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New training chief: Lessons of Iraq to shape schooling

By Sgt. Ken Hall
December 15, 2005

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Dec. 15, 2005) -- The Army Training and Doctrine Command is incorporating lessons learned from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into current and future Soldier training, said TRADOC’s new commanding general.

In a round-table discussion with reporters at the Pentagon, Dec. 13, Gen. William “Scott” Wallace said training is the first step toward victory. Wallace took command of TRADOC two months ago.

"I truly believe that victory starts in TRADOC," said Wallace. "It starts in our classrooms, it starts on our ranges, it starts in our leader development programs. We're talking about victory for the fight that is going to happen tomorrow, and the one that is going to happen next Thursday, and the one that is going to happen 10 years from now. "

Non-traditional tactics being trained

TRADOC has already begun to change training of current and future Soldiers using lessons learned from current hot spots, Wallace said. For example, training on how improvised explosive devices are hidden and used in the current conflict.

Turnaround times from IED incidents to working examples for the training environment varies, but Wallace said there are times when the after-action report can reach the stateside training grounds in as little as one day.

“There was an incident about a year and a half ago where we saw the first incident of an IED placed inside the body of a dead animal along the roadside,” said Wallace. “Within 24 hours, similar techniques were being inducted into our training centers.”

Wallace, who led U.S. ground forces into Baghdad during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom said that it is TRADOC’s responsibility to ensure proper training and doctrine are in place for the troops who will fight future conflicts.

Convoys to cultural awareness

"We have a responsibility within TRADOC to focus our energies on being an engine for change in the Army,” said Wallace. “For example, we learned very early in the campaign the best techniques for convoy operations. We learned things like where the best place is to put a .50-caliber machine gun in a convoy.”

But the tools of war are not always limited to traditional weapons, he said.

“What we’ve been doing is taking a look at all the bad neighborhoods of the world,” said Wallace. “We’ve begun to map where those bad neighborhoods are and what languages are spoken in those areas in anticipation of someday that we may have to operate in those places.

“If you speak with the instructors at the Defense Language Institute, they’ll tell you it takes more than a year to create an Arab linguist. In my experience, when one learns the language, they also learn the culture associated with the language.”

Today’s Army vs. tomorrow’s Army

“About a year and half ago, we were criticized that our deployed troops were not given any convenient counter-insurgency doctrine,” said Wallace. “As a result of that, within 60 days, in a joint effort with the Marine Corps and some of our allies, we produced a counter-insurgency manual. In the perspective of developing a doctrine, it was light speed.

“I believe it's TRADOC's job to make sure those things absolutely essential to our deployed formations are well-known within the requirements process,” Wallace said. “We can champion emerging technologies and those requirements on behalf of the Soldiers and bring them to rapid fruition and put them in the hands of Soldiers as quickly as we possibly can.”