Ill Informed Blog Post at AM on Advisors

[Ken White]

Since Riley is a FORSCOM post and 1/1 is a FORSCOM unit, FORSCOM gets to write the task list.

That tells me what is happening as did Hacksaw (so I knew that); my question was why is it happening. The fact that the 1st ID, a nominal FORSCOM organization is doing the training is not remotely germane to the development of the task list for elements bound for a theater, those are a GCC call and FORSCOM has no business complicating the issue by adding their thoughts (and CYA concerns). Doctrinally, FORSCOM just has no business sticking their nose into it (nor much reason for existing IMO and based on long experience with them -- but that's another thread)

The tast list was just revised two weeks ago at a conference...it is going to be MUCH shorter from what I have heard. There was a roughly 65% growth in training tasks from OIF II to OIF whatever it is today (8-10?) and a lot of people were getting pissed off - the list kept growing and it almost never shortened. A lot of tasks were part of normal METL training anyway, so those were eliminated.

Bureaucracy in action. My sympathy to all involved -- and that's not a snark, it's a serious dose of real sympathy...

Edited to add: Since 1/1 is doing the training, they have every right to tamper with the task list but FORSCOM should have auth dir coord w/CentCom for that adjustment. Oh, wait...

[Ski]

Ken

FORSCOM became the force provider for ALL Army units a few years ago, and that's why they are so involved in the process. Doesn't matter what kind of unit - outside of the SOF community.

That task list is not just FORSOM, it also eminates from CENTCOM, ARCENT/3rdArmy, HQDA and TRADOC. All of that kluged together has made for an exceptionally painful DMETL.

The best quote of the conference was from an 06 from HQDA :"Are we really this ####ing stupid?" Uh, yes, we are.

[Ken White]

Thanks for the expansion. Er, that is thank you . The apparent facts of the expansion don't fill me with glee...

Ken

FORSCOM became the force provider for ALL Army units a few years ago, and that's why they are so involved in the process. Doesn't matter what kind of unit - outside of the SOF community.

They've always been the big Daddy for everyone that wasn't totally stovepiped -- that's not new. What apparently is new is that a 4-button Hq is getting down in the weeds; even under the weeds for either justification, covering or meddling purposes Whatever happened to delegating authority? Trusting subordinates? Deconfliction of tangled responsibilities?

All of Which leads to your very apt quote:

The best quote of the conference was from an 06 from HQDA :"Are we really this ####ing stupid?" Uh, yes, we are.

Sigh, again. This is all a plot to make my gray hair go away so I look like Tom and Steve...

[wm]

Thanks for the expansion. Er, that is thank you . The apparent facts of the expansion don't fill me with glee...They've always been the big Daddy for everyone that wasn't totally stovepiped -- that's not new. What apparently is new is that a 4-button Hq is getting down in the weeds; even under the weeds for either justification, covering or meddling purposes Whatever happened to delegating authority? Trusting subordinates? Deconfliction of tangled responsibilities?

All of Which leads to your very apt quote:Sigh, again. This is all a plot to make my gray hair go away so I look like Tom and Steve...

My ages past experience with Farcecom was always that their 4 button needed to meddle in what were more properly the affairs of division and bde commanders. But that was back in the days when Fort McPherson held sway over the CONUS portions of REFORGER and chopped on every OPLAN/CONPLAN TPFDDL.

[Ken White]

Reforger TPFDs were always a political monster for a lot of reasons. However, it wasn't the 4-buttons (well, not most of them anyway; Palastra was a busy guy...) that were the meddlers -- it was the huge number of civilians on the staff, a number of whom saw Job Security as their primary mission. Obviously that's gotten worse. So much for cutting Hq size...

[Ski]

The biggest problem with FORSCOM is that they continually look to overextend their authority - my MACOM has gotten into serious knock down drag out JAG infested fights over some issues. Add in what Ken has said - they have a Corps worth of retired 05's who are more concerned about doing business the way it's all been instead of letting the young guys run the show. It's awfully painful doing business with them because all these retired 05's think they have more collective knowledge on war than Alexander the Great, Napolean and Genghis Khan. The GS 14-15 positions down there should be nuked from orbit, just to be sure.

FORSCOM also delegates to 1st Army a lot...and that is the textbook example of a command that has become a wasteland of personnel...some of the people there...I have to stop.

[Cavguy]

Back on topic - Kip has posted his fourth and most critical essay of our advisor efforts:

This is the last of a four-part series on the Army's advisor training efforts.

Are you deaf? Limp? Ancient (mostly our National Guard brethren)?

After climbing a flight of stairs, do you most resemble a hyperventilating pumpkin?

Can't fire your weapon? Can't learn a language? Think that Blue Force Tracker is a Ticketmaster promotion for the Blue Man Group?

Fired from your last company command for drunk driving?

Believe that preaching Christ to your Muslim counterparts is the surest way to salvation?

Great, because the US Army has a job for you that you literally can't fail--training at the Fort Riley Training Mission to be an advisor.

You can fail Airborne school. You can fail Ranger school. You can fail Sapper school. But the Army's number one mission--our efforts to develop security forces capable of providing security and stability to the populations of Iraq and Afghanistan--no matter what you do, no matter how terrible you are going to be as an advisor, you simply can't fail the training.

I think the veiled insults (and I don't think he is characterizing all advisors this way - only that we aren't rigorous in our selection process) detract from some valid points in the whole series:

We have stated that the advisor effort is a priority. Our actions as an Army have not matched our words.

- The training mission is not manned by sufficent numbers of qualified personnel. LTC Nagl stated earlier that 13 of 96 trainers in his BN have previous advisor experience. That's about 15%. We can't do better than that after thousands have completed MiTT duty?
- There has been little if any vetting of who is assigned as an advisor. Having a pulse and are deployable are about the only two standards. We send USAF and USN personnel to advise Iraqi infantry.
- There has been no credible effort (other than board instructions) to reward advisorary duty. While it won't HURT you to be an advisor, there is no incentive to be one. Not making the assignment KD for officers reinforces the perception of advisor duty as something that isn't for the up and coming.
- The assignment of SFA back into the SOCOM arena (vice JFCOM) and the rejection of TMAAG convey that the Army does not see advisory capacity as a core function, but an ancillary function to be performed by BCT's and generating force augmentees sent to advisor training at Polk when needed.

I think Kip is somewhat off-base in his worries about Polk - families will move where they are assigned. JRTC has no shortage of qualified, high-speed OC's, despite its location. I also believe it will be relatively simple to adapt JRTC to advisor training. I do agree there will be a flash to bang delay for facility usage - but remember - 2ACR was there until a few years ago - no unit has replaced them yet (as I understand). So there is excess capacity.

Like many things, the rhetoric regarding advisor efforts says one things, our actions have conveyed the exact opposite regarding the mission. Kip does have a point - if this is our main effort, it certainly isn't weighted as such, so let's stop pretending it is.