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April 2005

Junior Leader Training Emphasizes Fast ‘Thinking’ in Defeating Guerillas

by Sandra I. Erwin

To better prepare junior officers and sergeants to fight urban guerillas, the Army is adopting a new training philosophy, one that is designed to “develop leaders who can think,” a senior official said.

While combating an insurgency in Iraq, Army officials have come to the conclusion that those truly in charge of the war are junior and non-commissioned officers, many of whom may not be prepared for the complexity of these operations, noted Gen. Kevin Byrnes, head of the Army Training and Doctrine Command.

“This is a small-unit war,” he said. “Generals and colonels are not leading these patrols.” The senior NCOs and lieutenants are those having to make life-or-death decisions in seconds.

A discussion on how to improve officer and NCO training is ongoing at TRADOC. The chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, has directed the command to beef up soldiers’ skills in “irregular warfare” and “stability and reconstruction operations.”

In both these areas, the Army’s success depends heavily on the decision-making ability of small-unit leaders, Byrnes said. “One thing that continues to bubble out is the mental agility of our combat leaders.”

Officers are taught to abide by the Army’s doctrine, which they do, even when there are times that call for innovative thinking, he noted. “While doctrine is important, we have to take them through the training and apply the unexpected, the wild-card events … Instead of thinking of a purely doctrinal solution, we want them to use doctrine as suggested, rather than in a prescriptive manner … How they apply doctrine is key.”

To boost creative thinking, Army schoolhouses will employ Socratic methods for determining solutions, Byrnes said, “as opposed to being told by an instructor how to apply doctrine.”

TRADOC also has revamped the basic-training program for enlisted soldiers. “Basic training is much more rigorous,” he said, “with added emphasis on combat skills.”

Training for specialized jobs also is being revamped. “In areas such as signal, quartermaster, maintenance, they had backed out much of the soldier-training and focused on technical skills,” said Byrnes. “A soldier was there for 15 weeks, and there was no rifle range, no field training, no reinforcement of what they learned in basic training. That is too much risk.”

That approach works in peacetime, when soldiers typically complete basic training and, once assigned to a unit, are trained by a platoon sergeant for six months. Now, that soldier generally goes right to war.

Byrnes recently asked all TRADOC commanders to evaluate their technical training programs, and to decide what “non-negotiable” soldier skills need additional training and resources.

“Many of our schools have no weapons,” he said. “This new training approach still hasn’t occurred in all areas, because we are still going after the equipment.”

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