C.U.)--led off smartly into the new module of instruction this morning. Everything was by the book, with no silly remarks about the manual being somehow wrong when it came to eye- or ear-protection.

We're into learning about yet another building block of the Standard Integrated Command Post System (SICUPS--pronounced "sick-ups"). SICUPS comprises the DRASH system, a multi-mode communications device called a Crew Access Unit (CAU--pronouned "cow"), some video-projection screens, and other techy stuff. Once you establish your digital Tactical Operations Center (TOC--pronounced "talk") using SICUPS, each section installs its respective machines in the Army Battle Command System (ABCS)--which is itself a "system of systems." I know I've generally described these in an earlier post, but I thought I'd list some of them here, in all of their acronymal glory. Here are just some of the usual suspects:

• Maneuver Control System (M.C.S.)
• Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS--pronounced "af-fay-tads")
• Tactical Air Integration System (TAIS--pronounced "tay-iss")
• Air and Missile Defense Workstation (AMDWS--pronounced "am-dooze")
• Battle Command Sustainment Support System (B.C.S.3.)

And, the granddaddy acronym of them all: F.B.C.B.2., which stands for "Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade & Below." The particular flavor of FBCB2 our unit is fielding is called "Blue Force Tracker" (B.F.T.). Also related to ABCS is the Command Post of the Future (CPOF--pronounced "see-pauf").

In less than two weeks, our brigade staff sections will go from having only pieces and parts of this primordial acronymn soup, this uber-system of systems, to being expected to do everything from set up the tents, plug all the black boxes together, turn them on, and make them talk to each other. We may even be expected to crawl through some of our basic staff "battle drills"--checklists of coordinated actions to executed following a specified event.

I'd compare this effort to starting a new football season while facing the following complications:

• First: Learn how to build a stadium. One that you can take down and put up in another city, for when you're traveling.
• Next, picking your team members from any from most any group but the varsity football squad (one from soccer, one from gymnastics, one from the debate team, and so on).
• Next, have them learn Microsoft Vista, LINUX, or some other suitably foreign computer system in order to do the same jobs they already know how to do from years of physical practice.
• Declare that, by the end of the season, you will field a championship team, one offering of an explosive offense and an imposing defense; capable not only of playing the game but teaching the junior varsity how to play it as well; and featuring special teams that can easily take the the opposing quarterback out with one shot from a robotic aircraft.