For the Record: Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré
SFTT Special Report
02-21-2005
This is the transcript of an interview by DefenseWatch Contributing Editor Nathaniel R. Helms with Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré, Commanding General, First United States Army, on Feb. 17, 2005.http://www.sftt.org/
Q: How has the increased median age of the mobilized National Guard and Reservists affected the ability to train them?
HONORÉ: The first thing we do is go through a pretty rigorous physical examination and if a soldier is physically sound, which includes screening for all those of problems associated with when we get older, we screen them significantly and there is a certain percentage that don’t make it through what we call elected screening process when they show up at the MOB station. So from a medical perspective we make sure they are healthy and we do that the first week or two they are at the mobilization station. And from that we start integrating physical training and at the end of the 100 days …. My observation is they are in pretty good shape … and they withstand the rigors of training in that … as you know pretty high intensity environment … and from all measurable results from the two units … the two brigades we have sent over to Iraq … are performing well. I don’t want to overstate this … we train with what we have and we fight with these guys and they are performing well. There is a level of maturity that comes with the older soldiers that has a value of its own inside the formation.
Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré confers with a soldier during a recent
inspection visit. U.S. Army photo.
They may not be able run as fast and as long as the eighteen-year olds, but sometimes in this fight we are fighting right now it is the maturity and the thinking is equal to when you shoot and when you don’t shoot.
On older soldiers’ effectiveness:
I was just out with a platoon last night and they are older than the platoons I had when I was a division commander, but they come with a willingness to learn, they are in good physical condition, the fact that they are a little older, I think, adds a level of maturity and when we sit down and talk about what needs to be done to make that platoon attack more effective, they absorb this stuff. You can see the light come on, “I remember that from some point in time.”
So they are very receptive to learning and they have one equally shared value they all have and that is to go get that mission done and come back alive. I saw a fire team this morning and would say the average age of that team was about 28 years old. They were motivated and training like heck and they had all the armor on and they were very attentive and they went through with one practice and basically rehearsed the task and were moving on with the mission with a whole lot of “hooahing” in between.
So there is a sense of maturity, I can’t overstate it, but I don’t want to understate it, but I think it’s the fact that it has a training added value of its own. I can’t quantify it and we will see over time if this holds up.
On mobilized soldiers’ motivation and willingness to fight:
I think they bring a level of maturity to value life even more. In that respect, I get periodic reports from my brigade commanders that are forward on the battlefield now, of any reluctance for a mission.
Q: Do you check on their willingness to perform the mission?
HONORÉ: “Oh hell yes. We do the best we can to train them but we try to receive feedback from those units that have gone over. Ok, what can we do better? What should have done more of? That is valuable to us as we prepare the next brigade.
Q: Has Immersion Training gotten the job done for these soldiers?
HONORÉ: Immersion Training is focused on two things … one of them is train [the way] we are going to fight and by trying to put them in that environment where they are challenged by dealing people who speak a different language.
Training them based on the skills, knowledge and abilities they will need in Iraq to fight the IED, the skill, knowledge and ability to be able to survive the mortar attack, and to come up with the proper response if ambushed. The big killers are the IED and mortars. The IED goes from the barest explosive to the vehicle-borne ones. [The soldiers] need to be suspicious to protect themselves. What that gives us when we go in full Immersion Training is train like you are going to fight but we also stretch that training day and we get about eighteen hours of training out of it because if you did a lane (a specific training exercise) today you got to prepare for the next one.
They are going to go into 14-day stretches in that FOB where they go out there and work 14 days at a time in that forward operating base. That gives that non-commissioned officer the absolute, total focus of those soldiers. There are no distractions in that FOB. You are either on guard, on QRF (Quick Reaction Force), or you are sleeping or you are preparing for a mission. It becomes a round-the-clock training environment. That is what we are trying to do in essence, get two days of training in one. And the training is repetitive so that every time you move out of that FOB you are going to come in contact with an IED.
Q. Was that by design or did it just grow up that way?
HONORÉ: Oh hell no. I think that was a genius who designed that (laughing). The training that we got at Camp Shelby is directly related to the tasks they are going to have to perform it Iraq. This is not necessarily something we have invented; it is what is happening in Iraq.
This is the value of the information age. We are able to get direct … and we do … get 24-hour [response] to lessons learned - Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL). They have a team on the ground in Iraq that sends lessons learned back. Also I have junior officers and NCOs there at Camp Shelby who exchange e-mails with people on the ground in Iraq.
The difference between this war and how we fought wars in the past is that brigade commander of 2-2-8 (2nd Brigade Combat Team, PAARNG) will go real soon with his battalion commanders and he is going to spend time on the ground in Iraq. He is going to go there and spend time with the units they are going to replace. He will go to the FOB he is going to operate with, he will recon some of the routes … and he is going to come back and help train the company commanders on that environment. This is a powerful way of leveraging our ability to move, to deploy commanders forward on the battlefield, and in the ever-changing concept of exchanging of information with warriors forward with those that are preparing to go.
And of course that other piece is we have infused our cadre with people who have recently been to Iraq. So by design, we have taken lessons from previous wars and how we may have done this … how we may not have done this and try to used the best practices in our immersion training.
Q. Is it working out all right?
HONORÉ: Well, I think the testament to that is the brigades we have forward on the battlefield right now, and they are performing superbly.
Q. Retention and recruitment is a big problem and stop-loss is the only barrier you got between losing a lot of your senior NCOs. How you going to address that?
HONORÉ: When they do their annual training, my trainers go with them. So I have officers. After Desert Storm we organized these training brigades like Col. [Daniel L.] Zajac [commander of the Army Reserve training brigade at Camp Shelby] has and the lesson we learned after looking at Desert Storm was that we wanted that cadre of officers working with our Reserve components on a regular basis. That is how we came up with these enhanced brigades. Those units have that cadre work with them throughout the year on their training programs. Whether they have a weekend training drill for three or four days or they go for two weeks for their annual training, since Desert Storm, this dedicated group of trainers – TSBs – has been working with those units.
They have not been working with them with the intensity that they do now since they have been mobilized, but they know these units, they work with them. That means this, the adjustment of them coming and being mobilized and being focused full time on the performance of these tasks to go to Iraq that they trained on is directly related to that.
Now, our primary function of First Army is to train and mobilize. The sustainment of the strength of these units we have an indirect influence on, because if that soldier comes to the mobilization station, and there is some issue with the quality of his training, he may not have the confidence, and that I think would drive the negative effect on the future. If he comes in and he is well trained, and he leaves there confident, and competent in his war-fighting skills, he knows he is going to go do that mission and he is ready to do it. That is why he gets the most modern equipment we can give him, they get the full force of this immersion training, and my observations are these soldiers are leaving motivated and confident that they are ready for the mission.
I think we are blessed with this generation. These young men and women who step up to the plate and doing in some extraordinary conditions, and I can’t be more proud of them.
On women in the Army
I don’t think it is an issue. The best people to ask are units that have women in them, that is the most balanced [way to find out]. I have engaged or observed that on more than one occasion - as you know, women are not directly assigned inside the infantry squad, and armor and some of the other units, cavalry, and other forward units - that is policy, but I see women making great contributions in our Army in a substantive way and they are doing a very fine job. I value women.
As a division commander and a brigade commander, women were in my unit. They’re in here today and we are training them. I think our Army policy is clear and the less bravado we get into concerning that I think the better. They are serving well with distinction. And, by the way, they are getting injured, blown up in vehicles in Iraq at this time.
There is no forward area of the battlefield and no rear area anymore, you know that. In this kind of a war, an insurgency, the United States isn’t a rear area. They have attacked us on our soil. I think women are making an important contribution, we ought to recognize that, and there are certain skills and certain units that the policy states that they can or cannot be in, but they are making significant contributions to our Army, and they always have. I’ll tell you what, I was out there this morning at Fort Stewart and yesterday afternoon I was in a forward support battalion where the Class Nine officer was a new warrant officer, and I will tell you what she was making some stuff happen. I mean what do you want me to tell you?
Q: Do we have enough qualified troops to fill our needs for the next twelve months? If there was a sudden need to expand our forces could we do it? Ids there anything left to expand with?
HONORÉ: We have done it before; we have expanded the Army. We expanded it after retracting it in World War II; reduced the size of the Army and expanded it, and we did the same thing after World War I, so we can expand the Army. If it comes up in policy and that is the national will that the Army be expanded, it will be expanded.
Q: Does First Army have a contingency plan tucked away somewhere?
HONORÉ: No, I am not saying that because our focus is on the Reserves and the National Guard. But if you are asking is the Army capable of expanding, and the policy is set to do that, and the policy and the resources and the boss tell us to expand the Army, I am sure we will expand the Army. You said can we and I say, yes, we have done it before and we can expand it again, that can happen. |
