Pentathletes in the 82nd Airborne Division: developing critical capabilities for the Army.

This interview was conducted just before Major General Caldwell gave up command of the 82nd Airborne Division on 7 April.

Editor

Q You directed your division artillery (Div Arty) commander (Colonel Victor Petrenko) to transition the Div Arty into the division's 4th Brigade Combat Team (modular BCT) and become its first commander. Do you think that Field Artillery officers should be eligible for Department of the Army (DA) selection to BCT commands?

A We must pick the most capable, qualified person to command our troops, regardless of branch. Branch designations should not be inhibitors for BCT commands. So the answer is, "Yes."

Like the Chief of Staff [of the Army] said, we in the 82nd Airborne Division develop "Pentathletes." We take people who already arc proficient in their basic branches and have excellent skill sets and begin developing them into Pentathletes--we give them additional challenging responsibilities that broaden their career scopes.

For example, we take young FA officers who already have commanded a battery very successfully and give them second commands of headquarters companies in infantry battalions or troops in RSTA [reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition] battalions. We've taken an Artillery major who already had served successfully as a Div Arty S3 and on the division staff and made him a BCT XO [executive officer]. We made Major [Promotable Jeffrey M.] Jeff Sanborn an infantry brigade executive officer for a year because he was the most qualified person I had to serve in that position. And DA has endorsed my confidence in Jeff by selecting him to command an Artillery battalion.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Our 3rd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment [3-319 AFAR], the Gun Devils, deployed to Afghanistan to work for the 173rd Airborne Brigade and did an absolutely superb job as a ground maneuver force--in addition to providing indirect fires. [Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand A. Ges] Bert Ges [Commander of 3-319 AFAR] trained the Redlegs in one of his [105-mm] batteries as 155-mm gunners, and they conducted fire missions with M198 155s the entire year in Afghanistan. He also employed a 105-mm battery in Afghanistan and integrated infantry units into his battalion task force. He is a very competent officer who happens to be Artillery by trade.

I think I've got the best Artillerymen in the United States Army in the 82nd Division because they are so versatile and adaptable. It starts at the most senior levels with [Brigadier General James A.] Jim Cerrone, who worked for me as my Assistant Division Commander [ADC] for Support for one year, and I was blessed enough to keep him here as my ADC for Operations. My other DCG, [Brigadier General] Rodney Anderson, also is a Field Artilleryman. I served in the 25th Infantry Division when he was the Div Arty commander there. These officers are versatile, precise and capable--have done absolutely fabulous jobs.

My division command sergeant major is a Field Artilleryman: Wolf Amacker. In my 30 years in the Army, I've never had more respect or admiration for an NCO than I do Wolf. He gets up everyday saying, "What can I do for paratroopers today?"

But I didn't choose any of these outstanding leaders for positions in the division because they were Field Artillerymen; I chose them because they were the best men to do the jobs. It is critical that we grow multi-talented Soldiers and leaders into adaptable, flexible Pentathletes.

For the past two years, we have done what the Chief of Staff said and developed Pentathletes. We've been doing that in every area, not just with Artillerymen. We've taken Armor officers and some aviators and put them in infantry brigade headquarters.

The reason we must do that is because we have seen in our deployments into Iraq and Afghanistan, time and time again, nobody executes standard missions. Everything has become non-standard.

And our deployments have been significant. We've deployed and redeployed 13,000 of our Soldiers into the CENT-COM [Central Command] theater--almost the entire division (which is roughly 15,000 Soldiers).

We, literally, have had a deployed Artillery battery commander fire FA or coordinate for indirect fire in support of a ground maneuver element in the morning and coordinate with some mullah for passageways for our forces through his area in the afternoon. The next day, he led a CMO [civil-military operations] team into a village and then commanded a ground maneuver convoy in the afternoon--then the next morning he was back in his headquarters.

The days when we could take an Artillery officer--any officer--and have him or her specialize in one skill set are gone. We don't have that luxury anymore. He or she has to be a Pentathlete on the battlefield. We must train Soldiers and leaders at home station to develop the Pentathlete skills and mindset. We can't wait until they're in combat.

Q How is the 82nd Division training Field Artillerymen to ensure they are proficient at providing fires?

A Because we have such well trained Field Artillerymen, we routinely have training exercises with some danger-close live-fire missions.

Years ago, the Artillery community in the 82nd Airborne Division developed a "Red Book." It has all the standards, requirements and expectations for every Artilleryman who's a part of the division--from individual to collective tasks. It's our Bible, and we don't deviate from it.

We deployed 10 battalion task forces to Iraq or Afghanistan in the last two years, and Field Artillerymen were in every task force. Those task forces counted on their Artillerymen to provide close and indirect fires. As the task force commanders reported to me, they understood and appreciated the value their Field Artillerymen brought. That is due, at least in part, to the fires training we conduct in the division.

In the 82nd Airborne Division, we have combined-arms live-fire exercises [CALFEXs]. These are not battalion CALFEXs but company CALFEXs where we integrate 60- and 81-mm mortars, 105-mm howitzers, attack helicopters and close air support [CAS]--rotary-wing CAS at a minimum. That's very complex for the company level, requiring the best possible Artillerymen to integrate and work all those fires for their company commanders.

Q As your division is a modular force without a Div Arty, how do you cover the force FA headquarters capabilities, such as ensuring the training and certification of your FA division-wide?

A Our brigade combat team commanders are responsible for the oversight and training of their Artillery battalions. Those are their jobs now. And they've got the Red Book as the non-negotiable standard--which is becoming part of division Regulation 350-1 Training.

It's working, I think in part, because we take Artillerymen who have already proven their branch skill sets in their branch qualification jobs and are putting them in other places in the BCTs. The 2nd BCT's Artillery battalion training is probably just a little better because an Artilleryman is the brigade XO and he can ask the tough detailed questions.

Q What do you think about the joint fires observer (JFO) concept?

A I'm a huge fan of the JFO. In the future, we are going to fight joint, so we have to develop the capabilities, such as JFOs, and train to fight joint.

When I got to the division two years ago, we used to have "Large Package Week" once every two or three months. The Air Force would bring in a large package of aircraft for one week, and we'd conduct airborne proficiency training.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

But we changed that about a year and a half ago. We now have eight exercises a year, called "joint forcible-entry exercises" incorporating all four services.

Every operation will be joint. No matter what the mission is, at a minimum, we're going to get on Air Force aircraft. We're probably going to need to call for CAS using JFOs, JTACs [joint terminal attack controllers] or Marine ANGLICOs [air naval gunfire liaison company]. We'll be using Navy P3s for imagery.

The joint forcible-entry exercise is one week long. Monday is the coordination phase; then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights we execute the training with a big after-action review on Friday. In those three nights, about 3,500 paratroopers jump. We drop between 20 and 60 heavy pieces of equipment and do anywhere between 20 to 30 air-land operations on dirt strips.

At the same time, we have JSTARS [joint surveillance and target attack radar system] overhead with some of our people onboard. We send them for a week's training on JSTARS before they fly on the surveillance aircraft.

If we can't get JSTARS, then we use the Air Force's Jackpot. It's a command and control platform, a tubular unit that you push into the back of a C-130 aircraft. Jackpot has a communications suite to control the battle from the air. Our people get training on Jackpot too.

We also bring in the Air Force Red Horse team, engineers and a CRG, or contingency response group. Once the paratroopers have jumped in and seized an airfield, the CRG lands behind them and assumes control of the airfield.

We start planning each exercise a month in advance. We establish joint objectives, have joint planning conferences and conduct joint rehearsals.

Q Because of issues raised by the 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, a request is in for the Army to code the BCT deputy commanding officer (DCO) position as 02 Officer Generalist. Please comment.

A I agree that the DCO position should be branch-immaterial.

When I needed two DCOs for my brigades, I asked TRADOC [Training and Doctrine Command] for a list of two to five stud lieutenant colonels who have been out of the fight in TRADOC assignments for two years. I wanted to take people out of the schoolhouse who had been conducting the training that is so critical to our Army and bring them into the operational force.

TRADOC gave me a list of five great Americans. I selected two from that list who will deploy with their brigades in the next several months. One is coming out of the schoolhouse at Fort Benning, Georgia, and will deploy with one of my BCTs to Iraq as the DCO. The other is coming out of the Airborne School at Fort Benning where he's been teaching airborne students for the last two years. He will deploy to Afghanistan with his BCT as DCO.

Now, both these DCOs turned out to be Infantrymen. But when I asked TRADOC for the list, I specifically said, "I'm not looking for any particular branch. 1 would prefer the list have Infantry, Artillery or Armor officers, but I'm wide open to recommendations." In other words, I wanted the best officers for the DCO jobs, regardless of their branches.

Q The guided multiple-launch rocket system (GMLRS) unitary (no duds), a precision-guided munition (PGM), is very precise and has a footprint that is scalable to minimize collateral damage and optimize its use in urban and complex terrain, even when fired from as far away as 70 kilometers. GMLRS was first fired in the CENTCOM theater last fall and is being employed by Army and Marine forces with great success today. How important is this precision-guided capability for current and future operations?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A I already have been briefed on GMLRS unitary in preparation for my next assignment in Baghdad [as Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Effects for the MultiNational Force-Iraq]. PGMs have had to be aerial-delivered by Air Force platforms. We now have an all-weather, 24/7 capability we can employ from extended distances that we've never had before. That is incredible.

GMLRS unitary is a critical force multiplier for the ground maneuver commander. (Notice I did not say "infantry commander" but "ground maneuver commander"--whoever that is.)

Q In recent testing, the new all-weather 155-mm Excalibur unitary, also a PGM, has done very well, impacting within four meters of the center of a 20-by-20-meter structure when fired from 19 kilometers away. This munition can range to 40 kilometers and has a near vertical trajectory for use in urban or close terrain operations or in close support of troops. It is projected for fielding in the CENTCOM theater in the First Quarter of FY07. How important will this organic capability be to ground force operations in CENTCOM?

A I'm very familiar with Excalibur unitary. For the first time, we have an all-weather, fire-and-forget cannon munition.

The ground force maneuver commander now has control of a 24/7 PGM capability.

In combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, our troops repeatedly receive fire from places that they don't want to return fire with artillery because of the collateral damage that would occur. Now the commander has the option of using cannons immediately with minimum collateral damage and close to friendly forces, which translates into saving American Soldiers' and Iraqis' lives.

Q What message would you like to send Army and Marine Field Artillerymen stationed around the world?

A In my experience, you Field Artillerymen have proven to be multi-talented Pentathletes. In selecting officers and command sergeants major for challenging positions, branch should be immaterial. The decision should be about the qualifications and competence of the officer or NCO leader being considered for the position. When we select high-performers for "cross-branch" positions, then we are growing Pentathletes for the Army.

Major General William B. Caldwell IV is the former Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and now is the Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Effects in the Multinational Force-Iraq. In previous assignments, he was the Senior Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon and Deputy Director of Operations, J-3, US Pacific Command at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii. Also in Hawaii, he was the Assistant Division Commander for Operations of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) at Schofield Barracks, the division in which he commanded his battalion. He served as the Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as the Chief of the Strategic Concepts Branch in the Office of the Director for Strategic Plans and Policy, J-5, on the Joint Staff, both at the Pentagon. He commanded the 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) at Fort Drum, New York. He is a veteran of Operations Just Cause in Panama, Desert Shield/Storm in Iraq and Restore Hope/Uphold Democracy in Haiti. He holds two master's degrees.

Major General William B. Caldwell IV

Former Commanding General of the 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Interview by Patrecia Slayden Hollis