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This is very disturbing. I consider retired Marine Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper to be very credible.

Ping!!

Sounds to me that Van Riper is one heck of a tactician! He probably is not appropriate for certain tests. Overkill. Good heavans. I don't CARE how obnoxious he is! Promote Van Riper! We need tacticians like him.

Nothing new here...that the ways its been for a long time.

“In anything this size, certain things are scripted, and you have to execute in a certain way, or you’ll never be able to bring it all together,”

Now if we can just get the real bad guys to follow the rules ......

Boonie Rat

MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66

Wow !
I have been reading lately about the Civil War/ War Between the States , and some of the apalling casualty rates seem to have been due to disgustingly poor leadership.

It's not particularly reassuring to see that same dunderheadedness in our time...especially when wide-spread war seems imminent !

I like this guy. He reminds of what General (Vinegar) Joe Stillwell did during a major war game during the 1930s. He launched his attacked before the game was scheduled to begin and kicked butt! lol

Yes, it is disturbing. From my experience, the OPFOR almost always won. I think you learn more from your defeats than just going in and having the OPFOR put up a show of resistance and then roll over and play dead. It was always amusing in Hohenfels/CMTC to see the carefully laid plans of the Colonel go tits up within 15 minutes of the start of the battle.

One minor point I differ with the General- you have to resurrect the forces after each mission/phase. Ok, you write that particular aspect where you lost off as a "loss" and then you continue with the other missions to test how well they work. They might all be losses, who knows? But it would be an incredible waste of time, money and the evaluation opportunity to just go home after the Red Commander kicked your butt in the first day. For example, you don't deploy a brigade sized element to Hohenfels, gear 'em up to go into the evaluation and then just stop when the OPFOR defeats you- because that normally happens on Day One. You still have to perform your other missions so your commander can evaluate where you need to train and where your strengths lie.

Other than that though, I agree with the General's concern. If something ain't working- we need to know about it before we try it on the battlefield.

There is more to this than the article states.
The article is championing a maverick general that is trashing a wargame that he lost. Fine. . .but. . .the rest of the story is just as important.

Wargames of the national/joint level are not at all like tactical exercises in the local back-40 at Fort Irvin, Red Flag, or anywhere like that. They are highly complex and use many different levels of command and control and technology and procedure. Exercises of this nature are primarily designed to test the ability to coordinate and integrate, on a national/theater/joint level, all the forces of the United States. This is a far cry from what Van Riper is used to playing in.

Another complicating factor are having to deal with expected capabilities vs. what we have today. Many technology and weapon systems are under development and emerging technologies are vetted during these exercises. Perhaps the general didn’t like having to fight weapons that are beyond “smart.”

It does not good to lie to ourselves during these exercises, and exercises of this level are so complex, in-depth and expansive, many assumptions have to be made, and apparently these assumptions bothered Van Riper. Fine, but if he is to play in these types of exercises he should think about two levels higher than he is used to operating.

Another thing, exercises are notoriously more difficult than the real mission, as we challenge our capabilities. This means that when the war starts we find we win faster and save more lives—on both sides. For example, in May of ’90 I participated in a joint exercise at Ft Bragg. It was a computer exercise where Iraq invades Kuwait and goes into Saudi. Sound familiar? Anyway, we won that exercise but we took a heck of a lot more casualties than in the real war.

As far as doctrine and sloganeering, not so. We explore all doctrine (the way we think things be done) and challege this doctrine all the time--if it wasn't doctrine it would be dogma. In fact, the Air Force has a doctrine web site for anyone in the services, at any level, to take a hack (https://www.doctrine.af.mil/).

Bottom line: This exercises was not a bunch of guys running around in miles gear or aircraft outfitted with ACMI pods. . .no, it was an exercise to test command and control at a national/theater level. Van Riper better calm down. He may be a great tactician, but he is a lousy national/joint/theater planner/fighter.

Some “free play” is more than other free play, and when Van Riper was limited as to WMD, he threw a snit fit. Face it, if someone throws WMD our way it is a whole new ball game, with the US going for quick and dirty win—nuke. Van Riper wanted WMD options that would have ended the game. Not good, and if he had that option, then why exercise at all?

>>...Set in a classified scenario in 2007...<<

>>...when the Blue fleet sailed into the Persian Gulf early in the experiment...<<

>>...Van Riper took the initiative, issuing attack orders via the morning call to prayer broadcast from the minarets of his country’s mosques...<<

Hmmm..."classified scenario"...not any more.

Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper (USMC Ret.)

General Van Riper was born on July 5, 1938, in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and graduated from high school in Dormont, Pennsylvania, in June 1956. He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve and underwent recruit training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, in the fall of 1956. After completing infantry training in April 1957, he was released from active duty and returned home to serve in the 12th Infantry Battalion of the Marine Corps Reserve. He graduated in June 1963, from California State College, California, Pennsylvania, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then entered the 34th Officer Candidate Course and was commissioned a second lieutenant in November 1963.

After completing The Basic School at Quantico, Virginia, in June 1964, General Van Riper reported to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, 2d Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. While with the 1st Battalion, he served as a Platoon Commander, Company Executive Officer, and Assistant Operations Officer. He was with the 1st Battalion when it was committed to Santo Domingo during the Dominican Republic crisis in the spring of 1965.

In late 1965, he was ordered to the Republic of Viet Nam for duty as an Advisor with the Vietnamese Marine Corps. He was wounded in action on February 7, 1966, and was evacuated to the United States Naval Hospital in Philadelphia. After recovering from his wounds in April 1966, General Van Riper returned to The Basic School as an instructor. Upon completion of his tour in February 1968, he remained at Quantico as a student at Amphibious Warfare School.

General Van Riper returned to Viet Nam in September 1968, where he served as a Company Commander and an Assistant Operations Officer with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Upon his return to the U.S. in September 1969, he was assigned as an instructor at the U.S. Army’s John F. Kennedy Institute of Military Assistance at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was transferred to Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, DC, in July 1971, where he served initially as a Special Projects Officer in the Office of the Chief of Staff and then as a Training Specialist in the Training Division until August 1974.

Ordered to the 2d Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, in September 1974, he was assigned as the Operations Officer of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines. He became the Regimental Operations Officer in September 1975 and the Executive Officer for the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines in December 1976.

From August 1977 until June 1978, General Van Riper was a student in the College of Naval Command and Staff at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. Subsequently, he was assigned as a Military Observer with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine. During this tour he served in Egypt, Israel, and Lebanon.

Upon completion of his overseas tour in September 1979, General Van Riper was assigned as the Commanding Officer, Marine Barracks, Naval Air Station, Cecil Field, Florida, until July 1981. From August 1981, until June 1982, he was a student at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

General Van Riper was transferred to the 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, California, in June 1982, and served as Regimental Executive Officer until May 1983, when he assumed command of 2d Battalion, 7th Marines. In August 1984, he was assigned to the Exercise, Readiness and Training Branch of the G-3 Section, I Marine Amphibious Force.

General Van Riper was transferred to the 3rd Marine Division on Okinawa in June 1985, where he commanded the 4th Marines until December 1986. He served as the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, 3d Marine Division from December 1986 until reassigned as the Division Chief of Staff in June 1987.

During July 1988, General Van Riper returned to Quantico, where he was assigned until July 1989 as the Director of the Command and Staff College. He became the first President of Marine Corps University, Marine Air-Ground Training and Education Center in July 1989. In July 1990, he was assigned as Deputy Commander for Training and Education and Director, Marine Air-Ground Training and Education Center, Marine Corps Combat Development Command. General Van Riper served temporarily as a member of the Marine Forces, United States Central Command/I Marine Expeditionary Force staff during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm from January to March 1991. From June 1991 to April 1993, he was the Commanding General, 2d Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Returning to Washington, DC, General Van Riper served as Assistant Chief of Staff, Command, Control, Communications and Computers and as Director of Intelligence, Headquarters Marine Corps from April 1993, until July 1995. He was advanced to Lieutenant General and became Commanding General Marine Corps Combat Development Command in July 1995. Lieutenant General Van Riper retired on 1 October 1997, after more than 41 years of service.

General Van Riper’s personal decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal; Silver Star Medal with gold star; Legion of Merit; Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V”; Purple Heart; Meritorious Service Medal; Joint Service Commendation Medal; Army Commendation Medal; Navy Achievement Medal; and the Combat Action Ribbon with gold star. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army’s Airborne and Ranger Schools.

General Van Riper is married to the former Lillie Catherine Alford of Dillion, South Carolina. They have a son, Stephen, a Marine Officer, and a daughter, Cynthia.

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Sounds more like the Marines got a butt whippin' from the Army and the General didn't like it.

Bump