Lessons Learned @ MindSay

American Forces Press Service

 

May 2, 2008 - The U.S. Army has published three new handbooks to help soldiers prepare for the first 100 days of combat, officials said on a teleconference with online journalists and "bloggers" yesterday.  Army Col. Steven Mains, director of the Center for Army Lesson Learned, and Milton Hileman, a senior military analyst, explained that there was a small but clear rise in the number of casualties early in a combat deployment, concentrated in the first 100 days.

 

"It's not a new phenomenon that ... we just figured out and nobody had ever seen before, but it's something we could clearly show was the case in Iraq," Mains said.

"And so it drove us to say, well, what do they know at day 250 that they really need to know during those first 100 days?"

 

After an extensive interview process with approximately 1700 soldiers, Mains and Hileman said that there were three key elements to surviving the first three months; avoiding complacency, good decisions made by junior leaders, and the efficient staff processes at the battalion and brigade level for commanders.

 

"When we interviewed the soldiers one on one, we asked them to respond back to us as if they were talking to a fellow soldier," Hileman said.

 

Overall, the soldiers said they need to stay alert and stay attuned to the environment in order to survive, Hileman said. Avoiding complacency was a reoccurring theme among the soldiers interviewed, he added.

 

"Soldiers said that complacency in one way or another contributed to every casualty they saw," Hileman said. "It was little things like not following (standard operating procedures), not having all of your kit when you went out the gate on a mission, leaders not doing their pre-combat inspections, and leaders not being adaptive in the way they plan their mission."

 

Mains explained the original idea was to write one handbook for soldiers, but based on what soldiers told them, it grew into another handbook for junior leaders.

 

"The decisions the junior leaders make clearly affect survivability and mission accomplishment," said Mains. "And of course, they're not used to making those decisions because they're new in theater as well."

 

Soldiers expect to have good leadership at every level, Hileman said.

 

Hileman explained that to a soldier good leadership means willingness to lead from the front and having tactical experience.

 

"They certainly expect their leaders to share that same level of risk that they shared everyday when they went out on a mission," said Hileman. "They expect their leaders to set standards and enforce the standards every day."

 

Furthermore, Hileman said the soldiers told him that when they identified a weak leader, they tended to create their own informal chain of command.

 

The soldiers were also asked if they had the right training, and more than 70 percent said their unit was trained and ready to go.

 

Mains said that while most military handbooks would publish approximately 20,000 copies, the "First Hundred Days" soldiers handbooks have published more than 200,000 copies.

 

"We know that four countries are translating it for their own soldiers," said Mains. "And the other two handbooks are really close behind that."

 

Mains also said the Army is going to publish a handbook focused on transition teams. Transition teams are "not quite as focused on going on patrol and staying alive as a junior soldier might be, but they need to come in quickly and gain rapport with ... the guy that they're advising," he said.

 

(Navy Seaman William Selby works for the New Media branch of American Forces Information Service.)

By Army Sgt. Brandon Little

Special to American Forces Press Service

 

April 16, 2008 - Throughout his life, Army Staff Sgt. Steven Atlas has tried to live by one philosophy: "Pay it forward." The basic principle of this creed is simple; if someone helps you, then in return, you should try to help someone else. The title of this philosophy may have come from a movie, but his actions and the people they affect are real.

 

Atlas grew up in a single-parent home, and at an early age he was forced to become an adult faster than many of his friends.

 

"My mom and dad separated when I was really young, so my mom had to raise me and my three sisters without any help," said Atlas, a computer systems maintainer in Company C, 412th Aviation Support Battalion. "Being brought up in a predominantly female household meant that I had to play the role of big brother, and sometimes dad, to my sisters. This was something that a lot of my friends didn't have to experience and helped me to mature at an early age."

 

Being forced into this role wasn't the biggest obstacle he would face as a young man; he also was forced to watch as two of his sisters lost their battles with cancer.

 

"My older sister passed away when I was in junior high, and my younger sister passed away when I was going into my freshman year of high school," the Chicago native said. "Having to help take care of my sisters while they were dealing with the chemotherapy and being hospitalized so much forced me to look at things in a more adult perspective. I was never that kid who was just able to sit back and play video games or just go outside and play whenever I wanted."

 

Taking care of his sisters, he said, was something that motivated him to do better in life instead of getting sucked into the trouble found throughout his neighborhood.

 

"Growing up on the south side of Chicago, I learned that if you weren't careful you could easily find yourself in a bad situation," Atlas said. "I think I owed it to my mom, if not myself, to be the first one of her children to graduate from high school and go on to do something positive, because she saw so much bad stuff throughout her life."

 

After graduating from high school, he chose to put his goal of joining the military on hold to help support his family while his mother went back to school to get a degree. He got a job working in a restaurant owned by his uncle to help support his mother and youngest sister.

 

"Once she completed her degree, I went to her and said, 'This is my time. I want to join the Army, and I feel this is my time to do it,'" Atlas recalled. "She didn't want me joining at that time, because it was [during the peak] of Desert Shield/Desert Storm; I told her that there was never a 'good time' to join, because the Army's job is to fight wars, and if you're not fighting, you're training to fight."

 

His mother earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and worked as a counselor, helping unwed teenage mothers in Chicago for many years -- paying it forward.

 

When Atlas joined the Army, he first joined as a laboratory technician, but later became a signal soldier.

 

"Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to join the military; I just didn't know which branch to join," he said. "Talking with Army recruiters helped me make that choice."

 

Throughout his 16 years in the military, he has tried to continue to live by his "pay it forward" principle. He said he tries to provide soldiers with knowledge not only from his career, but also from his religion.

 

"I've had some ups and downs being of Islam faith, especially during 9/11, because many people tried to categorize all Muslims with the ones who carried out those attacks," said Atlas, who is now married with three children. "I think I've been able to change those beliefs in many of the people I have come across by giving Islamic cultural awareness classes and letting them know what we do and what we believe, as opposed to what they have seen on TV."

 

The command sergeant major of Task Force 12 here saw the opportunity presented by Atlas' willingness to explain his faith.

 

"After I found out about his religious background, I asked him to give a class to the soldiers, and he was really excited about doing it," said Army Command Sgt. Maj. H. Lee Kennedy, who is also one of Atlas' mentors.

 

The soldiers who attended that class got more information about Islamic cultures and now are able tell their friends the difference between a regular person of Islamic faith and an Islamic extremist -- paying it forward.

 

"He's a very eager and understanding young man, and it's a pleasure to guide him," Kennedy said. "Leadership in units may come and go, and won't affect the unit too much; but when soldiers like Atlas leave units, everyone loses out."

 

In addition to Kennedy, Atlas also considers his roommate, Army Sgt. Archie Martin, to be a mentor and close friend.

 

"[Atlas] is an outstanding noncommissioned officer who is very knowledgeable and caring," said Martin, also a computer systems maintainer in Company C and a native of Montgomery, Ala. "He has really helped me learn more about my job and how to be a better soldier."

 

Martin, also trained as an AH-64D Longbow Apache helicopter maintainer, uses his spare time to help soldiers who work long hours fixing Apaches to pay it forward.

 

With more than 40 years of experience in life, Atlas also tries to spread some of his knowledge and lessons learned in life to anyone in need of guidance.

 

"If I do something good for one or two people, it will let them see that there are still people out there doing good things, and in turn, maybe they'll do good things," he said.

 

(Army Sgt. Brandon Little serves with Multinational Division Baghdad in the Task Force 12 Public Affairs Office.)

By Samantha L. Quigley

American Forces Press Service

 

March 19, 2008 - Despite the task NATO faced when it arrived in Afghanistan in 2003, the alliance has made significant progress in the country, the deputy chairman of the alliance's military committee said here yesterday.  "NATO's done a remarkable job ... in expanding their operations, from what began just in the Kabul area, throughout the entire country by late 2006," U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry told the Pentagon Channel. "Today, NATO does have the responsibility for the maintenance of security throughout the entire country of Afghanistan."

 

NATO came into Afghanistan under a United Nations mandate to establish an International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF. That force had the responsibility of providing security in the greater capital area of Kabul.

 

By October 2006, NATO had expanded its operations throughout the country and was tackling three main tasks, which it continues today. Those tasks include helping the Afghan government extend control throughout the country and developing the necessary security institutions to maintain that control.

 

"The third major task is helping to create the conditions throughout the country for sustainable reconstruction and development to be conducted," said Eikenberry, who commanded coalition forces in Afghanistan until NATO assumed responsibility in October 2006.

 

About 47,000 NATO servicemembers, including about 19,000 Americans, serve in the country under the NATO flag. Most of an additional contingent of 3,200 U.S. Marines deploying to Afghanistan will serve in combat roles in the eastern or southern areas of the country.

 

"Others in the Marine forces will be employed in smaller units that will be partnered with the Afghan National Police," Eikenberry said. They will provide training, logistics and combat support, operating in the more difficult districts of Afghanistan that are more threatened by Taliban, he added.

 

Steady engagement and lessons learned have led not only to progress in Afghanistan, but also to growth in alliance members' capabilities.

 

"I look at our non-U.S. NATO partners, (and) I'm seeing the same trends inside of Afghanistan of steady improvement in terms of their doctrine, their capabilities (and) the equipment they're bringing to bear," Eikenberry said. "I also see that the alliance, in terms of multinational practices or alliance practices, are steadily improving."

 

That's a fact the general has noticed in the relaxing of some of the operational restrictions, or "caveats," that some alliance members place on their forces. Those restrictions have in the past and could continue to reduce NATO's overall operational effectiveness, he said.

 

"But all told, again, I would emphasize that NATO has made significant progress even in terms of, over time, reducing these kinds of restrictions that are placed on forces," he added. "A bit more progress needs to be made."

 

While the alliance's mission moves forward in Afghanistan, it's status quo in the newly independent republic of Kosovo, the general said.

 

The former Serbian province's declaration of independence has changed the environment on the ground, Eikenberry said.

 

"But still today, the Kosovo force under NATO command operates under the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, still maintains the mandate of maintaining a safe and secure environment, and it does so in an impartial manner," he said.

 

The United States provides about 10 percent of the 16,000-member NATO force in Kosovo.

Hi my name is Steven. I'm returning to Mindsay for the first time in quite a while and I'm finally writing a post.

Work lately has gotten really insane. I can't even begin to describe the things that have gone on but I have learned my lessons. I can't promise that I won't make the same mistakes again but I can try harder. I was worrying too much about what others were doing and not on my own business. Plus, I spoke too much about myself and what I believed and it got on people's nerves. So I've learned to be much more guarded about myself and not get to close to people unless I intend to become their friend. I learned that and much more about life. I was kinda slow on the uptake and I finally got it but now I am really afraid to even speak at work. It's time for me move on from there and just work one job right now while I carefully budget my money. I was there for almost 8 months but Friday is my last day.

Speaking of budgeting my money, I will definitely have to be careful now. Since I'm leaving that job I'll be working full time at Kroger and money will be short so I've gotta budget things out but I should be okay for the time being. Hopefully, I can hold onto this place since it is my first one. But I always knew life wasn't easy. I guess now I'm actually experiencing it for the first time and it is harsh. But as long as I don't give up I'll be fine.