milley-in-future-wars-creature-comforts-are-out-and-disobeying-orders-is-in

MAJ(P) (Join to see) that environment the CSA talks about is more like the operating environment I encountered as a young officer. We had GPS, but it was painfully slow and there were maybe two in a unit. In practice they never left the arms room. Tactical FM was what we had. Units wrote plans and orders. When executing them, small unit commanders had commanders intent. Changes on the battle field happened and the plan dissolved, they leveraged intent and executed violently. Units were bypassed or cut off and Company teams would have to react with little or no guidance. Nor was any expected.

Units operated without hot chow. M-M-M was the ration cycle. In Armored formations we didn't even really track chow. Here's your three cases, see you in a few days. Units stationed in Europe were in the field months at a time. They would go to Graf or Hoenfelds and not come out. Soldiers in the 80s and early 90s did field hygiene. Sleeping on a cot was about has high in luxury as you get. We planned on operating, as a unit, in chemical environments for days in MOPP4. We rehearsed deliberate Decon of entire companies and battalions. So the CSAs comments were not surprising to me.

My push back was the perception that somehow spartan logisitics excluded FOB amenities. We never thought of having anything like that. We never planned on being anywhere longer than 72hrs in an FSB/Regimental Support Squadron. We were constantly echeloning forward, leap frogging a forward support element, then jumping the main part of th BSA/RSA past it to shorten Support legs. I had been in units where we don't dig more than hasty fighting positions because we werent going to benthere tomorrow. Never mind surrounding ourselves with HESCOs, a green beans, and a PX.

A mechanized, armor, or Aviation formation must be resupplied if for nothing else, fuel. There will be a trail of tears of NMC equipment strung out In a series of unit maintenance collection points. Light formations would also be resupplied at irregular intervals if by nothing else, by blind parachute drop or sling load forward cached. Now we can add LCLA to that portfolio.

LTC Jason Mackay - I agree with your perception of an environment similar to your past. I remember those same austere times and I also remember when we put the compasses away and started using GPS.

We need to have the ability to train like those days again and get away from the FOB operation mentality. It will be interesting to see if this can be balance with the current tempo and budget uncertainty.