Comments
Another who seems to advocate some kind of standing advisory capability much like retired-LTC Nagl talked about....and I agree.
There are discussion threads on BCKS about the future of the advising mission. Some ideas that I'd like to throw out include:
- establish a Advisor functional area. I've mentioned this in the past but have been told there is much push-back regarding this idea.
- move away from deploying entire brigades for advise & assist; maintain advisory manpower and capabilties within every BCT. Just as DRF-1 BCTs are ready to deploy at the drop of a hat (or large bomb), a BCT designated as the "DRF-1 advise & assist BDE" will have pre-designated advisor teams identified, manned, trained, and ready to launch if called....OR
- do away with advisor brigades entirely and go back to MTT/ ETT concept (my preferred choice). Assign folks to 162d BDE for three year rotations where they deploy on advisor teams for their first year, serve as advisor trainers during their second year, and for their third year, either deploy on a team again or, if not needed downrange, continue to serve as a trainer. Service as a advisor can substitute for service as a OC at one of the CTCs.
- if we are to maintain advisor brigades, we may want to consider using AC/ RC training support brigades or one of the active duty training support battalions as the base around which advisor teams are built and deployed. You'd get teams of officers and senior NCOs that already know how to teach, coach, & mentor coupled with advisor-trained field grades who have the rank to interact with host-nation leaders.
- mandate language training as an integral skill for every officer and NCO. DA and/ or DOD will determine which languages are the most important to focus on
- look at allowing CPT thru LTC to serve short TDY postings with OGAs like DOS, DOJ, DEA, FEMA in order to learn about other agencies that we will likely work with as we execute SFA; and consider similiar TDY postings with international NGOs like Red Cross, UNHCR, American Refugee Committee, etc. This will allow us to become familiar with non-military organizations working in areas where we are likely to deploy, utilize the language skills we have been mandated to learn, learn about non-military organizations and how they interact with local nationals, and bring all of those insights back to the force in order to develop a better idea on how to operate in a nation-building, SFA environment where we will likely be interacting with a variety of US, local, & non-governmental agencies.