Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment
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4th Air Cavalry Squadron
The 4th Air Cavalry Squadron is commanded by an aviation lieutenant colonel and has 36 officers, 110 warrant officers and NCOs, and 355 enlisted troopers, for a total strength of 501. In late 1993, the commander was Lieutenant Colonel Gratton Sealock (Eastern Washington State College, 1974), with 1st Sergeant Timothy D. Paul as the CSM. The unit includes:• Headquarters and Headquarters Troop—The HHT includes three UH-60L Blackhawks, three EH-60 “Quick Fix” electronic-warfare helicopters, and one OH-58C Kiowa scout helicopter. The support element is similar to its ground squadron counterpart.
• Three Air Cavalry Troops—Each of these troops consists of six scout helicopters (currently OH-58Cs) and four attack helicopters (currently AH-1Fs).
• Two Attack Helicopter Troops—Each of these troops consists of four scout helicopters (currently OH-58Cs) and seven attack helicopters (currently AH-1Fs).
• One Transport Helicopter Troop—This troop consists of fifteen of the newest-model UH-60L Blackhawk helicopters.
• Maintenance Troop—This is a ground-based troop that supplies maintenance and support to the rest of the 4th Squadron.
In total, the 4th Squadron operates seventy-four helicopters (twenty-six attack, twenty-seven scout, eighteen transport, and three electronic warfare helicopters). As it is currently equipped, the air squadron has both some of the newest and oldest equipment in the Army. On the positive side, the UH-60L Blackhawks and EH-60 “Quick Fix” birds are state-of-the-art, and capable of any mission that might be assigned to them. A particular asset is that the Blackhawks are equipped with the new ESSS stores system, for carrying extra fuel, and even Hellfire missiles (which require another unit to laser-designate targets for them.)
The 4th Squadron’s big problem is that the current force of OH-58C Kiowa scout helicopters and AH-1F Cobra attack helicopters is obsolete. These are incapable of dedicated night operations, laser designation, automatic handoff of targets, or long-range stand-off missile fire (the AH-1 is only equipped with TOW missiles). This is a serious shortcoming in a unit so likely to be deployed in response to a fast-breaking crisis. So weak is the firepower in the old squadron structure, that when 2nd and 3rd ACR deployed to the Persian Gulf during Desert Shield, both had a battalion of AH-64A Apache and OH-58D Kiowa Warriors attached to make up for the limitations of the unit’s equipment.
Like the tankers and gunners in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd squadrons, with their dreams of M1A2s and M109A6s, the aviators of the 4th Squadron look forward to Apaches and Kiowa Warriors to replace their old birds. When this will happen is uncertain, mainly because the production run for new AH-64s has been terminated, and the OH-58D is being produced year-to-year at the discretion of Congress-and the strength of the Texas congressional delegation. Because the Army prefers to put money into the Comanche program, it has not asked for any new OH-58Ds. The 4th Squadron will be modernized eventually, though when and how remain a mystery.
The organization of the 4th (Air Cavalry) Squadron as it will appear when it finishes its modernization program. The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment attack and aero scout troops are currently equipped with relatively obsolete AH-1F Cobra attack helicopters and OH-58A/C Kiowa scout helicopters.
JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES, LTD., BY LAURA ALPHER
The types and numbers of different weapons systems that the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment should be equipped with when it completes its current modernization cycle.
JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES, LTD., BY LAURA ALPHRE
Support Squadron
The Support Squadron is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and has a total strength of 802 personnel. The current commander is Lieutenant Colonel Thomas M. Hill (University of South Dakota, 1972), and his command sergeant major is CSM Halford M. Dudley. Lieutenant Colonel Hill has a delightful sense of humor. This is a great asset, for he faces a daunting task: supplying everything needed to keep the 3rd ACR moving, fighting, and living. This means everything from food to floppy disks, dental care to bulldozer repair. If it is in the regiment, then Lieutenant Colonel Hill and his soldiers will keep it going. Though not much larger than a cavalry squadron in numbers, the Support Squadron has the most diverse assets in the regiment. It includes:• Headquarters and Headquarters Troop—This is the nerve center of the squadron, with a heavy base of data-processing personnel, a few trucks, and HMMWVs.
• Medical Troop—Equipped with sixteen ambulances (eight HMMWV-based, eight M113 APC-based), the medical troop is staffed to set up aid stations to process casualties to divisional/corps-level MASH-type hospitals.
• Maintenance Troop—The automotive maintenance troop is tasked with providing direct-support recovery and maintenance for the regiment. Equipped with a variety of trucks (twenty-two five-ton tractors and twelve five-ton trucks) and recovery vehicles (five M88, four 5-ton wreckers, and three M113 maintenance trucks), it can service any vehicle in the regiment. It repairs equipment that mechanics at the troop and squadron level do not repair.
• Supply and Transportation Troop—The supply troop is just what it sounds like, a combination of warehouse and trucking company. Equipped with eighty-seven heavy trucks (thirty-three 5-ton tractors, twenty-six 5-ton trucks, twenty-two 5,000-gallon/18,868-liter HEMTT tankers, and six HETs), it moves something over 559 short tons/508 metric tons of cargo and water a day for delivery to the front-line units of the regiment.
A 3rd ACR M88 tank recovery vehicle in the Fort Bliss tank park. These vehicles are used to tow or recover damaged or disabled armored vehicles.
JOHV D. GRESHAM
It is difficult to explain just how much it takes to run an ACR in the field for a day. The numbers just begin to numb you after a while. For example, the support squadron is equipped to purify and distribute 139,750 gallons /527,358.5 liters of water a day. Based upon the squadron having to service 5,000 personnel at a time, that’s about 9.6 gallons/36.2 liters a day for every soldier in the regiment (for washing, drinking, food preparation, personal hygiene, etc.). Then there is food. The standard five-day field-ration issue (part of what is called a Unit Basic Load or UBL) for the regiment is 75,000 MREs (about 15,000 per day), in 6,250 cardboard cases, strapped onto ninety-eight pallets, weighing just over 75 short tons/68 metric tons. That is just food for five days in the field. And then there is fuel (200,000 gallons/754,716 liters of diesel fuel, 50,000 gallons/188,679 liters of JP-5 jet fuel), clothing (275 items), spare parts (2,793 different types for the ground equipment, 3,361 for the aviation equipment), and everything else that keeps this movable equivalent of a small town working.
It is a huge job. That it is done is a masterpiece of organization, data processing, communications technology, and a lot of hard work by soldiers who rarely get medals for their efforts. Their efficiency would amaze most taxpayers, whose image of the Quartermaster (supply) Corps is based on the stereotype of the wheeling-dealing supply sergeant. There may still be a few of those guys around, but the Army is moving into a new era of “just in time” maintenance planning and “as you need it” supply deliveries. Previously, for example, each tank platoon kept a pair of spare generators for the M 1 tank in its platoon stocks. Now they do not have any on hand at all. When they need one, the troop supply clerk types a request on a laptop computer, and in a few hours, the part is delivered from a centralized stock at the regimental level. Meanwhile, the regimental supply system will have automatically ordered another generator over the world-wide Army supply computer network, so that by the time the generator is being installed on the tank back at the platoon, the replacement generator for the regimental stores is probably being packaged for shipment by Federal Express (yes, they even go to combat zones!) for immediate delivery. In this way, the overall Army-wide stock for an item can be reduced, and the taxpayer saves money. It also makes the ACR a leaner (not having to carry so much of a “tail”), meaner (more space for fuel and ammunition) unit.
During Desert Shield/Desert Storm Lieutenant General “Gus” Pagonis managed the logistical
effort for CENTCOM in the Persian Gulf. When he later wrote a book on the subject, he titled it Moving Mountains. Never has a book carried a more apt title, for what the people of the Army Quartermaster Corps and the soldiers of the 3rd ACR supply squadron do is just that, move mountains.
43rd Combat Engineer Company
The 43rd Combat Engineer Company is commanded by an engineer captain, and has a strength of 220 soldiers. It has its own maintenance platoon, an assault and barrier (A&B) platoon, and three identical combat engineer platoons. Its TO&E includes:• Twelve M113 armored personnel carriers
• Six M9 armored combat earthmovers
• Three armored vehicle-launched bridges (an M60 tank chassis with a folding scissors-bridge for crossing small streams and big ditches)
• Three combat engineer vehicles (an M-60 tank chassis with a dozer blade and a short-barreled 165mm “demolition gun”)
• Six 5-ton dump trucks
• One scoop loader
• Assorted other specialized excavating and entrenching vehicles
The mission of combat engineers is to clear away obstacles that impede friendly movement and to create obstacles to impede enemy movement. Engineers are trained for demolition, construction of field fortifications, and repair of roads and bridges. They are particularly vital for combat in urban areas.
66th Military Intelligence Company
The Military Intelligence (MI) company is commanded by a military intelligence major and has a strength of 152 personnel. It operates a variety of electronic jamming and surveillance systems.
89th Chemical Company
The chemical company is commanded by a Chemical Corps captain, and has a strength of 78 troopers. Although all civilized nations have signed treaties renouncing the use of chemical weapons, the Army’s chemical troops have an important protective mission (not all our potential enemies are civilized). The Chemical Corps also has a traditional mission of laying smoke screens. The company’s TO&E includes:• Six Fox NBC reconnaissance vehicles
• Seven M1059 smoke generators (based on M113 chassis)
• One M12A1 decontamination apparatus
• Assorted other specialized detection and decontamination equipment
In operations under a chemical threat, the 89th assigns its Fox vehicles, usually two per cavalry squadron, so that there is a highly mobile chemical-detection-and-survey capability up front at all times. Should an area of contamination be encountered, the Fox can quickly find a bypass route, keeping the squadrons moving and uncontaminated. This prevents other units from getting “slimed” by running through a contaminated area. Normally a corps decontamination platoon will be added to the 89th, so it can handle the job of equipment and personnel decontamination.
Air Defense Section
The 3rd ACR has an air defense section attached to the Regimental Headquarters and Headquarters Troop. The section consists of six Avenger air-defense vehicles. These are Hummers mounting compact turrets that combine a .50-caliber machine gun, eight Stinger missiles in a pair of canister launchers, and a digital fire-control system with a laser rangefinder, a thermal sight, and a FAADS early warning terminal. Avenger will be replaced in a few years when the Bradley Stinger vehicle is fielded. The section may also be able to deploy shoulder-fired Stinger teams with their own HMMWVs.
U.S. III Corps—Attachments and Contributions
As we mentioned earlier, the 3rd ACR is one of a number of units attached to the U.S. III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas. III Corps includes: • 1st Cavalry Division (actually an armored division)
• 2nd Armored Division
• 1st Mechanized Infantry Division
• 4th Mechanized Infantry Division
• 3rd ACR
• Attached field artillery, air defense, engineer, military police, and support units
It is the single most powerful ground force in the world today. Commanded in late 1993 by Lieutenant General Paul Funk (who commanded the Third Armored Division during Desert Storm), III Corps would decide how to employ 3rd ACR for a particular mission, and how it would be augmented with appropriate support units.
One of the things that makes an ACR such an attractive unit to send overseas is the ability to custom tailor it for diverse mission requirements. For example, consider the situation faced by Colonel (now Brigadier General) Don Holder, who commanded the 2nd ACR during Desert Storm. The 2nd ACR was organized exactly as the 3rd is today. To support his mission, a movement-to-contact with several Iraqi Republican Guard armored divisions, the VII Corps commander, then-Lieutenant General Fred Franks, added a number of different units to beef up the combat power of the regiment. These attachments included:• 210th Field Artillery Brigade (M109s and MLRS)
• 2nd Battalion/1st Aviation Regiment (OH-58Ds and AH-64As)
• 82nd Combat Engineering Battalion
• 214th Military Police Company
• 177th Personnel Services Company
With all these additions, 2nd ACR resembled a small armored division, and not the lean cavalry regiment that had come ashore at Al Jubail. But these were things that the corps commander felt they might need, and the open structure of the cavalry regiment allowed this to be done easily.
So, what might Lieutenant General Funk provide to Colonel Young if he had to go off to combat in a distant land, where the situation was uncertain, and the goals still being kicked around the White House Situation Room? A helicopter squadron such as the 4th Squadron of the 6th Cavalry Brigade at Fort Hood, Texas, would be a good start. Equipped with Apaches and Kiowa Warriors, it would give Colonel Young the night-surveillance capability and long-range missile punch he currently lacks. Another candidate would be additional artillery, perhaps a battalion of MLRS launchers from the III Corps Artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Add the 1st Military Police Company (from Fort Riley, Kansas), to help with rear-area security, POW processing, and traffic management. Add all of this up, and a potential foe might decide not to even try to make trouble. Battles you prevent can be victories even sweeter than the battles you win.
Honing the Razor’s Edge
In many cultures, during much of history, soldiers were seen as the dregs of society, and were recruited from the gutters. An ancient Chinese saying, “Good iron is not used for nails, and good men are not used for soldiers,” sums up this traditional attitude of emperors, kings, and perhaps even a few presidents. But not so in the American military tradition, which is based upon the volunteer citizen soldier and unquestioned civilian control over the Armed Forces, exercised by the people’s elected representatives. In our tradition soldiers most decidedly do not come from the dregs of society.
Though for long periods of American history, the professional officer corps has been a small, inbred, inward-looking aristocracy, in times of war, Americans have usually managed to field a people’s Army, led by popular generals such as Omar Bradley and Ulysses S. Grant. The simple truth is that America’s greatest field forces—from Washington’s Army at Yorktown to George Patton’s Third Army in Europe—have always been made up of trained citizen soldiers, motivated by American ideals. It is the American style of war.
So what does America’s Army look like today? Well, very much like America itself. It is increasingly an African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American, and Southern Army, because those are the growing demographic sectors of our population. But the Army also recently commissioned its first Islamic chaplain, because there is a growing segment of Muslims in America (and at this writing, the Army is still looking for its first Buddhist chaplain). It is also an Army where women are increasingly visible in non-traditional and leadership positions, because we are a society where women have struggled for over a century to win greater opportunities. Women are now being admitted into combat arms, such as Aviation and Artillery, without any gender-based restrictions.
In many ways, our Army struggles with the same problems of stress, family breakdown and separation, and alcohol abuse as every other community. But remarkably, i
t is an Army that is virtually drug-free, thanks to a rigorous program of random testing. Perhaps equally remarkable (but maybe not, when you think about it), in a period when traditional religions are losing believers, we have perhaps the most religious Army since Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia in prayer before battle. In a period of high unemployment and declining numbers of entry level jobs, it is also a shrinking Army. This is a real challenge for the Army’s recruiters, its advertising agencies, and its public-relations staff. By 1996, the Army will have reduced-in-force (prematurely retired, involuntarily separated, laid off, or whatever you want to call it) a number of soldiers equal to the number it sent to fight in the Persian Gulf War of 1991. How do you convince the best and brightest young people in our society that there are great opportunities in a downsizing organization with old-fashioned values and the risk of sudden, violent death?
Why do people join the Army? I’ve asked this question as I traveled around the country researching this book. Some of the answers include:• Educational, travel, and training opportunities