In a 1998 conference at the Naval Postgraduate School, COL (Ret) Harry Summers Jr., made some comments about professional military education that are worth taking to heart.
Among other things, I am the founding editor and publisher of Vietnam magazine, now in its tenth year. This last year, we had a piece by Major General Guy Meloy who, as some of you may know, as a lieutenant colonel in Vietnam, commanded the 1st of the 27th Infantry "Wolfhounds." In November 1966, he got in a very severe fight with a Vietcong regiment. He normally commanded three rifle companies but, in the course of this battle, ended up commanding 11 rifle companies. He was reinforced piecemeal, by eight rifle companies from other battalions, and even beyond his brigade. In the conclusion to his article, he said that his other commanders didn't know him from Adam. They had never met him. They didn't even know his name. All they knew was a call sign over the radio. And all he knew about them was a call sign over the radio. But he ordered them, literally, to their deaths, and he got no argument. All he got was a "Roger" over the radio, as they closed with the enemy. He said, "If you want a testimonial to the military's educational system, you can't get a stronger one than that." They shared the same concepts, the same values, the same notions, the same tactics as he did, and they didn't need to know each other. They didn't need to know any more than a call sign over the radio that said, "Move out and close in on the enemy."
I think that is a lesson that we need to carry away. All of this military education has to focus on this point: when the time comes, does it work on the battlefield?
No comments:
Post a Comment