Battlefield decisions of a battalion commander

FA Journal, July-August, 2004 by Billy F. Sprayberry

Of course, your actions indicate (or not) your Warrior Ethos. Do you attend training; are you seen doing tough physical training (PT); do you wear your seatbelt, Kevlar, and body armor; do you look like a Soldier and hold your subordinate leaders to the same standard; and more?

In order to be a credible leader, you can't be an anomaly to the Soldiers you lead. They must know you are fair and consistent. Your personal involvement and effort in counseling individuals and mentoring the battalion's junior leaders will have a positive impact. This means teaching your charges that they are American Soldiers requiring character, integrity, honesty and the willingness to demonstrate those traits at all times.

Soldiers who don't understand the Warrior Ethos and don't make them part of everyday life will fail to see and gain lessons from training that could keep them alive and healthy on the battlefield. Those lessons include everything from wearing a seatbelt while in the high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV) and staying at nametag defilade while in the track to knowing everything about their weapons and how to employ them. Soldiers must move, shoot and communicate and do those tasks well--along with everything associated with them.

All that exacting training is not easy. However, if you train Soldiers and teach them the Warrior Ethos, then you will eliminate the need for you to make decisions in the future. If you know the personalities in and the capabilities of your well trained, confident unit, then you will be comfortable with your subordinates making most decisions.

The part about peeking up every so often and seeing what is up-and-out comes into play here. You must know your brigade commander--don't let him be an anomaly to you. It is easier to get to know some brigade commanders than others, but it is your responsibility to get to know him, not his.

So, how many decisions does the battalion commander really need to make on the battlefield? I submit very few--your subordinates make them. Of course, as the battalion commander, you always have the prerogative of changing any decision made by your subordinates, if you have to. But long before they are making decisions in combat you have given them the flexibility and built their confidence in making those decisions, "calibrating" them when you had to. The subordinates and Army gain from good decision making at the lowest possible level.

This leads you to many actions. The fire plan will come, the restricted operation zone (ROZ) will be designated and your route-of-march to the new position will be given to you based on the locations of friendly units, the enemy situation and the availability of resupply and support assets. Standing operating procedures (SOPs) will be drafted for your approval and practiced during training, and the situation will fall neatly into the purview of those SOPs.

You will make some decisions based on the higher commander's intent and your understanding of the battalion's situation. For example, the situation at Wake Island on the morning of 8 December 1941 led Commander Winfield S. Cunningham, overall commander of forces on Wake Island that day, to his decision. He could not attack the Japanese; he did not have the resources to take the fight to the enemy. He could not retreat because he lacked the assets to move all the Soldiers, sailors, marines and civilian construction workers from the island. Consequently, only two courses-of-action remained: defend or surrender. Commander Cunningham mounted a successful defense, one still talked about with awe today, more than 60 years later. (5)