Controlling the Beast Within. The Key to Success on 21st-Century Battlefields

摘要

The gravel brigade commander roared 'What do I want you to do. I want you to kill them.' It was 14 November 1997, and the 3rd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division (the 'Iron Brigade') was taking part in an 'Advanced Warfighter Experiment' at Fort Hood, Texas. The purpose of the exercise was to validate the Army's 'Force XXI' concept. Via computer simulation, the division was testing the effectiveness of the latest digital communications gear, reconnaissance aircraft, and combat systems against a Soviet-modeled armored force. Blips on the brigade command post's giant flat- screen monitor had just indicated that the massive units of the enemy (the evil 'Krasnovians') were on the move. The Krasnovian 2nd Army Group was attacking the division. Within the brigade's sector, the brigade S2 had rightly predicted that the first echelon of the enemy's attack would include two motorized rifle divisions of the enemy's 1st Combined Arms Army. If the brigade survived to see it, an enemy tank division would follow. On this, the last day of the exercise, the Iron Brigade's bald, physically fit, and imposing commander was putting on a show. If 'Old Blood and Guts' himself, General George S. Patton, had been there, he would have been impressed.