Tactical Lessons Learned

On August 15, 2021, I doom-scrolled through social media feeds that tracked Kabul’s fall. By August 31, my phone had thousands of messages from hundreds of people I didn’t know two weeks before, and we’d helped some Afghan allies leave Afghanistan.

The in-between emphatically wasn’t me. It was (a) a coalition of ad-hoc networks that sprang into existence to help Afghans access (b) the herculean DoD/DoS evacuation effort in Kabul. I was on the grassroots side of things—a desk jockey armed with social media and email.

by Alan Farr

 In the past, the Army geared its gunnery program towards combat arms Military Occupational Specialties (MOS). The gunnery program trained combat Soldiers to be highly proficient on their assigned weapon platforms, mounted or unmounted, to safely and accurately engage the enemy during a time of war. Due to the increased combat role of logistics personnel in the operating environment, logistics now require the same weapon system expertise as their combat arms counterparts, especially while traveling on the road, mounted in military vehicles. The Army gunnery program is important for sustainment units to train gun truck crews and increase levels of survivability and functionality.

The Integrated Weapons Training Strategy (IWTS) training circular states, “The IWTS maximizes the use of training aids, devices, simulators, and simulations (known as TADSS) within all force-on-force and live-fire events in a systematic manner to increase and sustain Soldier and unit proficiency, effectiveness, and lethality.” Each crew in a gun truck with a mounted weapon platform consists of a driver, vehicle commander, and a gunner at a minimum. The vehicle commander, normally the highest-ranking, is in charge and is responsible for radio communication with external elements. Each member of the truck keeps a sharp lookout and must call out the distance, direction, and description for the gunner to engage the targets of enemy combatants at the vehicle commander’s order. Each member in the gun crew has their role. However, all of them must work together to qualify their crew on that gun truck. 

Gunnery was introduced to the sustainment world in 2010, due to the rising need for sustainment personnel to provide their own protection for supply convoys. According to Captain Brooks, a company commander in the 49th Transportation Battalion, “On today’s battlefield, sustainment organizations with minimal self-defense capabilities are often exposed to direct combat. The 49th Transportation Battalion was the first sustainment unit to complete section gunnery.” In April of 2010, Training Circular (TC) 4-11.46, Convoy Protection Platform Gunnery (CPPG), was released to outline requirements for these units. Training CPPG is now a mandatory requirement for many combat support units to have qualified gun truck crews. This training, although challenging, is necessary to train logisticians on tactical skills that will prepare them to provide security on their convoys in an operational environment.

Editorial note – This blog post is part of our Scribbles series. If interested in submitting creative content, view our guidelines here or contact Daniel Vigeant at dan@fromthegreennotebook.com.

By Phil Mitten

It was a searing hot and dry day. I still hadn’t acclimatised to the overwhelming heat, and even after four days, I couldn’t believe how intensely bright the sunlight seemed on the desert sand. Sunglasses and shadows were my new best friends. I felt as though the air just wasn’t dense enough, and at 109 F, the temperatures were easily the highest I had ever experienced. If only I was wearing shorts and a shirt instead of combats, body armour, and kevlar helmet.

Camp Bastion’s air strip was a furiously loud and busy place. In the waiting area, it was only too easy to tell whether the soldiers around me were arriving or departing by their facial expressions, their kit and the way they carried themselves. Some pairs of eyes stared a thousand yards away into nothingness. Their minds were further still.

by Andrew Klinger

I was both excited and anxious the day I got my orders to Minot Air Force Base. I requested to be sent to a nuclear missile base because of the challenges and opportunities  the mission presented. Every day, Airmen at Minot and its sister nuclear missile bases operate, maintain, and secure weapons that have an immediate and direct impact on US strategic policy. The thought of leading those Airmen was awesome but also daunting. In the weeks leading up to my first day in Minot, I was concerned with whether I had what it took to be the right leader in my unit. Unsure of what to do, I simply decided that I would approach everything with optimism and enthusiasm.

In time, I found (miraculously) my plan to simply throw my energy and passion into the job actually worked. I had a great relationship with my commander, my airmen appreciated my effort (or at least found their lieutenant’s attitudes novel/humorous), and I worked well with my peers to accomplish the mission. As a reward for my efforts, I was given an extremely unique opportunity that was the highlight of my time at Minot; the nuclear weapons convoy mission.

It was a major change of pace for me. I had my own unique vehicle fleet, command and control systems, specialized weapons, and an entire flight of hand-picked airmen. I also had to take responsibility for my own mission tasking and planning, work independently, and ensure the dozens of different agencies involved in every convoy were working in harmony with each other. But by far the biggest change for me was that I suddenly found myself with a significant degree of authority and responsibility to accomplish a mission that had very real consequences on US strategic policy.

What I humbly share here are the lessons I learned from long, cold days on the road, ensuring the safe and secure transport of the world’s most destructive weapons. They were hard-won lessons delivered to me in the form of long nights, strange situations, and a desire to do right by the most talented and motivated airmen in the Air Force. I hope these lessons help the next round of lieutenant’s taking up the watch in the great, wide north.