Note to subscribers: Sorry, yesterday I published in haste my thoughts on Hegseth’s presentation. He mentioned that the U.S. military’s warfighting abilities should be the goal. He also mentioned the First Gulf War capabilities but did not go into any detail. The details associated with the First Gulf War are mind-blogging. Therefore, I have included them in this addition beginning with the paragraph, HOW GOOD CAN OUR MILITARY BECOME? Also, the final paragraph on what President Trump should do next is new.
This is 30 September and this morning Secretary Hegseth addressed, in person, about 800 assembled senior U.S. military leaders from all over the world. It was certainly one of, if not THE MOST OUTSTANDING, leader presentations ever. Recommendation, don’t read it, watch it on U-Tube to get the full effect.
If asked to summarize the thrust in a couple words, I would say it was about standards for war fighting and the totality of the culture that can make it happen.
ABOUT “STANDARDS” IN GENERAL (what Pete did not tell you)
“An organization without standards is a failed organization.” Unfortunately, the best and most visible example of this is the U.S. Congress. And we the people know this because in every type of poll taken about organizations, our Congress is always dead last.
The U.S. military had lost its way in the 1970’s. In the mid 1980’s a small group of general officers in key positions in the U.S. Army decided it must get fixed. First was a herculean effort to identify the applicable war-fighting TASKS for every MOS, military occupational specialty (infantryman, artilleryman, medic, intelligence, aviation etc. etc. etc.). And do it for each grade; junior enlisted, a brand-new sergeant, mid-level sergeants, senior sergeants and all officer grades. It was volumes. Then they had to identify different CONDITIONS if it impacted the task. The simplest example is a particular task would be significantly impacted in daytime vs night and have a standard for each.
Having all that information on hand, they then set about to establish a STANDARD for each task under an identified condition. We, the U.S. Army, changed everything about how to train and lead by 1990 (the example Pete used) we were without a doubt the most highly trained fighting force in the world. Pete also mentioned The First Gulf War1992 as a perfect example of what a force that highly trained can accomplish in a very short time.
‘TASKS, CONDITIONS, STANDARDS’ became the Holy Grail for building an unmatched war-fighting machine.
MORE ON STANDARDS
“An organization without standards is a failed organization”; we got that. But take that a step further, “an organization that has compromised its standards is also a failed organization.” That is where we are today and Pete did a perfect job of laying all that out and how to fix it.
HOW GOOD CAN OUR MILITARY BECOME?
Pete mentioned 1990 warfighting capabilities as an end-state. Why?
THE FIRST GULF WAR
The next day on the 3rd of August President Bush deployed U.S. naval forces to the Persian Gulf. Which bordered on both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
On the 7th of August 15,000 U.S. troops, 32 destroyers and 100 aircraft arrived in Saudi Arabia.
8 August, the U.S. Operation Desert Shield launched.
9 August, the UN condemns the Iraqi invasion.
Sixteen days later on 18 August the United Nations finally demanded Iraq depart Kuwait. The UN had 45 years of practice reacting to world crises with these type of worthless demands.
The United States transitioned from operation Desert Shield, the build-up period, to Operation Desert Storm, the counter attack against Iraq’s mother of all armies.
Here are some statistics defining Desert Storm that will blow your mind. I’ve rounded off the numbers to make them more understandable.
- Coalition member nations: 39 countries, of which 28 contributed combat forces.
- Force size: Approximately 670,000 troops from 28 countries.
- Coalition air component size: 2,250 combat aircraft.
- Coalition airlift: 509,000 passengers and 595,000 tons of cargo carried.
- Coalition sorties flown: 100,000-plus.
- Aerial refueling: 15,000 sorties that dispensed 110 million gallons of fuel.
- Number of dumb bombs dropped: 210,000.
- Number of smart bombs dropped: 9,300.
- Duration of the air campaign before ground invasion: 39 days.
- Iraqi tanks lost during the war: 3,700 out of 4,300 in inventory.
- Number of U.S. Carrier Battle Groups on station, 6.
- Coalition POWs taken during the war: 26.
- Iraqi POWs taken during the war: 70,000-plus.
- U.S. combat-related deaths: 147
- Iraqi military deaths: 100,000-plus.
- Ground war duration and this final statistic is overwhelming; duration of the ground war, 100 hours against Saddam Hussein’s more than half a million soldiers in defensive positions.
This all happened between August and the following February. Beyond the magnitude of the war-fighting personnel and equipment, think about the daily logistics of delivering food, water, thousands of tons of ammunition to be moved, and handling 70,000 POWs, all of it happening in the Saudi Arabian desert which is over 7,000 miles from middle America. Simply amazing.
This all happened after a generation of work to focus the U.S. military on one thing; warfighting.
CONCLUSIONS:
Every American should watch Secretary Hegseth’s presentation; breath-taking.
We can, we must return our military to the 1990 end state.
PRESIDENT TRUMP ATTENDED AND MADE TWO MISTAKES
The first mistake was the president arrived by helicopter about the time Pete finished his presentation. President Trump should have been watching from stage-left the entire time.
Second mistake, no one, including the president, could successfully follow a presentation like that one. The best follow-on would have been for the president to walk on stage just as Pete finished. Everyone would have stood at attention. The president would say, “take your seats, I have three questions for each of you.
“One, did you, not collectively, but did you personally understand everything your leader just told you?
“Two, are you capable of accomplishing everything he wants you to do?’
“And three, are you personally committed to doing it?”
“If the answer to any of these three questions is NO, I want you to retire immediately.”
“There is nothing I have to add to Pete’s fabulous presentation, just know that I have faith in all of you and I have your back. Get out there and make it happen; be all you can be.”
BOTTOM LINE
It’s worth your time to watch it!
President Trump should immediately hold an emergency cabinet meeting and say the following:
I hope you all watched Pete’s presentation to his senior leaders. If you didn’t, watch it today.
You all are on the same leadership level as Pete. Before the end of October, I want each of you to put together your own presentation for your department. As a minimum, it should, in its totality, define the culture of your organization going forward and specifically define your daily operational standards.
Then, before the end of November, present it to your assembled senior leaders. I will attend.
Got it?