It’s Summer 2019 at the 25th Infantry Division’s Lightning Academy. I report to the 40-foot tower for my hollywood-style rappel. A Staff Sergeant affectionately known as “Air Assault Sergeant,” calls me forward to his line atop the tower. I sound off with a loud and thunderous “right hand brake hand,” and step forward. He inspects the stitching on my gloves and my rappel seat, finishing with the instructions of “hook in.” I get into position and while assessing me, he asks what I do. “I’m a logistician Air Assault Sergeant,” I say. He turns to the other instructor shouting, “this kid says he only eats vegetables.” They both laugh. From that day forward, I have continued to reflect on the unique relationship between logisticians and our customers of whom we support.
Logistics: What is it?
The Army and rest of the Department of Defense (DoD) are notorious for using military jargon in doctrine and policy – logistics doctrine is no different. ADP 4-0: Sustainment says that logistics is, “the planning and executing the movement and support of forces”. But what does that really mean to the average junior officer or NCO who has little to no experience? Could there be a simpler way to understand logistics in the Army? I’d argue that there most certainly is.
Simplicity
In sports, sometimes the simplest of plans can be the most effective on the field of play. In a football game, simplicity is a characteristic of an effective offense in many cases. Ironically, Army Logistics Doctrine also identifies the principle of Simplicity as a key part of successful sustainment. In an effort to align with this school of thought, I have conceptualized Army Logistics as four-pillared, 2-D structure shown above.
The Army’s most utilized tool for problem solving and communication is the operations order (OPORD). Let’s break it down. Simply put, logistics is the right stuff in the right place at the right time and for the right cost. Imagine a four-pillar supported structure representing successful Army Logistics. Each pillar represents a key tenant of Logistics and how if one suffers the other three pillars become more important.
Pillars Defined
Next, let’s define each pillar. Stuff is the widget or item in question. Stuff can be people, equipment, fuel, supplies, or just about anything you can move from one point to another. Next is place, the “where” your stuff has to go. Place is arguably the easiest pillar to determine as many times it is predesignated by a grid or location. If your higher headquarters is good, they will always have a primary and alternate “place”. Time is your suspense as well as the infamous “no later than” (NLT) deadline where if not accomplished, you failed your mission and you failed the customer who needs the “stuff”.
Cost
Lastly, cost is the most complex of the four pillars. What is the operation costing your unit? Many leaders automatically think about time and money, but it’s really much more. It can also be assets such as trucks identified for a mission or even dedicated manpower to make something happen. A cost is something you cannot get back. Once it is spent, there is no reversing it. Ask yourself, what is the cost in some of the training or missions you have had in the past.
You will also notice in the graphic the pillars hold a roof entitled “Army Logistics”. This is intentionally done to convey an equal importance for each pillar. If one pillar is unknown or suffers and therefore removed, it makes the structure unstable, therefore being harder to have stable, predictable, and successful Army Logistics. If two or more pillars are unknown/suffer and removed from the equation, the structure becomes unsteady and could collapse replicating mission failure. Finally, note the pillars are supported by the bedrock of education and the experience in which your NCOs and Warrant Officers bring to the unit. Education and experience complement each other as concepts supporting logistics and are equally important to mission success. Without education and experience, there is no surface upon which the pillars can stand.
Requirements and Capabilities
Requirements. It’s a dreaded buzzword that is often overused and misunderstood by many. For logisticians, requirements are particularly important as they typically are the focal point for planning and executing any level of support. The gap appears when the customer doesn’t correctly understand what they need to achieve mission success. This happens more often than not.
For example, three infantry companies need to move Soldiers and their individually assigned weapons to post after flying back from one of the Combat Training Centers (CTCs). The distance is 25 miles from the tarmac to the unit area and the unit’s equipment is enroute by rail. Naturally, the BN S3 wants buses to move Soldiers, but does not take into account the cost for the buses or the fact the buses are being utilized by another brigade. The buses are not the requirement. The requirement is a capability to move Soldiers and individual weapons from the tarmac to post.
Luckily, the S4 instructed everyone to hand carry their helmets as a backup plan and he coordinated with the other infantry battalion for LMTVs to move Soldiers. This is a true story. Not only does the plan work, but it exercises Army equipment and is far cheaper than utilizing unit funds to augment movement support for the originally intended buses.
Building Relationships
Building relationships is one of the best ways to ensure success. Relationships are more than with the chain of command, but also with Civilian agencies, organizations, and other units on post. There will come a time when you need assistance from that Civilian or another unit. The relationship serves as a point of exchange to negotiate for the assistance. The best logisticians I have seen understand this concept and always go the extra mile to make a mission happen, even if it is not their own mission. It’s not to say you are taking advantage of the relationship, but rather working to achieve a bigger goal in the end.
To my surprise, many company grade officers struggle with relationship building and the ability to work with people they do not know well. They get tunnel vision for their company’s training or their staff section’s priorities. You do not have to be a social butterfly or extrovert to be successful at building relationships. It is simply working with rather than against the other leaders within the unit. Relationships can have a profound effect on an organization’s ability to communicate and work together as a team.
Failure
I would argue failure is a far greater teacher than success for it was Alexander the Great who said, “My logisticians are a humorless lot. They know they are the first ones I will slay if my campaign fails”.3 When maneuver units are outgunned, outmatched, or fail a mission, they can call upon assistance from an adjacent unit, therefore, ensure mission success. Logisticians however, do not have that option. Many times, they are limited in their organic capability to conduct resupply or maintenance operations, but nevertheless, logistic failures severely degrade a maneuver unit’s capability to close with and destroy the enemy. They are your customer and you must work with them to ensure they have what they need to do their job.
In January 2019, I was able to attend the U.S. Army’s Pathfinder School. I made it to the final exam, but didn’t pass. The course was extremely rigorous and although I learned a plethora about sling loads, landing zones, and drop zones it was not what I learned about the most while at the course. I learned not only how to fail, but to accept it and better myself. I gave the course everything I had, but still came up short. Many of the other students became distraught or angry at the notion of being dropped from the course for failure. This cannot be how you handle failure as a leader.
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We train so we fail in training and not in combat where it counts. When systems and processes fail, learn from those shortfalls in training and address them. Anyone who has yet to know failure is missing one of the biggest points of why we train as an Army. Fail and learn from it.