What does it take to bring the full power of the U.S. Army to bear upon enemies of America? Army Doctrinal Publication(ADP) 3-0 says that combat power “is the total means of destructive, constructive, and information capabilities that a military unit or formation can apply at a given time.” Combat power contains eight elements which include the six warfighting functions intelligence, movement and maneuver, fires, protection, sustainment, command and control coupled with leadership and information. The six warfighting functions are easy to comprehend with their tangible effects on the battlefield, but the effects of the other element, leadership, are often intangible and difficult to comprehend. A recent training rotation at the National Training Center (NTC) provided a concrete case study about the true power of leadership leading to an infantry company with incredible lethality and the commander selected as the hero of the rotation.
Former Commander of Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Retired General David Perkins often asked Soldiers “What are you for?” when describing the power of leadership to audiences during his frequent visits to institutional training centers. Similarly, leadership consultant Simon Sinek coaches the same in his book Start With Why. Conversely, baseball great Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” These renowned, modern philosophers profess that one of the most influential aspects of leadership is providing purpose to those they lead. A clearly defined purpose can help subordinates understand the task that they are asked to accomplish while also inspiring them to achieve results in even more effective or efficient ways than the leader would have imagined. Leaders who provide purpose can amplify all of the other elements of combat power. As figure 5-1 from ADP 3-0 depicts, commanders and their leadership play a central role in this process.
During a recent training rotation at the NTC, an infantry company and its commander demonstrated the effectiveness of the seventh element towards driving the other elements of combat power. Many organizations and their leaders succeed in accomplishing their training objectives while improving their combat readiness, but this company was noted by numerous observer controller-trainers (OC/Ts) as an extraordinary example. Their path began several months prior to the rotation with an introspective assessment of the company followed by the focus on the unit training objectives as shown below.
Company Training Objectives
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Kill the Enemy: unit applies the fundamentals to rapidly seize the initiative and violently close with the enemy.
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Sustain the Force: unit builds and employs effective systems for managing logistical requirements – we are not waiting on sustainment.
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Render Aid: Triage and evacuate casualties in a manner that gets Soldiers the timely aid they need without detracting from our ability to continue the fight.
Without any superfluous nor trendy buzz words, the commander provided a very clear and succinct purpose for the organization and defined “what they were for.” This served as a catalyst for company level focus during a higher echelon training progression as well as during the simulated combat scenario at the NTC.
The most important method the company commander utilized to keep his company focused on their training objective was stressing the fundamentals as keys to killing the enemy. In operations orders and pre-mission briefings, the commander emphasized squad-level tactics and executing simple battle drills, in particular Battle Drills 1 and 1A. He frequently used the phrase “blocking and tackling” when referring to the importance of well-rehearsed and well-performed fundamentals. This was in turn where his subordinate leaders placed their emphasis. Squad-level battle drills were repeated frequently throughout the rotation. This led the company to success.
Despite rarely making contact on their terms, the company “blocked and tackled” their way to victory in engagement after engagement with the enemy. Subordinate leaders and soldiers knew what their responsibilities were and executed them without need for direction. A second-order effect of this focus on fundamentals was that the company was able to perform ad-hoc task organization changes in the heat of combat when they risked losing momentum due to heavy enemy contact. The commander was able to align surviving leaders with surviving soldiers to finish the fight without loss of efficiency, all due to constant emphasis on fundamentals as the keys to killing the enemy.
The final results were impressive. The company left the NTC at a very high state of readiness to fight and win while demonstrating high proficiency under challenging conditions their mission essential tasks. Furthermore, the company was responsible for destroying more than a mechanized battalion worth of conventional peer opposing forces and two companies of irregular enemy. The commander of the Operations Group noted the lethality of this company and selected the commander as the hero of the rotation across the entire brigade. The path to these results truly “started with why” in the words of Simon Sinek.
Chief of Staff of the Army GEN McConville declares that, “winning matters” and this was an organization that did exactly that, thanks to the leadership of its commander and his ability to focus the unit with an effective purpose. Increased readiness, extraordinary lethality, and the commander’s selection as the hero of the rotation were all directly tied to his unit training objectives. In this example, an infantry company displayed incredible lethality and a high level of preparedness for combat driven by leadership, the first element of combat power.
Lt. Col. Jeff Barta is serving as Scorpion 07, a senior task force trainer at the National Training Center. He has led Armor, Cavalry, and Infanty formations throughout his career to include Command of Ghost Troop, 1st U.S. Cavalry Regiment in 2nd Bde, 1st Armor Division.
Capt. Patrick O’Keefe is serving as Scorpion 12, a maneuver team trainer at the National Training Center. He most recently commanded a tank company in 3rd ABCT, 1ST Cavalry Division and served as a platoon leader and executive officer in 1st SBCT, 1ST Armored Division.
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