XBradTC

From roughly the 1900’s through the turn of this century, the US Army used the Army Division as the basis for force design, experimentation, organization and training. In the early 2000’s two things happened that caused the focus of those efforts to shift to “brigade based design”.[i] First, the RMA infatuation with flattening organizational hierarchies allegedly enabled by information empowered brigades,[ii] and second, the changing of US strategy in Iraq that dictated a steady generation of Army brigade combat teams to meet operational requirements. Today the Army is still focused on the brigade in general, and specifically the maneuver brigade combat team as the center of both Army force generation and force design. Even now, the Army is reorganizing its brigades and other brigade and below functional units to correct weaknesses revealed by the war. Risks and trades are often being shifted to higher echelons without full appreciation of the consequences to those echelons, or understanding of the associated opportunity costs. The last ten years of warfighting refute the information age promise of flatter organizations and near autonomous brigades,[iii] and highlight the changing role of echelons above brigade headquarters in achieving strategic and campaign outcomes. It is time to rebalance Army future force design by returning to the Division as the focal echelon for force design and experimentation.

via Division Commander-Based Design — The Bridge — Medium.

I’m biased toward the division as the “unit of action” because that’s the Army I served in. For the past twelve years, the BCT has fulfilled this role. And in geographically dispersed operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s worked well enough. The need to synchronize operations across the battlespace wasn’t quite as urgent as it would be in a more conventional force-on-force engagement.

One argument for the BCT was that most deployments would be brigade sized. And that’s somewhat true for non-combat contingencies, such as Kosovo. But for combat operations, it certainly hasn’t been the case.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (WTVD) —

The military is investigating an “in-flight” incident in the skies over Fort Bragg involving two large cargo planes.

“While conducting flight training, an in-flight incident occurred in which a U.S. Army C-27J and a U.S. Air Force C-130H made contact in the vicinity of Fort Bragg Dec. 1 at approximately 8:30 p.m.,” said a statement from the 440th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Office.

Both aircraft landed safety with no reported injuries to air crew or civilians.

However, both aircraft sustained some damage, and are unable to fly. Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Lisa Ray told the Associated Press that she didn’t know if that was because of damage of if they hadn’t been thoroughly inspected.

via Fort Bragg investigating mid-air incident involving 2 military cargo planes | abc11.com.

Yikes! This could have gotten real ugly, real fast!

Starting next year, the Pentagon may have to justify to Congress the number of enlisted aides the services’ admirals and generals keep in attendance.

A provision of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act mandates that the defense secretary report to Congress each year the number of enlisted aides and “[justify], on a billet-by-billet basis, the authorization and assignment of each enlisted aide to each general officer and flag officer position.”

“In developing the report,” the budget provision states, “the Secretary of Defense shall have the objective of reducing the maximum number of enlisted aides” by making sure each can be justified.

via Congress Orders DoD to Justify Enlisted Aides for Generals, Admirals | Military.com.

I’m not perturbed by senior officers, particularly the three and four stars, having enlisted aides. In fact, one of my fellow recruiters had just finished a tour as one. He enlisted in the Army as a cook. And was an excellent one! He did mundane tasks for his general, such as caring for and prepping his uniforms and such. But his real mission was to cook. Very often, senior leaders conduct semi-official events such as hosting dinners in their quarters for community leaders and such. Heck, my mom  did much the same! Indeed, in the early 1970s, my dad had a Filipino steward assigned. Our quarters on post actually had a small apartment attached just for that steward.  When that perk was abolished, my sister got that room. I was jealous.

The real problem isn’t having enlisted aides. It’s the staggering number of general and flag officers in the service.  There’s simply no need for 900 flags. We could probably squeek by with as few as 500.

Of course, it’s pretty rich of Congress to complain.

Your congressman has a staff in the home district office. And in their office in DC. And then there’s the staff hired by the committees the congressman sits on. And I’ll tell you this, the numbers of staffers is a heck of a lot larger, and better paid.

Long time friend of the blog AW1 Tim is having a problem. A single father, disabled, and retired Navy, he’s facing a transportation problem. Many of you probably know him from commenting at Lex’s place. Please consider helping him.

http://www.gofundme.com/i8is20

“I don’t appreciate plagiarism,” he said dryly, staring down at me over the top of his glasses. “You’re either the best writer I’ve seen in 25 years of teaching or you’re a plagiarist. Which is it?”

Well, I wasn’t a plagiarist, I assured him.

“Then you’re in the wrong major,” he replied. “You need to be developing this skill, putting it to use. You should be publishing already.”

via On Writing — Medium.

We’ve been enjoying Doctrine Man’s humor on Facebook for years. But recently, he’s begun writing at Medium, and it’s not for humor, but thoughtful pieces.

We don’t consider ourselves particularly gifted at writing. Occasionally we write something we think is pretty good. And then we toss up some crap, and guess which post gets the most traffic?

But nothing improves your writing, like writing.

Each and every one of you who reads this, veteran, active duty, civilian, has a story to tell. It might not be your story, but it should be memorialized somewhere.

You can write for a serious purpose. Or humorous. Or to vent. We often write because we find that tapping at the keyboard actually clarifies our thinking on a subject. Trying to explain an issue or subject forces us to ensure we have a clear vision of that matter.

So write. Start a free wordpress blog. Heck, submit a post for my consideration.  Write a poem. Tell a joke.

But don’t miss out on the opportunity to share.

We’ve never enjoyed writing. We still don’t. But we started this blog in 2008 because we felt compelled to share. What’s taking you so long?

Each job has its own unique title—such as Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Jones—and an insignia denoting the rating included on his or her uniform.

What makes the system so confusing is the constant creation of new jobs, the merging of jobs or eliminating them entirely as the service requires.

For example, in the last several years the Navy has created ratings for unmanned vehicle operators and cyber-warfare technicians while losing or merging jobs such as patternmaker and boiler technician.

The following is a collection of former Navy ratings (and one defunct officer rank) made mostly obsolete by advances in technology and occasionally by more modern stances on race, gender, and—at least in one case—child-labor norms.

via A Brief List of Old, Obscure and Obsolete U.S. Navy Jobs – USNI News.

A fun little piece.