Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [131]
Following the classroom work, the 18 Alpha candidates begin a six-day field problem designed to challenge their decision-making ability in an unfamiliar environment and with ambiguous instructions. The students begin with a historical, political, military, cultural, religious, and geographical overview of the Pineland scenario. Pineland is a mythical nation around which much of the Phase IV training is built. They are briefed at a simulated forward operating base, where the commander tasks them with gathering certain physical and human intelligence. Their mission is to determine the feasibility of American support for a resistance movement in the country of Pineland. The resistance group they are to contact is known to oppose the Pineland government, which is unfriendly to the United States. They are infiltrated in two-man teams by helicopter to the outskirts of a metropolitan area—usually the outskirts of Richmond or Raleigh-Durham. Once on the ground, they must cache their equipment, change into civilian clothes, and “infiltrate” into the city. They are armed only with contact instructions for their first partisan linkup. This exercise has gone by a number of different names, but it’s currently called the Volkmann Exercise.
“This is a full-on role-playing scenario,” Eric James says of the exercise, “and the students have to stay in role and play the game if they’re to learn from it. They have information about their first contact and where to meet them. Each member of the team will take the lead in three or more meetings where they’ll have incomplete information about the parameters of the meeting and about the individuals whom they must contact and extract information. Information is parceled out to the officer candidates depending on how well they handle the meeting and their elicitation skills.”
Following the meetings, the teams exfil to a safe area and are returned to base, where they’re debriefed by a Special Forces officer playing the role of a joint special operations task force intelligence officer. During this debriefing, each student captain presents the information he collected and any corresponding conclusions. Then he’s evaluated on how he did or did not meet the commander’s objectives and intent.
“This is a rude awaking for many of these guys,” Eric James says. “Very little in their military experience has prepared them for this. They are used to dealing with subordinate soldiers and superior officers with clear-cut lines of authority and communication. Now they must deal with a resistance fighter or sympathizer who has his own frame of reference. For the student, the turf is unfamiliar, their marching orders are vague, and they have varying degrees of control over their environment. It challenges the limits of their interpersonal skills. After each meeting, the resistance member role player fills out an in-depth critique of the meeting. What the student takes away from the meeting and how the role player perceived the exchange are often very different. It’s a huge learning experience, but only if the students stay in character. This is the first of many such meetings during this phase. They will conduct dozens of them during Phase IV and the Robin Sage exercise.”
There are fifteen days devoted to strategic reconnaissance and direct action. Five days are devoted to mission planning in the classroom at Aaron Bank Hall, then the all-officer student ODAs travel to Fort A. P. Hill, an Army base in central Virginia, for field training. Each ODA is given a target package with the mission of conducting a strategic reconnaissance of the two targets in the package. The student officers know that they’ll probably be tasked with a follow-on direct-action strike immediately following their reconnaissance. In my student ODA, ODA 912, the assigned team leader is Captain Larry Shaw. Shaw is chosen to lead because he is a chemical warfare officer and the only American officer in 912 not to have