Always out front - response to events of September 11

Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, July-Sept, 2002 by James A. Marks

Much has been said and written about the events and emotions of 11 September 2001. Allow me to reflect personally about that day. September 11, 2001, was the day I took command of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca (USAIC&FH). We honored Major General John 0. Thomas, Jr., my predecessor, for his wonderful career of selfless service as a soldier. I thanked the Army leadership for placing their trust and confidence in my family and me with the responsibilities of command of our nation's most precious resource, her sons and daughters in uniform. Finally, I challenged our soldiers and civilians to prepare themselves for the days ahead...to whom much is given, much is expected. Our soldiers receive the best training in the world; our nation expects us to step forward and do what is required. As we all learned just minutes before the ceremony, our nation was under attack. It was the United States' first "home game" since the Civil War. Things were now different Little did I know 26 years ago that the training I received as a Second Lieutenant at Fort Huachuca would provide the skills necessary to accept the burden of that day.

The change-of-command ceremony with Major General Thomas took place at 0800 on Brown Parade Field. Earlier in the morning, I was in the guesthouse and, like every soldier, was polishing my boots and squaring away my uniform when my daughter called me to the television. My jaw nearly hit the floor. The top floors of one of the World Trade Center buildings was a mass of black smoke and flame. The initial reports were somewhat confusing. An aircraft, believed to be a passenger jet, had apparently slammed into the building. It was a clear, bright morning in New York and I wrestled to grasp how such a collision could occur. I could only think this was no accident. This was a deliberate attack, but even while thinking through the possibilities, I followed the flight of the second jet through completion of its own horrible journey. There were no doubts now, our country was under attack. Listening to the news of the Pentagon attack and the crash of yet another passenger jet in Pennsylvania, I quickly finished dressi ng. As I walked toward Brown Parade Field with my wife Marty and our youngest daughter Claire, I reflected for a moment how my father and his generation had absorbed the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor some sixty years before.

There was, however, little time for reflection. Our nation was under attack by an enemy who was not known but whose intentions were clear...the destruction of our way of life. I had a job to do. There were soldiers in formation who awoke that morning to a country at peace and within the span of twenty minutes, found her at war. Looking back on it now, I admit that even though I had 26 years of service under my belt, I was surprised at the extent of how much my training and preparation took over during the next 48 critical hours.

At Brown Parade Field, I could see the same feeling in Major General Thomas' eyes. Both of us were well schooled in the lessons of Pearl Harbor, both of us realized there had been an intelligence breakdown, and both of us realized there was a new war to fight. Following an abbreviated change of command ceremony, I spoke to the audience, all by now aware of the situation. Observing the mostly young faces, I could see a mix of worry, horror, and grim determination as they mentally steeled themselves for what they knew was coming. Those twenty minutes between the first and last suicide attacks had forever changed their world.

The speech I had written and was prepared to give was now terribly obsolete. Like the soldiers, my world had changed in those same twenty terrible minutes. Like all the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Civilians present that morning, I was unconsciously shifting into another gear, one that could only be addressed by my years of training. The United States had been challenged. Because our nation has the best trained and equipped military force in the world, we, like our fathers at Pearl Harbor, would recover. We would strike back at our enemies, and we would win. Even as I said these words, I realized that, our inevitable victory would not be without cost: cost on both the military and home fronts. As we all learn, our freedom is not free.

My short speech that morning reflected the challenge to our form of government and the very values on which our government was established. I said that to meet the challenges in the days ahead, we had to rely on our training, our years of preparation, our leadership, and our technological enablers. This is the first war of the 21st century. Meeting these new challenges is not an easy task. The Global War on Terrorism will be long and hard-fought. Our soldiers will face asymmetric threats in locations that were not among the highest priorities before that fateful morning.

The arsenal of intelligence skills we need to win are mostly adaptive techniques to our most fundamental skills. I believe these skills fall across the scope of our core competencies and once again validate these competencies. If we are technically proficient we will excel. A few skills and techniques I would like to highlight include--