New commander discusses lessons learned in Iraq
Army News Service
Release Date: 9/02/2003
By Bob Kerr
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Army News Service, Sept. 2, 2003) -- He may have left Iraq more than two months ago, but the soldiers he left behind are never far from his mind, Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace told Kansas City area television and print reporters Aug. 23.
Wallace commanded the Germany-based V Corps and all Army forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom until mid-June, when he left Iraq to become the commander of the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth.
"When I left Baghdad, I was leaving my soldiers," Wallace said. "We had fought for three months, but we had trained together for about three years before."
As a commander, Wallace said he felt a responsibility to stay with the soldiers he led, but the Army had other plans for him.
"We are a nation at war," he said. "Our first obligation is to the Army and the nation."
Now, as the new commander, Wallace has influence on the training of soldiers and development of leaders for current and future conflicts.
"I intend to use that experience in Iraq and that experience with our soldiers to make sure that the things that we're doing in the schoolhouse and in the training that we support here at the Combined Arms Center is on the mark," Wallace said.
Wallace said the center's influence and responsibilities go far beyond the gate of post.
The Center for Army Lessons Learned, another center activity, has deployed a special study group to interview soldiers in Iraq. These lessons are shared with the Army at large and, Wallace said, will be used for developing plans and programs.
Leader development and doctrine development are being influenced by the recent and current operations in the Global War on Terrorism, Wallace explained. He said he felt the current and future leaders and planners of the Army were up to the task.
"They are truly a hell of a lot smarter," Wallace answered when asked to compare the officers of today to when he was a young officer in Vietnam.
"They are very, very comfortable with technologies that are so prevalent in our society -- they in fact thrive in that environment," he said. "There's a certain amount of resolve you see you wouldn't have seen in the people who were here two, three or 10 years ago."
Despite the vast technology available to the U.S. military, Wallace said, lessons learned from the war in Iraq include a need for officers to understand the challenges of communications and command and control over long distances.
The long distances also made it challenging to keep the troops supplied.
"Our logistical systems did not support us well," he said. "Our ability to receive and distribute supplies when our large formations were on the move did not meet my expectations. That's something we need to tackle in the not too distant future."
Reporters also asked Wallace about a widely reported statement he had made that the enemy faced in Iraq was not the same as he had war gamed against.
"The enemy we were fighting was not what we had predicted," Wallace said, adding that planners were aware of the Fedayeen, foreign fighters and other factions, but explained.
"My understanding -- our general understanding -- was that they were there to control the population and maintain control over the populated areas, when in fact, as we moved across the country, they started attacking out of those populated areas," he said.
The aggressiveness and fanaticism of the often-suicidal attackers caused Wallace's forces to adjust operations.
"Thankfully, the young leaders and young soldiers made those adjustments and we got to Baghdad in about 16 days," he said.
"They were absolutely ferocious fighters when they needed to be," Wallace recalled, "and in a moment they could turn into the most compassionate people you could ever imagine."
(Editor's note: Bob Kerr is the Command Information Officer at Fort Leavenworth Combined Arms Center.)
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