Posted on 12/29/2004 7:08:37 PM PST by CHARLITE
Secretary Rumsfeld is pushing for change and alteration of the Department of Defense. Dubbed transformation, its intent is to synchronize our military forces with the blitzkrieg of technological advances available to all four services that make up our armed forces. I recall another DOD initiative, introduced several years ago, that attempted to streamline the way we conduct service training for all armed forces personnel.
Back in the late seventies, I was a low level Army staff officer on the Army’s General Staff at the Pentagon. Among other duties I was designated the Army staff coordinator or point of contact for a Department of Defense initiative called the Inter-service Training Review Organization (ITRO). Essentially, ITRO was a DOD endeavor to consolidate service training activities in order to achieve economies. Its potential for saving money seemed unlimited. Examples….Why four service chaplain schools? Why two helicopter training bases when one had the capability and capacity to accommodate all student helicopter training? Why couldn’t we consolidate some training literature? There was duplicity everywhere and the savings potential appeared enormous.
All services were enjoined by the DOD to form joint-service investigating committees to review, study, and periodically report on where consolidations could be achieved and training conducted more efficiently. An O-6 officer was appointed at each of the service training headquarters to assign and oversee committee consolidation studies. Quarterly meetings were alternately scheduled at each of the four service school headquarters to report ensuing progress. An annual meeting, attended by the commanding general/admiral of each of the four service school headquarters, was scheduled to review when and where consolidations could be made with estimated monies saved.
I will never forget the first annual meeting I attended. An Army colonel, responsible for overseeing the joint service committee efforts to consolidate Chaplain training, arose, looked out at his audience, bowed his head, and said, “Shall we pray.” His report was not the sermon that DOD was hoping for. The effort to consolidate Chaplain training was probably the first Jihad experienced by our armed forces. It was an exercise in futility and ultimately resulted in an impasse. It was the same for aviation training and countless other consolidation attempts. It was, you see, an infringement on service roles and missions. At stake were jobs and base closures and, accordingly, politicians frequently entered the fray.
And while some service parochialism was evidenced, political interference prevailed throughout the process. Of course, criticism of defense department runaway spending, mismanagement, and unacceptable accountability generally came from the very sector that was responsible for trumping those consolidations that saved the most.
I’ve read enough about Secretary Rumsfeld’s transformation plan to learn that it does not reduce the force structure. In fact, our force structure has increased under Secretary Rumsfeld’s reign. What it does is restructure such things as training, doctrine, military officer and enlisted education systems, recruiting, basing, tactics, strategy, and organization.
Implementing change is never easy. I learned that during my four year tour at the Pentagon. Secretary Rumsfeld’s transformation will undoubtedly require stepping on toes, but my money is on Rummy. He don’t look like a good dancer, particularly when partnering with politicians or the mainstream media. I really don’t think he gives as damn if he does step on toes. He’s mission oriented all the way and that‘s what makes him the right man for the right job at the right time.
Maybe within his transformation of our armed forces the good Secretary will be able to achieve something that couldn’t be accomplished more than three decades ago…..implementing decisions that make sense for our armed forces. And now, more importantly than ever, to help us to defeat global terrorism.
Robert Lanzotti attended the University of Illinois on a football scholarship from 1955-1960. Through the ROTC program, he was commissioned into the Regular Army as a second lieutenant in 1960 and retired as a lieutenant colonel twenty-five years later. Robert was an Airborne Ranger and a Master Army Aviator. During his two tours in Vietnam he flew more than 1,000 hours of combat helicopter time and was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, four Bronze Stars, and twenty-four Air Medals. He commanded a helicopter unit within the 1st Cavalry Division and served as operations officer of the Army's largest divisional aviation group. Robert served fours years on the Army General Staff at the Pentagon. His formal education includes: University of Illinois, BS, ALS; Hampton University, MA, Ed. Admin.; and Marymount University, ME, Ed. Robert also graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, VA. Today, Robert is an elementary school teacher in Smyrna, a suburb of Atlanta, where he lives with his wife Vicki and their golden retriever, Rocky.
Comments:rlanzotti@mindspring.com
God Bless Rummy. He needs all the help he can get!
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