These Guys are Good !!!

I would bet that when asked, a lot of people would say that maybe Ohio State University or the University of Michigan or maybe the University of Texas is the biggest educational institution in this country. The trouble is, they all would be wrong. And I bet they would be shocked to learn that the educational system in the U.S. Army, which consists of basic training, MOS schools, and no less than five additional levels of advanced schooling for enlisted and four for officers (one of which leads to a Masters Degree) is one of, if not the largest, educational institutions in the world. I only hedge my bet because school numbers fluctuate depending on budgets and conflicts being waged.

But aside from the formal schools, the Army constantly trains and utilizes numerous situational training events called "Rock Drills" (I have no idea how they got that name). These exercises usually consist of several months of classroom instruction, followed by such things as CPXs (Command Post Exercises) and TEWTs (Tactical Exercises without Troops). In my career, I was able to participate in several of these. Two, however, come to mind -- both for different reasons.

The first one was when I was a battalion XO. It seems that we were having an ongoing doctrinal war with the school house experts at the MP school. They wanted us to continue to conduct EPW (Enemy Prisoner of War) operations the way they did in Korea or WWII. We, on the other hand, said future wars would be fought differently and MP EPW OPS would have to adjust to the terrain and be able to function in urban settings. In the picture top/right, we are doing a sand table exercise and I am showing the staff, commanders and compound teams how we would operate in this kind of environment.

The second exercise took place when I was the Brigade G-3. This Rock Drill was the culmination of a year's preparation, and served as the inter-
mediary exercise prior to the actual field exercise. The class-
room prep, the Rock Drill and the Field Exercise were all monitored and evaluated by senior retired General Officers (called Grey Beards). In this case, our Grey Beard was the former commander of the 18th ABN CORPS. There were about six "advisors" (usually senior field grade officers [O-5s & O-6s] and senior level NCOs [E-9s] from other war- affiliated units) per exercised unit. Needless to say, the pucker factor was pretty high and the lessons learned were pretty valuable. The Grey Beards were very serious about these exercises as they had to report back to the Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff. These exercises involved LOTS of troops from various parts of the country, and substantial amounts of tax-payer funds were spent.

I guess the point of all of this is Soldiers never stop learning their craft.They might be the only people I know who practice so hard to learn their job, hoping to never have to use it. I would also say that judging from the quality of operations I have personally seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of which involved units who took part in several of these exercises, the tax payers got their money's worth. It's kinda like that commercial for PGA golfers -- "These guys are good!!!"

"Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a Soldier." (Samuel Johnson)

HOOAH