Posted on 05/20/2015 6:10:23 AM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — The nature of warfare is changing, and the Army and other armed forces are changing with it, the leader of Fort Huachuca said Monday.
It was at a meeting of the Cochise Chapter of the Air Force Association that Maj. Gen. Robert Ashley spoke about the changes in both methodology, philosophy and training for modern warfare and the military’s ongoing commitment to citizens that hold it in the highest regard. Ashley is the commanding general United States Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca.
One of the first in a series of slides presented to those attending the association’s meeting at the Landmark Cafe showed a soldier with an overstuffed rucksack trekking along in a desolate expanse.
When he shows this image to classes in his presentations, Ashley said he asks them what they think the soldier is carrying.
“They’ll name all the equipment that they get issued. I tell them it’s the hopes, dreams and aspirations of 320 million Americans,” he said.
Next, a slide ranking the public’s confidence in various institutions as of last summer. At the top, as they have been consistently for years, are the armed forces.
These two thoughts color everything soldiers do, from the moment they take the oath to serve.
“Even if you only do it for two years, or 20 years, the fact that you raised your right hand is an act of bravery, because you never know if they’re going to call,” Ashley said.
In looking at the global, interconnected world in which the Army now now operates, one key difference in recent years is that, while enemies of the United States’ respect the US, they no longer fear it, he said, paraphrasing retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, former leader of US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
“That is a significant change in terms of what is happening in the landscape. If you could deter somebody just by fear of having to be subject to the wrath of the U.S. military, and that fear is taken away, that’s a significant sea change in what’s happening in the world,” Ashley said.
That change has manifested itself in the way the military fights an enemy that doesn’t wear a uniform and operates as small groups or individuals in a city of millions.
It’s a far cry from the Cold War, which had a clear enemy in the Soviet Union when Ashley became a soldier 30 years ago.
“It was very mathematical. We talked about battlefield calculus, how to win outnumbered,” he said.
The new reality is one of uncertainty.
“They don’t play by the rules that we adhere to, through the Geneva Convention. They don’t have to obey those rules, and they don’t necessarily put on a uniform that’s recognizable, which adds to the complexity. So anybody in an urban environment, potentially, is either a non-combatant or a combatant, based on what they do,” he said.
The ability to make split-second decisions has resulted in a shifting emphasis to almost intangible skillsets, which he characterized as “the human dimension.”
“Because it really is the grey matter that separates us from our competitors. The technology we have is obviously great and a huge enabler, but that gap is closing,” Ashley said.
Things like grittiness, building a foundation of experience in a compressed time frame, an understanding of culture and the ability to apply that understanding to related situations are becoming they keys to a successful military endeavor.
“So one of the things that the Army is looking at is advanced situational training. This is like the cop on the beat. The cop walks that block every day, when something is out of place, he knows it,” he said.
Some of these ideals may be at odds with a growing generational shift Ashley said he’s witnessed over the last few decades.
When the Army wants soldiers who are able to learn from their failures, “a generation where everybody got a trophy can be problematic,” he said.
Growing up wit a father in the military and a brother in the Air Force, and with two grown sons of his own, Ashely said he was intimately familiar with the dedication of military families, something he emphasises when speaking with officers coming through the United States Intelligence Center of Excellence.
“What I really try to drive home to them is, ‘let me give you some observations after having been in the uniform for 30 years and what that means.’ One of the key messages is that we serve as families, and the responsibility you have,” he said. “The American public holds you in the highest regard. So every day you have to earn their respect.”
Unfortunately, the CIC remains an enemy islamist.
CIC is that the Communist In Crime?
The wife is not innocent
Because War, War Never Changes.
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