TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01 - TRADOC - U.S. Army

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01excitement akin to the butterflies he’d felt before hitting the ice with the Notre Dame hockeyteam.He’d drilled his platoon about as hard as he could in preparing for the dreaded table 8 andthen Irwin. They’d done well, especially Deans’ crew, the guy he’d joined the division with only5 months earlier. He had hoped to spend some more time with Jillian, but it could wait. Hewasn’t sure he was ready to propose, and if they were going into a shooting war he might notcome back. Maybe it was better that they had cooled it. Jillian was an Army brat. She knew thescore, but she wasn’t real pleased with him heading off to the training center. She’d texted himnearly every day, but they had talked only twice in the month he’d been gone.Sergeant Billy Deans was mad as a hatter when he got the word. His crew was lookingforward to a barbeque once they got off work. His wife, Andie, had it all prepared. Now hecouldn’t even call her to turn it off! He thought about his guys. Most of them were married likehe was. They would be okay. He wasn’t so sure about the new guy. He’d done fine on therotation, but he was sure green.“Man,” he thought, “The real deal and us just back from Irwin. This really sucks!” Heclimbed into the hatch of his FSV-G and fired up the system. Colonel Stacy and all the companycommanders were signed in along with reps from every platoon. Deans logged in as a monitoronlyparticipant. Soon his screen filled with text and graphics as the outline of the planappeared. The map was central Sumatra instead of Fort Irwin, but the graphics were nearly thesame, including AO Aerie. So they were actually going to execute the plan! He wondered howthey were going to get close enough to do the mounted vertical maneuver forcible entryoperation. Soon he saw the plan appear. Their vehicles and equipment were going by C17 toDarwin, Australia. The crews would join them via commercial air. The Condors were selfdeployingwith skeletal crews from the battalion. They’d all marry up in Darwin with parts of therest of the brigade and the division now designated TF Green. A good deal of the TF was prepositionedin the region both afloat and ashore. This was going to be the biggest show since thecapture of Baghdad. It still sucked, but Deans was fired up.When people thought about 2007 in 1987 few could imagine nearly everyone having a cellphone and ubiquitous Internet with such unknown words as Google and Facenet, or any numberof other commonly accepted tools that S&T has put in the Army’s hands in twenty years. Thisfictional account of a unit gearing up to go into combat is a glimpse into a future perhaps no morethan 10 years hence. S&T matters and will make a major difference in how the military operatesin the future. Accepting that, the Army cannot afford not to adapt and adopt new technology as itemerges. At the same time, the Army must never forget Patton’s dictate that wars may be foughtwith machines but they are won by men and women.179