WITH THE STRYKERS IN KUWAIT: Brigade proves a prudent shopper while tent hunting

Tacoma News Tribune ^ | Friday, November 21, 2003 | MICHAEL GILBERT

[Cannoneer No. 4]

60-foot-by-40-foot -- 90 soldiers -- millions of dollars worth of computers, radios, satellite receivers and other high-tech gear -- four to five hours to set up -- it's got combination heaters and air conditioners on three sides

YGBSM!

All this for one brigade headquarters. Set ups like this make micromanagement possible.

Good thing the Soviets went out of business. This circus would have been toast. Hope we never have to fight anybody that can do Radio-Electronic Combat.

How would you like to be the Headquarters Comedian for this Charlie Foxtrot?

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Stryker Brigade Combat Team Tactical Studies Group (Chairborne)

[dts32041]

What happen to gp mediums and small's spread out over an area where one round wouldn't take out the whole sebang.

My brigrade toc work out of hummv's and several gp small's and never stayed in place more than six hours.

They have forgetten past lessons.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

ping

[Cannoneer No. 4]

They have forgetten past lessons.

Sometimes it seems to me that nobody in the chain of command remembers how things used to be done. If they do, they aren't sharing their experiences very well. There doesn't appear to be much institutional memory. I hope they don't have to reinvent the wheel and learn painful lessons the hard way, particularly if they are lessons that were already learned by previous generations of American soldiers on other battlefields.

[Darksheare]

At my last AT, the Toc got hit by the OpFor because they stayed in place.
We'd bugged out fromour position right after a fire mission.
The Toc was nextdoor to us, and stayed where they were at.
Ooops.

We used GP mediums when we had to.
Otherwise we just used the Humvees as our tents.

[JSteff]

Bump for later.

[LibKill]

When I was at El Toro USMC airbase, a couple of NCO's figured out a way to refurbish jet refueling nozzles with parts available from local supply houses.

They saved the taxpayers something like 10K per unit.

Such initiative is to be encouraged, nay, rewarded.

I still don't think the Stryker is a good buy. But the tent is.

[JSteff]

"What happen to gp mediums and small's spread out over an area where one round wouldn't take out the whole sebang."
"They have forgetten past lessons."

Like Beirut.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

You miss my point entirely.

I am sure it is a lovely tent, and I am glad the Brigade Sergeant Major got a good deal on it.

I am aghast that one motorized rifle brigade would set up a TOC so huge that a tent like that is a good idea. I used to run a tank battalion TOC and work in an armored cavalry regiment TOC, and this Styker Brigade TOC as discribed could not survive in any threat environment I ever trained for.

This beats Forepaugh's Double Ringed Circus.

[LibKill]

DOH!

Point and correction well taken.

[Lion Den Dan]

nobody in the chain of command remembers

=================

The chain of command disposes of veterans who remember. That way their command idiocy will not be announced.

At the Armor School, the boast is how all the digitized equipment makes the TOC obsolete. It now fits into a Bradley or now a Stryker. God Save our poor soldiers in this outfit.

[LibKill]

At the Armor School, the boast is how all the digitized equipment makes the TOC obsolete. It now fits into a Bradley or now a Stryker. God Save our poor soldiers in this outfit.

Hell's donkeys!

What idiot came up with this new 'doctrine'?

The Table of Command is a vital concept. If the C.O. is killed or otherwise neutralized, the X.O. takes command.

If all the staff officers are wiped out, the senior NCO takes command, and so on down to the least senior private.

The point of all this is that if the enemy kills off the leadership, our forces will not be a disorganized clusterfreak.

The responsibility passes to each man in the chain.

If the last man is in command he still has command and a mission to accomplish.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

How many line platoons have to be detached to provide security for these 90 staff weinies?

Do the S3 and S2 even have Strykers? Is there a Stryker equivalent to the M577? Who is running the war while this circus tears down, packs up, moves, and sets up again? 5 hours!

How many generators does it take to run that high-tech Buck Rogers War Machine Puzzle Palace?

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

In the mid 90's I first heard about the Army's plan to go with wheeled vehicles for their brigades vice tracks. It was called Force XXI.

I suggested that the Army call them what they were: Motorized Rifle Regiments (MRR).

Semper Fi,

[dts32041]

Can't call them regiments, can't have any connection with the past.

This is really starting to sound like a real goat rope.

Doesn't sound like they are following the old doctrine of shoot move and communiction.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

all the digitized equipment makes the TOC obsolete

Then why is this circus tent being erected in the Kuwaiti desert?

Electromagnetic Pulse. Has the Army forgotten what that is and what is does to electronic gear?

They are getting so dependent on technology that if the systems go down they won't be able to function in degraded mode.

This circus tent is a rocket magnet.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

[Cannoneer No. 4]

The Stryker brigade combat team.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Guess the S3 does get a Stryker.