Engineering Challenges in the Middle East - What to do When You’re the First to Arrive Keith Kowadlo, PE
Background - End of the Cold War…
Background – …and the beginning of something new.
Background – Going to War “After the demise of the best Airborne plan, a most terrifying effect occurs on the battlefield. This effect is known as the ‘Rule of LGOPs.’ This is in it’s purest form, Large Groups Of pissed-off, 19-year old American Paratroopers who are well trained, armed to the teeth and lack serious adult supervision. They collectively remember the Commander’s intent as ‘March to the sound of the guns and kill anyone who isn’t dressed like you’ . . . or something like that. Happily they go about the day’s work.” Unknown
Background – A clarification...the “first” engineers to arrive… “One hundred and thirty-seven strong, with no tools or engineer equipment.” LTC Ron Stewart Cdr, 27 th Engineer Battalion (Combat)(Airborne)
Engineering Challenge – Mission Planning “It was one of those mission unspoken, destination unknown, things. We didn’t know where we were going to land. We didn’t have a specified task.” LTC John R. Vines Cdr, 4/325 PIR
Engineering Challenge – Be prepared for “lack of answers” “Be prepared to live out of a rucksack” Col Zannie Smith, XVIII Airborne Corps G-3
Engineering Challenge – The “thin line in the sand” But the difficulty of the open terrain was not the only problem. Like DRB 1, the units of the 1 st Brigade Task Force were limited to the supplies they brought with them. “In deploying over there with ninety C-141 loads, we had very little initial ammunition that we went in with. We didn’t expect to get help from anybody. There was nothing to give. We had virtually no ammunition, we had only the basic load that we carried.” Maj Tim Scully 1 st Brigade S-3, 82 nd Airborne Division
Engineering Challenge – Where do I dig in?” “We really started from zero on this one.” BG Edison Scholes, Deputy Commander, XVIII Airborne Corps
Engineering Challenge – Make yourselves at home, take your shoes off “If you can keep your head while all those around you are losing theirs, then you obviously don’t understand the situation at all” Anonymous
Engineering Challenge – Where’s Lowes? Ye Engineer must have labor and transport with which to do his work, and be provided with a horse to inspect and speed its progress. He must serve many and accomplish much with little, yet since he cannot do everything for all, he is beloved by none.” - King Charles I, Articles of War 1625
Engineering Challenge – Be prepared for almost anything Knowledge of the trade is essential, but it is the work of an apprentice. The task of the journeyman is to utilize what he has learned. But the master alone knows how to handle all things in every case.” - General Von Seeckt
Engineering Challenge – How do I achieve “stand off” “Know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will never be endangered; know the weather and know the ground, your victory will then be complete” Sun Tzu, 400 B.C.
Engineering Challenge – Learn from others “The Defence of Duffer’s Drift” By Captain E.D. Swinton Later Major General Sir Earnest Swinton US Army Engineer School Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri Originally printed in the INFANTRY JOURNAL, 1905 “Don’t sleep past dawn. Dawn’s when the French and Indians attack.” Standing Order #15, Roger’s Rangers 1759
Engineering Challenge – Gone with the wind “One of the most serious problems in planning against American military doctrine is that most American Officers do not read their manuals nor do they feel any obligations to follow their doctrine.” From a Russian document
Engineering Challenge – The helicopters keep stealing my helipads! “If it’s stupid, but it works – it isn’t stupid.” - Murphy’s 2 nd Law of Combat
Engineering Challenge – Roads in the sand “Sometimes you can observe a lot by watching” Yogi Berra
Engineering Challenge – “Where do I land?” If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make it’s construction firm and the house collapses and causes the death of the owner – that builder shall be put to death. - Code of Hammurabi (2200 BC)
Engineering Challenge - Essayons! Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men of talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” - Calvin Coolidge
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