Jerry Smith’s War: 2025
The day after graduating from high school Jerry Smith visited a
recruiter. He was not quite eighteen and like so many young men
before him, he wanted to serve his country in this protracted conflict,
and learn some skills for a profession later. His parents could not afford
to send him to college but he probably would not have gone anyway.
He wanted to see the world in a profession that valued his athletic as
well as his intellectual talents. Plus Jerry had just broken up with his
college bound girlfriend and wanted nothing more than to get out of
Cedar Falls.
He made a good initial impression on the recruiter. Jerry was too small
to play college football but he had turned out to be a fairly decent
defense end in high school, making up for a lack of bulk with
aggressiveness and smart play. The recruiter could tell Jerry was smart
by his pointed questions and clear thinking. He surmised that Jerry’s
average grades in High School were more indicative of his not being
challenged by his teachers and curriculum rather than a lack of native
intelligence. The recruiter was sure that if he were given the proper
challenge Jerry would perform. And he knew of just the challenge for
someone like Jerry.
“There are a lot of interesting options available for you,” he began.
“But I want you to consider something really special. Do you know
anything about the modern Infantry and have you thought about taking
what we call the Infantry option?”
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“No, not really,” Jerry replied somewhat surprised. “I heard about the
Infantry from my uncles and they said they were just dumb grunts. I
had sort of thought about learning electronics and stuff like that – isn’t
there some kind of communications specialist field?”
“These aren’t your uncles’ grunts”, the recruiter said with a smile.
“Today they are something really special. And you can still learn the
electronics skills with the Infantry Option. Here’s the deal: first we’ll
train you in communications. That takes about six months. Then you do
a year with a signal unit serving in combat so you’ll be fully qualified in
electronics if you still want to go that way later on. But if you still are
qualified for the Infantry we’ll take you on for another year’s training. If
you complete that you’ll be a full fledged Infantryman – with the best
individual training possible and more importantly part of a world class
team. It’s a real challenge but I think you’re up for it. You were a good
player on the football team, and now you’ll be able to play on the best
team of all. You would learn to become a leader in combat, the most
demanding job in the world. I assure you that if you go that route, you
will know how special all this is. But beyond that, it’s a good deal for a
guy like you. The Infantry Option comes with a $100,000 bonus and an
additional thousand dollars a month. Promotions are much faster in the
Infantry and if you spend time in the combat zone you can retire in less
than fifteen years total service. Think about it: Money in the bank.
Leadership at the squad level before you’re old enough to drink. And an
incredible set of skills to allow you to move on to a second career at the
age of thirty three.”
“Yeah” Jerry replied cautiously, “but this is dangerous stuff. We’ve been
at war a long time…and I hear a lot about PTSD….”
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“Right”, the recruiter replied, “PTSD is a concern and that’s why we
devote so much effort to it and are willing to pay you well for the
Infantry Option. We’ve developed a series of tests to determine
someone’s propensity for PTSD and if you’re really at danger, if you
have the PTSD ‘marker’, we won’t send you into those situations. But if
you don’t have that marker, we know how to train and organize you to
avoid it. We’ve learned a great deal from our experiences in Iraq and
Afghanistan. We know now that one of the major factors contributing
to PTSD is the sense of isolation on the battlefield, the feeling of being
alone and vulnerable. To combat this feeling, and to put you in the best
environment possible, we’ve developed the “Band of Brothers”
program. We’ve learned that Infantrymen perform far better when
tightly bonded in their unit. The best way to survive a tough situation
is to be surrounded by the best people possible, ones you know
intimately and who will take care of you, just as you will take care of
them. Under this program you’ll go through Infantry training with the
same squad, learning together and learning to trust each other. Then
you’ll be guaranteed to serve with that squad in the same platoon for
at least four years after you finish your training.
The recruiter went on with his pitch: “But we have also learned that
infantrymen, properly selected, trained and acculturated, can actually
prosper from combat experience. You know the old saying ‘What
doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’? Well, it turns out that’s true!
Scientists call this ‘positive traumatic growth,’ a measurable increase in
leadership ability, confidence, and mental agility that comes from
shared experience in war.”
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When Jerry was asked later what was it that convinced him to take the
option, he admitted it was the challenge, the need to prove himself to
be worthy of serving with this elite force the recruiter had described.
He did well in his signal/communications training, picking up the
electronics knowledge that had originally enticed him to approach the
recruiter. Upon completion he deployed to join an Infantry Battalion in
combat as a radio repairman and signal specialist. He enjoyed his tour
with them and was proud of his service; he was good and he knew it.
But what particularly impressed his were the Infantrymen he served.
They were truly a breed apart, always working together as a team,
bonded together as quiet professionals who absolutely knew what to
do and how to do it. After his time observing their chemistry Jerry
knew that he wanted to be like them, part of something bigger than
himself and truly elite. He was more than ready to honor his
commitment for the “option”, and with two others from his unit he left
for advanced Infantry training. He was no longer worried about the
dangers, or even thinking of the money. He just hoped he would
measure up.
Battle School
Back in the states Jerry joined a small group of candidates who all
shared the same concerns as they tried to get into the course. The first
hurdle was a week of “pre-selection” exercises and evaluations
conducted by a strange assortment of white-coated scientists. Doctors
poked, prodded and examined him completely. Instructors pushed him
and his fellow candidates to the limit on the track and in the gym. Jerry
thrived on this part. A natural athlete and in excellent health, he knew
that physical exams and endurance tests were no barrier to his making
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the grade. He also automatically helped his fellow candidates when he
could on the physical tests - a trait not lost on his evaluators.
But he was worried about the shrinks. Their methods were
impenetrable and their judgments absolute. No amount of athleticism
or determination could get him through this gate. He just had to be
himself and hope it was good enough. An eclectic assortment of
psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists and behavioralists held his
future in their hands. For hours he toiled through what these guys
called “instruments” - an endless series of written and verbal
assessments that supposedly measured every aspect of his intellect,
psychological makeup and character. At the end he was more
exhausted than he had been by the grueling physical exercises, but this
time had no idea if he had passed.
Somehow he did. At the end of the week his group, lessened by about
a third, found themselves assembled into fifteen-man battle teams.
Although they hadn’t realized it, the teams had been chosen with group
dynamics in mind. The staff had reviewed the individual’s psychological
assessments and followed up with personal interviews. The behavioral
coaches formed them in teams and put them through a series of
perplexing interpersonal exercises that evaluated the level of
interaction and prospective cohesion. Every phase of the experience
was taped for later retrieval and analysis. And on the basis of this
evaluation they eliminated those not fit and sorted the remainders into
teams.
Thus the team Jerry joined at the end of the grouping phase seemed
random to him but actually was based on a great deal of analysis. As
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the team met together for the first time Jerry couldn’t help but be
impressed by the caliber of his teammates. After overcoming some
initial reticence they started coming together and by the end of the
evening he thought they all seemed like good guys, guys he could work
with. As he went to bed he had a flashback to an old expression from
Cedar Falls: “I could steal horses with them.” That thought left a smile
on his face as he fell asleep
In the morning Jerry’s team was introduced to the man that they would
get to know intimately over the next four years. This man had already
reviewed the team composition with his assistants and was initially
pleased with it, while still ready to change it if necessary. He carried
himself with a great deal of assurance and was obviously fit. He wore
no rank, but as he spoke there was no question that he was in
command. He was clearly a highly skilled combat veteran but he also
seemed very wise – both a warrior and a philosopher. He spoke slowly
and clearly, as if he was weighing his words carefully: “Welcome,
gentlemen, to Battle School. I’m your Coach and you’ll call me that until
graduation. My task is to make all fifteen of you into the finest fighting
team in the world. This is more than just a task for me. Understand
that I have ‘skin in this game’ because in all likelihood I’ll become your
squad leader in six months. Thus my own survival may well depend on
how well I prepare you for combat. Eventually you fifteen will be only
eleven. Don’t be alarmed by the math. Chances are that all of you will
make the grade. But we have learned over the years that your
numbers will decrease due to what Lincoln called ‘the arithmetic’; that
is, the natural attrition, sickness, wounds and the personal friction that
comes from just surviving in war. If eleven is the right number, we will
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start larger and draw down to it, rather than inserting new members
into the team. The team is the most important concept. We simply
cannot afford to allow you to fight as strangers to each other. We will
forge this team here and over time I guarantee you will go back into
combat together. You will be a band of brothers, superbly prepared
individually but more importantly as a team, to survive and win.”
The Coach cocked a leg over the edge of his desk but the intensity of his
words belied the casualness of his posture. He gestured sparingly to
emphasize his points and his eyes bore into each of theirs in turn. “You
are entering a new world, a world crafted by a generation of visionary
soldiers and Marines over the last two decades. While you were
growing up these servicemen were changing our military culture.
Experience in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere convinced our military
leaders that the essence of victory in the irregular wars we’ve been
fighting for so long rested in our small units, squads and platoons. They
were then able to convince the politicians and national leaders that
significant reforms were essential to enable these small units to
perform at the optimal level.”
The Coach’s eyes grew even more intense and his words more
passionate, his hand now chopping the air to emphasize each point:
“This led to revolutionary changes in how we now select, train,
acculturate and bond small units. Simply put, this group of reformers
broke the ground services away from the Cold War traditions of mass
armies and replaced it with the Army, Marine Corps and SOF you see
today, comprised of small units all certified as having the “right stuff.”
Today every small unit is like a professional sports team, properly
selected and coached to be as effective on the battlefield as money,
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time and the human sciences can make it. But like any professional
sports organization the front office here expects a return on their
investment. They expect you to perform and you will be graded and
held accountable for that performance. You will compete in everything
you do at the team level and we will measure and test you accordingly.
This is not about you the individual so much as how well you can
perform as a team. The other teams here are going through the same
thing so we will post your team ranking every day for all to see. You are
competing against these other teams for now but soon your real
competitors will be much more deadly.”
After pausing to let these words sink in he continued: “You may have
heard that there is no course of instruction here. That’s true. We follow
what’s called the Bayesian system of learning in which you set the
conditions for every day’s activities. None of you are followers anymore
but leaders in waiting. I am your coach. You are here to learn but more
importantly, to learn to teach and coach others. I determine your
team’s level of performance. But you determine what you will learn and
how fast you learn it. There is no pass or fail here. It’s up to you how far
your team progresses. You will finish at one of three levels depending
on how well you demonstrate mastery of each competitive task. You
will train yourselves and you will learn from each other. Each of you will
in turn plan and execute every day’s event. When you leave you will be
both a world class infantryman and Olympic class coach.”
“There is one last point I want to leave with you: You are not alone.” He
paused to let the words sink in and then repeated them: “You are not
alone. You will learn, you will teach yourselves that you are part of this
team and you can and must count on each other. But it goes beyond
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that: you are also part of a much larger team that is always there to
help you with an astonishing array of skills and information. You will
learn, you will teach yourselves, to tap into that larger team and take
advantage of it, while always retaining the essential ability to make
split-second decisions on your own.”
Jerry and his fourteen colleagues spent the next six months living in the
field and learning again to be soldiers - but soldiers of a different sort.
Jerry quickly learned to appreciate his team members and marveled at
the skill that went into their selection. Clearly there was a hidden
genius at work in selecting those in his team – this must have been part
of the scientific method the coach emphasized. Jerry’s commo skills
were complemented by an intelligence specialist, a medic and a
logistics sergeant who had recently done a stint as a supply specialist in
combat. Another had just returned from combat as a sapper where he
had doubled as a demolitions expert and a self proclaimed IED sleuth.
The native speaker on the team was older, a university graduate who
had been recruited from the same sad country Jerry had just left
behind. The whole team wore the same non-descript uniform the
Coach did, without rank or insignia. Personalities varied to be sure but
all possessed a level of maturity beyond their age and years of service.
And all were committed to the task at hand: getting through Battle
School.
In all their six month training the primary classroom instruction
consisted of a course titled “Coaching to Win.” In these sessions they
learned the importance not just of doing the job but how to teach
others to do so: in the sports vernacular so popular throughout the
program, how to coach a team to its maximum capability. Coach and
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his assistants taught by example, making every session essentially an
athletic practice session. There were carefully timed competitive
exercises in which every student demonstrated the value of
preparation, time management, and the inculcation of enthusiasm in all
aspects of the coaching process. “Make sure you tell them very clearly
what you want them to learn, and then decentralize the learning
process as much as possible. Make it competitive, and hold them
accountable for every aspect of the learning. And infect them with
your enthusiasm! Make them excited to learn the subject and happy
when they have!”
Beyond these classroom lessons the initial weeks consisted of very
sophisticated field training in the tactical arts. Jerry’s team learned
advanced medical treatment skills, including field surgery and the
immediate actions necessary to keep severely wounded team members
alive in combat. They became masters of tactical intelligence gathering,
to include combat interrogation and battlefield forensics. They became
experts in various means of communication from remote areas, using
systems from the most primitive to the most advanced, connecting to
distant stations with line of sight and non-line of sight techniques.
Jerry’s initial coaching/leadership challenge was the first day of
explosives training. All that Coach told him was the objective and
location of the day’s exercise. Jerry was held responsible for ensuring
that the Team arrived ready to learn how to identify IEDs, clear mines,
breach obstacles, and prepare and detonate virtually any form of
explosive device. Jerry prepared carefully and made sure everyone
knew what was expected of them. By the end of the day he knew that
if nothing else, he had infected the whole team with his enthusiasm
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and they were all training themselves. It was a good feeling for him,
even though his only reward from the Coach was a nod at the end of
the day. The thorough After Action Review or AAR that followed this
and all exercises showed ways he could have improved, and Jerry
learned a great deal about how he and the team could improve. But he
still treasured that slight nod.
At every turn, no matter what the object of the training, the team
confronted unexpected situations that demanded immediate collective
actions: an IED event, an ambush, an angry tribesman with a complex
problem to be solved. The team had to deal with these incidents
without losing sight of the main objective. And every episode was
followed by an AAR led by one of the assistant coaches.
Jerry was not surprised by this type of training, although he was
certainly impressed by the thorough professionalism with which it was
conducted. And by now he and the rest of the team had bought into
the coaching portion: they all had to learn, and they all had to coach.
But the next aspect was unexpected. He had assumed that modern
technology was the principal means of finding the enemy or divining his
intent. Instead the Team devoted two months to learning the art and
science of tracking and human hunting. Their cadre was an eclectic
mix, all of whom had been selected and trained by Greg Williams. This
was the first Coach whose name they were told, and a little research
revealed that he was not only a cultural icon but a world-renowned
guru of the tactical arts. Rumor had it that he could track a fly that had
flown through a room, and he was determined to make them almost as
good. They were all stretched to the limits meeting his standards, but
he inspired them all to do so.
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The tracker and hunter course was not only the most demanding but to
Jerry it was also the most intriguing experience in Battle School. For the
first time he fully realized the importance of the human dimension in
war. The team learned how to amplify the technical capabilities of their
sensory optics with their own greatly heightened perceptions. Williams
taught this phase of the course personally: “Don’t fall in love with all
your gee-whiz sensors,” he told them on the first day. “Sensors are of
little use unless you can use them to see…I mean really see. Our
purpose is to amplify your human senses to greatly extend the
sensitivity and range of your equipment. We’ll show you how to use
night vision to “burn through” vegetation and look deep into the dark
recesses to see where the bad guys are hiding. He’s learned to hide just
as fast as we’ve learned to find him. So you’ll have to use fissures, knot
holes and even bullet holes to sense rather than see him. You must
learn to feel his presence with all your senses. You yourself will
become the ultimate sensor.”
The team perfected their skills in the art of tracking and observation in
urban as well as open terrain. The coaches taught them how to find the
enemy in the clutter – to recognize the presence of a bad element in a
crowded scene instinctively, no matter how well the enemy was trying
to blend in. Beyond that critical capability, they learned to amass an
amazing amount of detail about the size of an enemy formation, how
fast they were moving, what weapons they carried, even to estimate
such intangibles as motivation, level of fatigue and hydration.
The next stage, the graduate level, was a month of combat profiling,
again supervised directly by Coach Williams and his senior staff. Their
years of experience had been amplified by rigorous cultural and
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cognitive research from a legion of behavioral and human scientists.
This expertise had given the coaches an unprecedented ability to read
the “human terrain” of an alien society. The team was immersed in this
study. Like their NFL counterparts studying game films, the team spent
days going over a rich archive of over 10,000 digital images collected
from years of close observation in foreign lands. The team learned how
to spot insurgent leaders hiding amongst civilians. Using algorithms
proven in the field the team became remarkably proficient in making
high speed decisions concerning the intent of any prospective enemy.
Williams watched the team carefully and drove them hard. Decades of
experience had taught him that the tactical arts in the human
dimension was so complex that no one could master it in the classroom
and training ground. His criticism was always objective and praise was
rare. But as he watched the team he recognized that Jerry Smith was a
special case. For whatever reason Jerry seemed to have the cognitive
“right stuff”. He could see and sense what those around him missed. He
had a remarkable sense for detecting the bad guys and no amount of
layering, no camouflage, no psychological misdirection prevented Jerry
from spotting the enemy with speed and precision.
The Center’s purpose was to teach tactical skills, but always in an
atmosphere that also taught how to think, decide and act
independently in ambiguous circumstances. Jerry’s and the other teams
were so deeply immersed in this environment that it became their
reality. Following the Bayesian principles each team moved at its own
pace. No team moved on to a higher level unless every team member
made the grade. Team members planned every event. One member
was selected daily as team leader. And at the end of every event the
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coaches updated the competitive board with the latest team rankings
for everyone to see. Jerry’s team was near the top. Although the
ranking was for the team, and the team accepted it as thus, it was
obvious to the coaches that Jerry was the driver on the team, the first
among equals. Things just seemed to work better when he was most
involved. What impressed them most was that he led naturally and
instinctively, without demanding the leadership role. He believed by
now passionately in the team concept, and saw himself just as another
member, which made him even more effective.
The indigenous engagement course taxed the intellectual and intuitive
skills of the teams. The coaches assigned each team the task of
interacting intimately with a group of native tribesmen headed by a
very difficult and enigmatic sheik. His relationship to them and his
ultimate loyalties were very fluid and often conflicting. The team spent
several days living with the tribe in an effort to learn their culture, gain
their trust and to coach them on how to defend themselves against the
insurgents. The results of this exercise were very ambiguous; they left
wondering whether they had made an impact and the sheik was
leaning towards them or if they would be ambushed on the way out.
Even Jerry, with his astute inner eye, had mixed feelings. “This is so
real”, he thought. By now he was having difficulty reminding himself
that he was in training, not an actual situation. He had the sudden
revelation that the more he believed in the reality of the training, the
more effective it was. He thought about that all the way back to the
camp and finally mentioned it to the Coach. “You’re getting it” the
Coach said, with a grim nod.
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The Teams stayed together constantly throughout the six months. They
trained, slept and dined together. They knew they were a team and
could only learn and grow as a team. But they were becoming more
than just a team. One night Jerry looked around and realized with a
shock that he hadn’t thought about home, about the “girl he left
behind”, in quite a long while. “This is my family, or will be shortly”, he
thought to himself, and found to his surprise that he liked the idea.
And like any family his was made up of different characters. The
coaches had carefully formed the teams so that each one contained
members with diverse talents, attitudes and behavioral attributes.
Competition ceased at night. After a casual dinner the team spent time
with a wide ranging group of experts who spoke about virtually every
team competency: culture, skill at arms, coaching and mentoring,
critical thinking, and the tactical arts. Jerry particularly enjoyed the
evening his team spent with several NFL players and coaches. They
talked about taking inherited ability and making the most of it by hard
work, training and especially mental toughness. They talked about
setting team goals and working to achieve them. It was exhilarating to
see the parallels between their activities, but Jerry knew that he wasn’t
involved in a game. It was these sessions that convinced him that
soldiers were the ultimate athletes.
The most challenging and eventful experience was the Team’s twice
weekly turn through the Tactical Simulator. Soldiers called this
enormous expanse of buildings “Movie Town” because over the years
the facility had grown to resemble a huge lot at Universal Studios. Each
set was actually an enormous shooting house customized for a special
type of tactical situation. The urban house consisted of a four enclosed
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acres. Inside this area vehicles, buildings, walls, back alleys and even
streets could be repositioned along movable tracks to present limitless
variety of complex tactical situations. The rural house was an equally
expansive building configured as a movable holograph that created the
illusion of distances from close in to far away. Within this holographic
arrangement scenarios could range from engagements in mountainous
terrain to a convoy moving through towns and villages. The team could
be either on the convoy or outside it responding to IED, ambushes and
even full attacks. Other, smaller houses were equally imaginative and
challenging. Every house was sealed and reinforced to permit 360
degree live fire against virtual enemies.
The Movie Town enemy was played by virtual actors distributed across
the globe but connected to the simulation via the Internet. Most actors
worked from home. Each morning they would don a suit studded with
embedded electronic nodes. Their movements and voices were
transmitted over the Internet and their images were displayed as
holographs in front of the unit. This virtual OPFOR would act out a
particular scenario prompted by an observer controller at simulator
control. As they played their roles the actors could see their images
displayed on home computers as part of the larger scenario. An actor in
Morocco or Libya might represent an innocent civilian, tribal elder or
insurgent depending on the script. If shot they would collapse. If
spoken to they would respond in their native language. The controllers
could change the script based on the response of the team, creating a
free play environment that grew progressively more difficult.
Movie Town forced the players to react instinctively and shoot
accurately when required. Each team member fired at least ten
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thousand rounds per month. Every shot was electronically scored and
recorded for playback during the exhaustive AAR to follow. The Team
learned the art of instinctive, reflexive shooting against a holographic
enemy that popped up in front of them in rapid succession. Some
targets were legitimate bad guys and some were innocents huddling in
fear. If one member accidentally engaged a civilian rather than an
insurgent target it was back to another run through Movie Town for the
entire team. And of course the scenario would be different.
The shooting houses were also a means for evaluating tactical
leadership and in extremis decision making. During each run the
coaches evaluated the day’s designated team leader on his ability to
react and command in the heat of a chaotic situation. Success
depended on the leader taking immediate reflexive actions while still
maintaining coolness under extreme pressure. No two sessions were
alike, and they grew progressively more difficult. But with each turn the
teams got better, and the competition among the teams for good
performances increased.
A less favorite place for Jerry, at least initially, was the “Sensory and
Cognitive Gym,” staffed by assistant coaches who were behavioral
specialists. Here he and every teammate underwent a series of mental
exercises to improve the efficiency of brain functioning and sensory
perception. The total gym regime lasted four months with immersions
three times per week, two hours per session. The early days of the
experience were intimidating for him. First Jerry donned a sensory vest
and helmet. Then he reclined in front of a flat screen. A hollow digitized
voice led him through each hour long exercise. One exercise focused on
improving his ability to perform multiple tasks under the pressure of
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annoying background distractions; another improved his speed of
recognition; another sharpened his brain and skills necessary for acting
quickly and precisely in high stress situations likely to be experienced in
close combat.
Most challenging was the “whole brain” thinking exercise that
improved his ability to think creatively and respond to unforeseen
circumstances. After every session his virtual “coach” read back the
quality and pace of his actions and related each decision to his
biological condition as measured by heart rate, galvanic skin response,
breathing and brain wave tracking. The coach compared his
performance to both the norm and to the performance of his
teammates. Jerry’s initial problem was the sense of isolation he felt as
he went through these exercises. He was used to having his team
around and being part of everything he did. It was only when he was
able to convince himself that his team was still actually with him
mentally that he broke free.
Once the coaches were comfortable that the team was absorbing the
complexities of modern small unit combat they introduced the team to
the art and science of soldier social networking. The network evolved
from experiences in Afghanistan. It was there that the American
command concluded that traditional Cold War hierarchical
communications systems no longer met the needs of small units in
combat, particularly in remote, inhospitable places like Afghanistan. At
first the network grew spontaneously as units developed their own
individual systems using commercial IT technology to connect to their
buddies and even search the Internet for answers. When the leadership
recognized the value in such systems the network expanded
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dramatically. Now it was expansive and sophisticated enough to
connect individual soldiers, small units and small unit leaders to sources
of information, translators, counselors, regional authorities, and
behavioral, geospatial and cultural experts resident within the United
States. The soldier end of the system consisted of a small helmet
mounted satellite phone connected to a distant “concierge” which was
dedicated to the small unit whenever it went outside the wire. The
concierge could be located anywhere outside the battle area, usually in
the United States. The concierge led a help desk with instant access to
needed experts and information. It was designed to guide the assigned
small unit through the complexities of their assigned tactical “micro
environment.” Jerry and his team absorbed this concept and
developed their own twists to it that they felt would serve them better.
The Coach smiled approvingly as he saw them adapt it to their needs,
knowing that it would continue to grow and change as they used it.
Three nights before graduation the teams sensed that the end was near
and took advantage of a free evening to unwind. Just as they were
prepared to call it a night the coaches appeared with an invitation to
mount up in trucks for a nice evening ride to the insurgent stronghold
of Playas, New Mexico, a town that died when its copper mine played
out. Now it had been converted into a very realistic urban environment
ideally suited for the ultimate graduation exercise. On arrival the
coaches dropped the truck ramp and held a hasty ops briefing before
sending their charges out into the night. The only information they
provided was the mission to take down an insurgent hideout, with each
team given a different location. For Jerry’s team the insurgents were in
the town’s fire station. Each team member was fully instrumented and
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the enemy was live. Video cameras captured every movement and
every round fired. Voice commands and dialogue were recorded for
playback. For some teams the objective was thick with insurgents, for
others it was occupied by an innocent family hiding from the violence.
For Jerry’s team it was both, with heavily armed insurgents holding
hostages. As they moved forward they were provided with false
instructions and conflicting guidance from ill-informed leaders. It was
up to the team to figure out the situation and act with imagination and
intellectual agility, and somehow they succeeded.
Exhausted yet euphoric, Jerry’s team assembled to receive their end of
course AAR. The assistant coaches presented the Team’s ranking in all
aspects of the course to include decision making, shooting, tracking,
indigenous engagement, communications, intelligence, medical
treatment, demolitions and weapons. White-coated behavior scientists
drawn from many disciplines caucused with each individual team
member to go over tapes, tests, and observed behaviors. The Coach
delivered the group session and shared his thoughts about the
intangibles: courage, resilience, team interactions and bonding. He
ended with a sobering warning that while his charges had moved to the
graduate level in the tactical arts they still had much to learn:
“Remember how impressed you were with the session you had with
the winning coach from last year’s Super Bowl? He went sixteen and
one. But you guys must go seventeen and 0 every time you leave the
wire. A single loss means dead teammates and a failed mission. We
cannot accept failure of any kind. That’s why your government has
spent so much time and money on you in the Battle School. We have
20
given you all you need to have an undefeated season. Now let’s go to
war…and don’t let us down.”
On the final day the Coach appeared in uniform for the first time to
congratulate the Team and symbolically “pin” sergeant stripes on each
new member. A quick glance above the Coach’s left breast pocket gave
proof positive to what the team knew intuitively: they had been
coached by a long-serving professional with years of combat experience
and the battle scars earned through many tactical fights. Now the
coach would be their leader in combat. Sergeant Smith and his team
came to Battle School as fine young soldiers. They left as world class
warriors… and leaders in waiting.
Every team departed on pre-deployment leave with a stack of materials
and the privilege of continuing engagement using the Battle School web
site and archive. Jerry’s return to Cedar Falls was uneventful – he
enjoyed being with his folks but quickly became bored with his old
friends and their interests that now seemed so distant to him. They
politely asked him about what he had been doing but he saw they
didn’t get it and the subject changed quickly. He found himself missing
his squad, and stayed more in touch with them during his leave than
with the High School buddies in town. The team, now designated
officially as an infantry squad, was linked together through their web
site to a “soldier’s social network” similar to the ones they habitually
used in high school. The squad link would become the soldier’s social
and emotional lifeline and the vital catalyst that would bind the unit
together once they arrived in the isolated and inhospitable theater of
war that was their next destination. Jerry for one was ready to go
when his leave was up.
21
Direct Action
Newly promoted Sergeant Jerry Smith and his team were not new to
war. But Jerry and his team were particularly challenged by the tempo
of this war. Upon arrival they became swept up in a very tight
operational cycle that put the team on a grueling treadmill of
autonomous operations separated by only a few hours to rest, refit and
plan for the next dangerous foray into a hostile countryside. Terrain
and the enormous expanse of this area of operations gave Jerry and his
team a disturbing sense of isolation. Now, even more than in training,
they drew together as a unit to combat this feeling – they were not
alone as long as they were working as a team. Each man had his
brothers nearby. The unit’s chain of command was superb and
engaged. But his company headquarters was hours away by road and
his battalion an hour’s flight by fixed wing aircraft. In irregular war
distance matters particularly given the need for immediate and
intimate information about the terrain and enemy.
While the environment was hostile and unfamiliar the mission carried
with it a sense of timelessness. The team was part of the Seventh
Infantry, a venerable outfit with a long and proud history. Their mission
was not much different from infantry units in previous wars: to find and
kill the enemy. The prospect of facing violent death in an in extremis
situation made them view familiar surroundings with a new awareness
through professional, practiced eyes. No place on earth was more
barren, isolated and inhospitable. Miles of dry desert floor were
surrounded by two-mile high peaks often snowcapped for much of the
year. What passed for civilization and commerce clung to the banks of
the few rivers that coursed through the barren lowlands. The villages
22
were strung along at five mile intervals like a green string of pearls
linked by rivers and single lane, dirt roads choked by dust in the dry
season and virtually impassible to wheeled vehicles whenever it rained.
At Firebase Tiger the team relieved a squad from a partner regiment
that had finished a six month rotation. Years of paired rotation had
melded these two regiments into tactical soul mates. For all this time
they maintained an extraordinary intimacy down to squad and
individual level thanks to soldier social networking system that allowed
team members to carry on a continual discourse with their
counterparts and to follow all operations in real time using a
continuous streaming video downlink. Every tactical operation was a
paired exercise in which the home based squad sat together inside the
regimental cognitive gym. The squad followed their partner and re-lived
every event by looking through the individual helmet cameras of their
counterparts. Much like a Monday night NFL session the regimental
coach led both squads through an AAR following the mission.
Throughout the week the partners kept each other up to date on every
aspect of the rapidly morphing tribal and clan politics that so greatly
influenced their lives. Jerry had learned a great deal from these
exchanges and so his and his team’s “ramp-up” into the combat
environment was much less steep than in past wars. He felt the
presence of these partners and the rest of his virtual support structure,
and like his experience in the “Cognitive Gym” used them to push away
the sense of isolation, even though it would take an actual relief force
some time to come to their aid. He and the rest of the team were
determined to operate so that they never needed to call on that force.
23
Nearly three decades of continuous war since 9/11 had taught these
infantrymen how to fight and win in such a hostile environment. In Iraq
and Afghanistan Firebase Tiger would have housed at least a company,
perhaps even a battalion. But weapons and sensing technologies and
the creation of hyper-performing small units now allowed the unit to
control territory and influence populations, the essentials of irregular
warfare, with a human presence less than a third as dense.
The platoon took over the sub province mission from their sister unit
now recovering in the States. The previous unit had done well. It had
made a good start in the task of unraveling the enemy’s networks, lines
of communication to the border regions and chain of command. But
the enemy was still embedded in the fabric of the population and fully
intended to fight to stay there. The platoon fully intended to give them
that fight, and to win.
The American forces were not the only ones learning about modern
war and adapting to the actions of the enemy. Three decades of
fighting against western militaries had made the enemy far more skillful
and adaptive than his Al Qaeda and Taliban antecedents. These were
well armed and highly trained fighters, financed and supported by a
skillfully concealed and adaptive network. These weren’t “your uncle’s
enemies”, but true insurgents of the deadliest sort. Years of well
financed training and study abroad had transformed the enemy from a
traditional, somewhat primitive insurgent to a new and more lethal
force whose fanaticism was amplified by twenty first century weapons
and tactics. They were armed with just enough precision anti-tank and
anti-air missiles to deny the coalition absolute dominance of air and
ground lines of communications – they could and occasionally did shoot
24
down a modern aircraft, or defeat heavy armor under the right
conditions. They possessed sophisticated communications like
encrypted cell phones but still avoided channels that could potentially
be intercepted, preferring more primitive interpersonal connections to
their overseas sponsors. The team depended on others to break those
links; it was their function to interrupt the local communications that
allowed the enemy to fight and survive in their region.
During pre-deployment preparation the team, in a manner reminiscent
of an NFL team’s game preparation, spent days reviewing videos from
previous engagements. They knew from these and their AAR sessions
with their predecessors that the enemy was determined to keep an iron
grip on the several villages around Fire Base Tiger. If the enemy lost
control of these villages the enemy fighters would lose easy access to
the sanctuaries across the border just a stones’ throw to the East. The
unit’s first mission was to break the enemy’s grip on those villages. The
longer term end state for the unit was to transition to a stability and
support mission. They needed to introduce effective indigenous army
and police units that would provide long term security to the
population. But gaining control and providing security were both
elusive and terribly fragile. They would have to fight for them.
Every day the team moved out to establish a presence in one of the
surrounding villages. Jerry’s skill as a tracker and combat hunter earned
him the key spot as Team scout. For this mission Jerry and Sergeant
Hassam, his Moroccan battle buddy had established a preliminary hide
position outside the base camp before the unit left. At dusk they crept
out of that position and started moving along a line about a thousand
meters from and parallel to a ridge line that formed a rough arc that
25
nearly encircled the village. In a few hours their team would sortie from
the firebase by vehicle and travel into the village through a road that
cut though the main opening in the ridge line.
The climb up the ridge line was strenuous in the thin air, particularly
since they couldn’t afford to use any sort of trail, but their conditioning
paid off. Finally near the ridge line the pair crawled carefully to a
hidden position where they could observe the village as well as the
approaches to the gap. They profiled the terrain to determine the most
likely position of the enemy. For hours Jerry traversed the thermal
scope from male to male, seeking to match him with the profile he had
developed so carefully of how an enemy leader might be acting this
early in the morning. At last he got a solid thermal “hit” and silently
directed Hassam’s attention to him. It was a black turbaned, well built
assertive man who matched Jerry’s behavioral profile of an insurgent
leader. Jerry also noticed that the nearby villagers were observing the
man warily. If that was the leader, where were his followers? Suddenly
the man started gesticulating and talking to someone. Jerry moved the
scope along the line the man was facing and found three men
assembling. He recognized from his profile training that this was
probably an IED emplacement team but he kept in mind the possibility
an ambush in the beginning stages of formation. Whatever it was, it
wouldn’t be good. He passed the information on to the Team Leader
and continued to monitor the men while Hassam screened the rest of
the village for any other threats.
By now the initiative had passed from the insurgents to the Team,
thanks to Jerry’s well-honed intuition and patience. Jerry and his
partner set up an on-call precision strike from the platoon’s orbiting
26
UAV, also locking in its thermal sights on the insurgents. Both thermal
images were piped via the UAV down link into the Team Leader’s visual
display inside his vehicle. Now the whole team was up to speed on the
developing action.
The Team Leader traveling below accelerated his two infantry fighting
vehicles and moved off the main road, going around the ridge line to
another seldom used approach to the village. The silent electric drive of
the vehicles allowed the team to approach unheard and unseen as they
nosed into the village. Jerry’s thermals and the thermal sensor aboard
the Team UAV kept constant watch over the prospective insurgents
looking for any sign that they might be alerted. Jerry and his leader
watched as the enemy team implanted the massive IED on the
approach road, covered the detonating wire and returned to their safe
house to wait for dawn and the approach of the Americans.
Now the action ran just like a well practiced play: the Team leader held
fire until the enemy is completely inside the thick walled structure to
lessen the probability of collateral damage. The Team vehicles split and
approached the building from opposite sides, effectively covering all
exits. On order Jerry launched the UAV’s on-board missile from his
distant perch and watched as the thermal image in his viewfinder
“whited out” with the explosion. Dust from the explosion engulfed the
Teams as they rushed from their vehicles a half second after the
explosion. They only had to move a few feet to kick in both doors of
the insurgent hideout. A few quick double shots and the insurgent
leader and his three followers were dead. The entire action took less
than half a minute and was much easier than the easiest day in Movie
Town or Playas. The play worked just as they had practiced it.
27
Jerry’s performance during the “overwatch” mission and others like it
propelled him to higher levels of responsibility during the Team’s
remaining six months in combat. Everyone on the team clearly
recognized Jerry’s extraordinary tactical field sense, his ability like a pro
point guard to know where all the players were and how to make the
right play. They respected his innate leadership abilities and willingness
to take risk. When the Coach, now their Squad Leader, was wounded
and evacuated a few weeks into the rotation, the company leadership
had no difficulty selecting Jerry to take over.
Once in charge Jerry sensed a change in his relationship with his
teammates. He took over from a legend and he was sensitive to fitting
into a very big pair of boots. Although they all had bonded so closely
during their time together that they had become like brothers, and
even though they recognized that Jerry was the right one for the job, he
now was a bit different. He knew he had to work hard to retain the
right balance in their relationship.
But as the Coach had told him, he wasn’t alone, even in his new
position. The isolation of leadership was mitigated to considerable
degree through his access to the Team’s expansive virtual soldier social
network. The military was slow to follow civilian society in adapting to
the opportunities to connect individuals virtually using cellular
technologies. But now that the network was mature Jerry had access to
a virtual community of expertise connected electronically across the
globe.
The Medcap Mission
28
Jerry had to draw on all these assets and test all his considerable
talents a few weeks after taking command. The company commander
had determined that since they had destroyed the insurgent IED team
the area was sufficiently secure to allow an extended sweep. The
objective was to hold a Medcap in a distant village, passing though
numerous other villages to show their presence on the way to the
objective. It was a complex and dangerous mission with many
opportunities for trouble. Jerry coached his team, clearly outlining his
intent and was pleased when the team caught his enthusiasm, despite
the danger. For a second he felt the Coach nodding in approval. Just
before pulling out of Fire Base Tiger Jerry took a moment to check the
small convoy of armored fighting vehicles lined up behind him. Then he
dropped into his vehicle to go over the game plan and audibles with his
virtual friends one last time. He said “Online” into his helmet phone
and a familiar voice drowned out the rush of background noise:
“Jerry, how are you?”
“I’m OK, Martha, just a little stressed thinking about what’s out there in
front of us. This is my first mission in command and I can feel the team
watching me. I’m almost more concerned about what they think than I
am about the enemy. As you know the bad guys have been quiet
lately…”
“Martha” was a pseudonym for the Pastun interpreter connected to
Jerry through the online hookup. She had his back and he could
express his concerns to her without fear it would be seen as a sign of
weakness. More importantly, she knew a lot that could help him. She
was born near Fire Base Tiger and had immigrated to the states just a
29
few years ago. Today’s foray would also take his team into Hazara
country so “Mike,” a Hazaran fluent in that dialect was standing by on
the line as well. With quiet competence the conversation turned to the
immediate task at hand. The principal mentor and shift supervisor for
this particular mission came on the line and introduced the team
assembled for today’s mission:
“You’ve not taken this route before, Jerry, so Tim will be your terrain
guy today. He’s monitoring from DC and as you know he’s been over
this route a hundred times. Your S-2 told you about the evolving IED
threat. It’s fluid and changing constantly. George, from JIEDDO
University in Newport News is on the line to follow your route using
your video stream and will look for anomalies in the ground. He’ll also
inform you of all the latest IED hot spots. I’d like to introduce Sam from
Minneapolis. He’s a soldier wounded recently in a fire fight along your
route and he’ll punch in as you get closer to your expected danger area.
As usual we are standing by to connect you with your human terrain
resources. So call us when you need them. Look, Jerry, we can tell from
your most recent bio-feedback data that you and your team have been
pushed by seven firefights in six weeks. So we’re monitoring your
condition very closely. Good luck and we’re with you all the way.”
En route to their first objective the team sensed that the enemy was
setting them up for another of the ubiquitous ambushes they had come
to expect on the main road. Road movement was slow as the convoy
stopped periodically to examine every roadside anomaly. The enemy
exploited the Team’s caution by skittering across the hillsides on foot
and by motorbike determined to set an ambush in front of them.
30
Their trained eyes augmented by the other sensors began picking up
the danger signs. As they approached the first village on their route the
online supervisor and Tim cut in: “OK, Jerry, from the UAV video cam
we can see some disturbed terrain over the next two culverts. Your
video cams should pick them up as you crest that hill in front of you.
This disturbed ground fits the profile for IEDs. Look along the trees
paralleling the road. Do you see any motorcycles or young men
watching you?”
Jerry had sensed an anomaly in that direction and now focused on what
Tim had seen on his screen. He halted the convoy which immediately
took up protective positions as they had rehearsed so often. Jerry
knew this without looking or giving an order and was able to continue
to focus on the danger ahead.
“OK, this isn’t good,” Jerry muttered into the microphone. “What other
options do you see?”
Tim conferred quickly with Martha, George and the rest of the team.
“You can’t avoid going through the village in front of you but that
doesn’t mean you have to stay on the road. Can you go around the
culverts and still get to the village by another route?”
Jerry saw a narrow goat track to the left that crossed the ravines and
then meandered through a row of houses. A brief glance at the UAV
feed told him that the path eventually led to the village center. “Sure,
turning left.” Jerry led his team the new route, concentrating hard on
avoiding any other IEDs and listening very carefully to the play by play
conversation from his virtual teammates. His actual teammates were all
in the loop as well, monitoring the situation and automatically adjusting
31
to the new plan and emerging dangers. The convoy snaked through the
narrow streets. They emerged on the narrow pathway leading through
the string of villages and farmsteads to the target village.
They entered the next village, a place no one from his team had visited
before. In a rapid staccato voice Jerry described the scene to his human
terrain team listening on the line, amplifying the view they had from
the video stream. Sam, the wounded warrior, cut in to ask questions
about how the villagers were dressed and where they were positioned
inside the village. Everything looked normal to them all when suddenly
Jerry detected a young man on a motorcycle, apparently dressed in
typical insurgent garb, who seemed out of place and was watching
them intently. Jerry focused his attention on him and slowly raised his
weapon.
On his bio dashboard Tim read the tension in Jerry’s galvanic skin
response, heart and breathing rate and ocular movement. “Hold on. He
may not be a bad guy. Approach him carefully.”
Martha interceded: “Let me talk to him, Jerry.” The sergeant lowered
his weapon slightly and passed a small palm sized microphone to the
young man. By now the man looked a lot less threatening and a great
deal more frightened. He also knew the deal and talked rapidly into the
mike.
After a brief conversation in Pashto Martha conferred with the Human
Terrain Team, then got back to the Team Leader:
“He’s OK, Jerry. He’s from a village in the next valley. Just visiting his
fiancée. It’s the usual Pashtun dating ritual. No big deal.”
32
The village elders had been watching this mini drama play out in front
of them and after tensions dissipated they apologized for the
impetuous conduct of the loved-starved young suitor and thanked the
team for not capturing or killing him. Jerry decided to build on this
initial rapport and with the approval of his leadership and the virtual
team conducted a mini-Medcap before moving on.
Over the next few days the Team moved comfortably if cautiously
through a series of villages towards their objective. Relying on their
own senses and excellent training, augmented always by their virtual
teammates the Team managed to detect and avoid IEDs and ambushes.
In some cases they were able to make the insurgents pay for their
aggressiveness by well aimed missiles from their loitering UAV. But they
did not allow themselves to be drawn into major engagements and
continued with the mission. Showing they could get all the way to the
objective and back would be more important to the regional security
than just killing a few insurgents.
They traveled through two cultural zones yet maintained cultural
awareness by switching team mentors, translators and human terrain
teams to fit each environment. When they finally arrived at the target
village Jerry’s team first established security per SOP and then
scattered out to distribute medical supplies and conduct a Medcap.
Slowly villagers appeared, a few at first, mostly elderly men, intent on
understanding what these foreigners were all about. The team
breathed easier when the children started popping out of the dwellings
surrounding the village center. Martha reinforced what Jerry already
knew: “As long as the kids are around the enemy isn’t.”
33
Periodically individual team members conferred by helmet phone
about any condition that seemed out of the ordinary. Frequently they
used Martha the interpreter for brief conversations with the villagers,
gaining their confidence and gathering intelligence. The medic found a
woman with an unfamiliar condition and the Team mentor connected
him to an on call physician specialist in the States who offered advice
on how to treat it.
In this region of the world devoid of ambient light and surrounded by
high peaks night follows day abruptly. As the day waned the situation
gradually changed. The running conversation between the team and
their online mentors created a picture that was unsettling to those
listening in. Off line Tim and George observed that too many villagers
seemed to be making themselves scarce. No more children were
around. Martha overheard a few strange and unfamiliar dialects that
would normally not be present in the village. Young men appeared,
sputtering by on motorbikes, circling the team casually. Tim the terrain
guru observed that the village sat deeply embedded in a defile, the
surrounding heights close enough to be within small arms range, a
perfect opportunity for an insurgent attack. Tim accessed his database
to confirm that two years ago several infantrymen from the 1st
Regiment were killed in an ambush in this same place.
Uncharacteristically the Team was so intent on finishing the day’s
medical business that these anomalies appeared without causing alarm.
Even Jerry’s normally hypersensitive antennae were down. Martha
quickly alerted Jerry to the online team’s concerns and antennae came
back up immediately. He recognized that something was changing for
the worst. He immediately started pulling in his unit and conferred
34
again with his mentors. “Look, I don’t know much about this area but
something just doesn’t look right.” He outlined the anomalies the
mentors were independently picking up and adding some of his own
observations.
“We agree, Jerry. Think it’s time to make a polite and cautious exit.”
Jerry and his team were already shaking hands with the a few village
elders still standing around. It was important to reinforce the positive
impressions of the day and not show they were being run out of Dodge.
The village elders faced an unfamiliar conundrum and conferred among
themselves. These foreigners had given their tribesmen more medical
treatment in a day than the enemy had offered in a decade. Martha
overheard one grateful whisper in carefully nuanced language giving an
indirect warning that the village may be a different place after
midnight, and the foreigner’s generosity might be poorly repaid on
their trip home.
Jerry knew it was time to leave. To stay would mean a certain firefight
before dawn. He was confident his men, even though heavily
outnumbered, could win that fight with the fire support they could call
on. But to stay and fight would mean taking casualties, both of their
own and among the villagers. A fight would probably destroy the
village and any rapport they had created. All agreed it was better to
leave now, but in an orderly manner – no panic or confusion. Tim
online suggested a possible return route far away from the route by
which they entered.
The new course was little more than a goat track, difficult and certainly
hazardous, but equally unexpected. Both the Team and its online
35
colleagues agreed that the harder route would throw off the enemy
and minimize the chance of ambush or IEDs. Jerry led his team out in
darkness, guided along the way by a new group of concerned and
engaged professionals. This new route would take them into a
completely different sub-culture and the virtual mentors half a world
away were familiar with the culture, dialect, terrain and enemy in the
region they are about to traverse.
During the tense trip home Jerry maintained a constant dialog with his
online handlers. New voices came on board periodically to provide
precise guidance as Jerry and his team moved through at least three
distinct micro regions. They used speed as their ally now, bypassing
villages in the dark and avoiding suspicious areas. At daybreak the
Team arrived home drained from the constant tension but intensely
appreciative of the expert counsel offered by their online friends.
Once safely inside the wire the Team automatically cleared and secured
all weapons and then moved directly to the platoon trailer for their end
of mission AAR. Years of close combat experience in Iraq and
Afghanistan had caused a shift in the conduct and purpose of the AARs.
The Team would still go through the Darwinian dialectical exercise of
self critique that had proven so valuable in years past. But by now the
AAR was used as a platform for analyzing the emotional climate of the
Team members as well. Each AAR took the form of a seminar. The
partner unit in the states watched the proceedings at the other end of
their soldier networking system and occasionally chimed in with
suggestions and observations. The network “concierge” located in the
States was an experienced small unit leader who provided the
continuity between rotating units and acted as the facilitator for the
36
AAR. Virtually present was the ubiquitous white coat crowd of
psychologists, physiologists, and human terrain specialists from Battle
School days. They mostly watched and took notes for a later
confidential assessment with the company and battalion leadership.
The facilitator’s image and carefully modulated voice filled the platoon
AAR trailer as he led them through the mission. He was a skilled
psychologist and the bio data overwhelmingly suggested to him that
the Team may have reached an emotional limit after so many back-toback forays into the countryside, especially one as long and intense as
this one. After consulting with his emotional and behavioral colleagues
the facilitator offered a brief report to Jerry’s battalion commander
expressing his concerns about the emotional health of his charges. The
battalion commander, while detached from Jerry’s team by hundreds of
kilometers, was able to stay in touch using his “dashboard” device, an
instrument that monitored, stored and displayed over a hundred
biological, physiological, psychological and emotional indicators on
each individual team member and leader. This information was enough
to convince him that a two day stand-down was in order for the team.
For now the war could wait. The emotional health of his soldiers was
more important than another foray into hostile country.
Leader School
Every one in his chain of command realized that Jerry had earned his
spurs as a small unit leader during his four months as the Coach’s
replacement. During the week-long end of tour AAR his leadership
made the decision to send Jerry to Leader School. Normally two
rotations were required for such an assignment, but Jerry was far above
37
average. They could afford to tailor the requirements to meet someone
of his qualifications. Jerry was elated by the news: successful
completion of the sixteen weeks course would guarantee another
significant close combat bonus and the privilege of commanding his old
squad as a newly minted sergeant first class. And he was particularly
gratified when the squad let him know they too welcomed the news
and looked forward to his returning to lead them.
Jerry knew that being nominated for Leader School didn’t mean that
being accepted was automatic. This was like a draft of truly “blue chip”
players and no one would make the cut without a painfully detailed
process far more discriminating than Battle School. The committee
carefully replayed every aspect of Jerry’s team performance both in
battle school and in his team’s combat experiences. They conducted a
series of 360 degree evaluations of his performance and paid particular
attention to the observations of his virtual network colleagues.
Behavioralists both in field and on the network were asked to attest to
Jerry’s demonstrated leadership qualities and his ability to make
intuitive tactical decisions in extremis. On campus the white coat crew
appeared again to put Jerry through an exhaustive set of personality
and emotional fitness instruments intended to reinforce the
observations of leaders, peers, subordinates, and disinterested
observers from the virtual community.
Final selection included a return to Movie Town facility, this time to
evaluate the ability of the candidates to make life or death decisions
based on virtual replays of some of the team’s most stressful previous
engagements. To Jerry this was Movie Town on steroids. For one thing
there was real risk involved in each turn through the simulator. Live fire
38
situations were much closer in time and space. Scenarios grew
increasingly complex and chaotic with false commands, disinformation,
and enemy trick plays thrown in constantly. The committee turned up
the rheostat steadily so that each leader candidate had only minutes to
plan and split seconds to make complex decisions. Scenes inside the set
were horribly bloody and ambiguity was the norm. Although every
candidate was a successful combat infantryman, each agreed at the
end of the course that these tours through this version of Movie Town
were far more frightening and intimidating than their worst day in
actual combat.
Jerry made the cut. Leader School was a soldier’s ultimate reward for
excellence, essentially a sixteen week’s sabbatical intended as a post
graduate immersion in the tactical arts. The school was a national
Institution established to proliferate knowledge gained by the Army
and Marine Corps in two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jerry’s
class consisted not just of his infantry peers but men and women from
the Secret Service, Customs, Border Patrol, DEA, FBI and a multitude of
civilian SWAT-like entities. Thus Jerry came to understand that the
“band of brothers” effect applied to many institutions outside the
military. All shared the common bond of having been tested, vetted
and proven worthy to be there.
There was nothing primitive or harsh about Leader School.
Accommodations were first class. Jerry lived in what the students called
the “Taj Mahal”, a five star resort-like edifice compartmentalized into
dozens of eleven man “pods”, each clustered about a central great
room that housed flat screens and study carrels customized for each
student.
39
Just like the Battle School every eleven person team was under the
charge of a coach and seminar leader. These coaches were an eclectic
lot collectively representing the small unit triad; Infantrymen, Marines
and Special Operators augmented by a scattering of coaches from other
federal agencies with extensive experience in close combat.
Jerry discovered that this group was far more collegial and intimate. His
leader spoke with authority and empathy:
“Your first two years of service made you an apprentice. Battle School
and combat made you journeymen in your trade. This place will make
you a master of the tactical art of war. During your time here you will
meet professional and college coaches, world class athletes, certified
war heroes, and intellectuals who are the world’s leading authorities in
leadership, fitness, culture, and small unit and individual behavior. Your
evenings will be free to enjoy the company of these folks as well as
your new ‘band of brothers.’ While your battle skills will surely improve,
you’re here mainly to learn to be like us, to be coaches and mentors to
the infantrymen you will soon lead in battle.”
Jerry had a tough time initially in Leader School. He was a tactical
leader and an action junkie. But the requirement to become proficient
in the very strange language and culture of the combat theater taxed
him greatly. Equally challenging were the human science courses and
coaching and therapy sessions. He had to learn an entirely new way of
looking at warfare. He could no longer just think and react in the
situation, a skill at which he had become adept. Now he had to be
above the situation, seeing all the factors coming into it and how to
mold them and his charges to the best advantage. It took awhile but he
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got it in time. His experience in Leader School served to lift the
perceptual veil and opened to him the innate wisdom of the small unit
learning philosophy. Now he understood the purpose of the white coat
crowd and why the service took such great pains to understand the
human, cultural and behavioral dimensions of close combat. In time
Jerry would become a reasonably skilled psychologist, a gifted expert
on human behavior as well as a world class leader and coach.
After duty each team dined together in the “Pod.” The Committee
treated each evening session as a special communion with leaders and
experts from an enormous variety of professions. Evenings with human
and behavioral scientists made Jerry understand the method and logic
of the white coat crowd. The Team conversed with native speakers in
their language about the culture and geography of their home
countries, learning to work effectively and seamlessly through
translators to get the real message. Members of the Legion of Honor,
recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor,
recounted their experiences in past wars. Jerry appreciated the time
taken by coaches and staff from NCAA and professional sports teams to
explain the connection between his world and theirs.
Most of all Jerry and his teammates appreciated the time and resources
his government was willing to devote to make him a better small unit
leader and coach. The truth of this sentiment became startlingly
apparent at graduation when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
awarded the class their diploma and new stripes and spoke to them
with sincerity and humility:
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“For most of my service our nation has asked too much of you and
given too little back. We were a military too focused on winning big
wars with big technology. We waited too long to discover the truth that
the wars we were fighting then and are fighting now could only be won
at your level, by high performing squads and platoons.
“I hope you understand that this school is a living testimony to the fact
that we get it, that your leaders will devote resources in proportion to
your sacrifices. Remember and guard well the lesson my generation
was forced to learn at great expense: ‘Wars are won by people not
machines’. We must have the right technology available to the combat
soldier or marine to allow him to do his job, but to help him, not
replace him. We as a nation can never again let our fascination with
technology overshadow the need to win in close combat. Men willing
to close with the enemy and destroy him with intelligence and courage
ultimately make the difference between victory and defeat. Good luck,
good hunting and God bless you all…”
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