Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Tacoma News Tribune
December 14, 2007 By Michael Gilbert, The News Tribune
SENDAI, Japan – Twenty-four hours later, Col. Mark Avery was still ticked off.
There had been an enemy chemical weapons attack, and news reporters used Avery’s remarks to fuel a story that U.S. commanders had imposed a news blackout. Why, the reporters asked, were they not being told about the numbers of American troops killed in the strike?
The whole scenario is fictitious –one of dozens of similar episodes from the Yama Sakura exercises under way in this port city three hours northwest of Tokyo – Sendai, Japan.
Avery is one of 600 soldiers from Fort Lewis-based I Corps who are here for the annual war games with their counterparts from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.
Make-believe or not, Avery was genuinely torqued Thursday that his comments had contributed to media coverage suggesting the Americans had something to hide. It was not the desired effect.
“We all feel an internal motivation to give it our best effort,” the I Corps personnel officer said. “Where the stress comes is in us wanting to do our best.”
It’s not difficult for soldiers fighting the war game to willingly suspend their disbelief, even though many have been downrange for the real thing in Baghdad and Kandahar, said Col. Dave McBride. He leads a team here from the Army’s Battle Command Training Program in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
“It’s very easy to get caught up in what’s going on,” McBride said. “You are trying to ply your trade, and you think, ‘I can beat those little red icons on the computer.’
“And then you find out, ‘Whoa, they’re kicking your (butt).’”
In Yama Sakura, the little red dots represent a fictional adversary that has invaded Japan.
They drive deep into the U.S. and Japanese lines, force the Americans to damage Japanese bridges, roads and airports, send hundreds of refugees streaming away from the invaders’ advance and shower the island nation with tactical ballistic missile strikes.
They even establish air superiority for a time over the Sea of Japan.
There are no real troops on the ground, no fighters and bombers in the air, and no ships and submarines at sea. They’re all simulated via computer by the war-gamers back at Leavenworth, at Sendai and at Fort Lewis.
The events are admittedly far-fetched – “nobody’s going to invade Japan,” McBride said.
But the circumstances push the ability of the U.S. and Japanese commanders and their staffs to understand what’s happening, move information and decisions up and down the chain of command, and then respond to what the enemy does next. The partners have to work out language and cultural differences. They have to learn to write clear, concise orders. The effects play out militarily, but also in politics, the economy, in the media and in the local infrastructure.
“We throw all that other stuff in there,” McBride said, “because in this modern world, it’s never just military on military.”
I Corps has been coming to Japan for Yama Sakura for more than two decades, and the exercise has been an important part in the strong military ties between the two countries.
This year’s version has a second purpose for the Fort Lewis group: It’s the first big training event for Lt. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby and his staff in their preparations for an expected Iraq deployment in early 2009. The corps will prepare with several more large-scale exercises over the next year.
A team of retired generals and others are in Sendai to monitor the exercise and coach the I Corps team. They’re advisers working under contract with Northrop Grumman.
One of those advisers is a former corps and Fort Lewis commander, retired Gen. James T. Hill. He took a minute after Thursday morning’s battle update briefing to encourage the corps staff to sharpen its focus.
A few minutes earlier a staff officer had broken the news – nearly a day late – that an inbound Marine task force would be delayed 16 hours.
Why? Hill asked.
Have to get back to you on that one, sir.
Hill said that wouldn’t cut it.
“The single greatest attribute of a staff officer is curiosity,” he said, urging the 60 soldiers around the corps operations center to ask questions and follow up on reports that don’t seem to make sense. It’s their job to gather information so the commander can make an informed decision.
“When you get over in theater that’s going to be more important because you are going to see him less and less and less,” Hill said, referring to the corps’ anticipated deployment to Iraq. “You are going to have to make some of these decisions on your own.”
The exercise continues through Sunday, wrapping up with a long after-action report, a visit by the Army chief of staff and ceremonies to seal another year of bonding between the two armies.
Whatever feedback they get at the end of this one, the corps staff will start flying back to Fort Lewis next week knowing this: They get to do it all over again in two months, with another exercise. This time in Korea.
December 14, 2007 By Michael Gilbert, The News Tribune
SENDAI, Japan – Twenty-four hours later, Col. Mark Avery was still ticked off.
There had been an enemy chemical weapons attack, and news reporters used Avery’s remarks to fuel a story that U.S. commanders had imposed a news blackout. Why, the reporters asked, were they not being told about the numbers of American troops killed in the strike?
The whole scenario is fictitious –one of dozens of similar episodes from the Yama Sakura exercises under way in this port city three hours northwest of Tokyo – Sendai, Japan.
Avery is one of 600 soldiers from Fort Lewis-based I Corps who are here for the annual war games with their counterparts from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.
Make-believe or not, Avery was genuinely torqued Thursday that his comments had contributed to media coverage suggesting the Americans had something to hide. It was not the desired effect.
“We all feel an internal motivation to give it our best effort,” the I Corps personnel officer said. “Where the stress comes is in us wanting to do our best.”
It’s not difficult for soldiers fighting the war game to willingly suspend their disbelief, even though many have been downrange for the real thing in Baghdad and Kandahar, said Col. Dave McBride. He leads a team here from the Army’s Battle Command Training Program in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
“It’s very easy to get caught up in what’s going on,” McBride said. “You are trying to ply your trade, and you think, ‘I can beat those little red icons on the computer.’
“And then you find out, ‘Whoa, they’re kicking your (butt).’”
In Yama Sakura, the little red dots represent a fictional adversary that has invaded Japan.
They drive deep into the U.S. and Japanese lines, force the Americans to damage Japanese bridges, roads and airports, send hundreds of refugees streaming away from the invaders’ advance and shower the island nation with tactical ballistic missile strikes.
They even establish air superiority for a time over the Sea of Japan.
There are no real troops on the ground, no fighters and bombers in the air, and no ships and submarines at sea. They’re all simulated via computer by the war-gamers back at Leavenworth, at Sendai and at Fort Lewis.
The events are admittedly far-fetched – “nobody’s going to invade Japan,” McBride said.
But the circumstances push the ability of the U.S. and Japanese commanders and their staffs to understand what’s happening, move information and decisions up and down the chain of command, and then respond to what the enemy does next. The partners have to work out language and cultural differences. They have to learn to write clear, concise orders. The effects play out militarily, but also in politics, the economy, in the media and in the local infrastructure.
“We throw all that other stuff in there,” McBride said, “because in this modern world, it’s never just military on military.”
I Corps has been coming to Japan for Yama Sakura for more than two decades, and the exercise has been an important part in the strong military ties between the two countries.
This year’s version has a second purpose for the Fort Lewis group: It’s the first big training event for Lt. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby and his staff in their preparations for an expected Iraq deployment in early 2009. The corps will prepare with several more large-scale exercises over the next year.
A team of retired generals and others are in Sendai to monitor the exercise and coach the I Corps team. They’re advisers working under contract with Northrop Grumman.
One of those advisers is a former corps and Fort Lewis commander, retired Gen. James T. Hill. He took a minute after Thursday morning’s battle update briefing to encourage the corps staff to sharpen its focus.
A few minutes earlier a staff officer had broken the news – nearly a day late – that an inbound Marine task force would be delayed 16 hours.
Why? Hill asked.
Have to get back to you on that one, sir.
Hill said that wouldn’t cut it.
“The single greatest attribute of a staff officer is curiosity,” he said, urging the 60 soldiers around the corps operations center to ask questions and follow up on reports that don’t seem to make sense. It’s their job to gather information so the commander can make an informed decision.
“When you get over in theater that’s going to be more important because you are going to see him less and less and less,” Hill said, referring to the corps’ anticipated deployment to Iraq. “You are going to have to make some of these decisions on your own.”
The exercise continues through Sunday, wrapping up with a long after-action report, a visit by the Army chief of staff and ceremonies to seal another year of bonding between the two armies.
Whatever feedback they get at the end of this one, the corps staff will start flying back to Fort Lewis next week knowing this: They get to do it all over again in two months, with another exercise. This time in Korea.