...United States Army Adjutant General School Mission Command Essay The Battle of Dong Ap Bia: Hamburger Hill LTC Weldon Honeycutt CPT Shamika Hill Adjutant General Captain Career Course 003-16 June 30, 2016 For ten long days, American and South Vietnamese Army troops fought alongside each other to gain control of Dong Ap Bia, Hill 937. Their mission was to search and destroy the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Chong (VC), believed to have grouped in the A Shau Valley area. The battle now known as Hamburger Hill begun May 10, 1969 and is recognized as one of the last major encounter between the Americans and the NVA. Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Weldon Honeycutt, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment (3-187th) was determined to accomplish his assigned mission and seize Hill 937. After ten long hard fought days and many casualties from both sides, the 3-187th successfully occupied the hill on May 20. But at what cost? LTC Honeycutt improper use of the mission command principles; understanding, assessing, and visualizing; led to a prolonged engagement which cost additional casualties. Hamburger Hill occurred during Operation Apache Snow, the second part of a three-phased campaigned aimed at annihilating the NVA bases in the treacherous A Shau Valley. LTC Honeycutt and the 3-187th received the mission to search and destroy the Peoples of Vietnam Forces (PAVN) in the A Shau Valley in order to block the NAV from infiltrating the northern providence...
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...Mission Command Assessment Essay In order to really delve into the topic of Mission Command, we must first accurately define it. So what is Mission Command? Per doctrine, Mission Command is “the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations.” Now that’s a mouthful. But, what does it really mean? In simplified terms, mission command is the way a leader develops and leads his subordinates into accomplishing the mission while leaving room for leaders to take ownership and initiative in completing the mission. Mission Command is comprised of six different principles, all of which are bound together by mutual trust. The first two principles: build cohesive teams through mutual trust and create shared understanding, are the foundation to Mission Command. A leader can establish a command climate that fosters mission command by ensuring there is mutual trust and shared understanding within the organization. These two concepts are gained through common experiences, communication, and collaboration. Through shared experiences, a team will have endured hardships together. When faced directly with challenges, it is the person to your right and left you look towards for encouragement and assistance. When the team makes it through the hardship together, the sense of unity fosters and develops trust amongst the members...
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...“Tell him I’m glad to know they’re around here. Tell him that’s why we came here- to kill North Vietnamese soldiers-and if they are around, they’ll just be doin’ us a favor78-79.” This bold statement, stated by the commander of a unit tasked to take a hill with heavily fortified enemy positions, shows that he understood his mission- plain and simple. LTC Honeycutt, commander of the 3d Battalion, 187th Infantry (the "Rakkasans"), lead his unit in accordance with the doctrinal tasks of mission command. LTC Honeycutt was responsible for the United States victory on Hamburger Hill through the operations process activities by correctly understanding the operational environment, properly directing his unit and combat power, accurately assessing the evolving situation, and properly leading his subordinates to a successful mission. A profane, outspoken, fiercely competitive man, Honeycutt was the prototype of the hard-nosed commander. Born in 1931 in the mill town Greensboro, North Carolina, Honeycutt had lied, at sixteen with only a sixth-grade education, about his age and enlisted in the army. At five feet eight, other officers thought he lacked having command presence. Because of this, he applied himself to the military life with a religious passion and quickly began an impressive rise through the ranks. In five short years he was moved from private to captain and was a company commander in the Korean War. During the Korean War, his aggressiveness in taking a key hill that two...
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...The Chancellorsville Campaign: Mission Command In late April, 1863, the American Civil War was ongoing for two bloody years but the Armies of the North and South met near Spotsylvania, Virginia. Major General Joseph Hooker’s Army of the Potomac marched south to the Rappahannock River, imposing on the last Confederate strong point north of the Confederate capitol (Wineman, 10). The two armies collided in Chancellorsville, which was equidistant between Washington DC and Richmond, Virginia. The Army of the Potomac marched 130,000 strong against a dug-in 60,000 man force commanded by General Lee (Luvaas, 11). During the Chancellorsville campaign, MG Joseph Hooker failed to leverage the mission command warfighting function, which led to one of the greatest Union defeats of the American Civil War. The Union’s objective was to seize the Confederate capitol of Richmond, the...
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...Second Battle of Fallujah Mission Command Analysis Introduction The 'City of Mosques,' more commonly known as Fallujah, is located about 30 miles east of Bagdad. During the Invasion of Iraq, in 2003, Fallujah was bypassed on the way to Bagdad. Fallujah garnered a reputation of being a rough city and was left mostly unaffected until 2004. Hostile actions inside the city mandated a Coalition response which resulted the First and Second Battle of Fallujah. Success wasn't achieved until after the Second Battle of Fallujah. This paper will explore the background of the battles and conclude that MG Natonski's mission command during the second Battle of Fallujah was effective. History After the invasion, Fallujah fell under the control of various commands until 24 March, 2004 when it was transferred to 1st Marine Division (Lira, 2009.) The city has a population of approximately 300,000 (Bremer, 2006, p. 313) and is around two thousand blocks of courtyard walls...
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...structures within the city. The only major holdouts were the 1st Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) regiment’s command post within the Mang Ca compound to the north and the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) compound across the river to the south. The enemy gains included the Citadel, a portion of the city north of the Huong River surrounded by a moat and large...
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...The Marine Corps’ command philosophy of mission command and maneuver warfare are rested in several tenants one of which being the single-battle concept. The foundational constructs and very nature of the MAGTF ranging from task organization, capabilities, assets, and employment models across the spectrums of warfare, warfighting functions, and domains characterize and achieve this concept of single-battle. This inter-connectivity of assets and capabilities all couched within a Commander’s Design, allows for the MAGTF to be preeminently qualified to conduct operations in which all activities are driven towards a single goal and mutually support each other. Each of the MAGTFs’ elements, the Command Element (CE), the Ground Combat Element (GCE),...
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...Reflection of Mission Command Did you ever notice how in a staff meeting most Noncommissioned officers (NCO) do not strike up a conversation, but officers seem to have no problem speaking to each other? Waiting in the conference room, I sat back and observed how NCO and officers interacted, while waiting for a staff meeting to start. We, were all waiting on the commander to update us on the up coming deployment and what his commander’s intent would be. I am now assigned to a new unit and I am wondering how I will use knowledge and ideas of mission command. I will drive the team’s mission command operational process to develop my team’s inner and outer side together with advice and influence to build agile and adaptive leaders. Responsibility My responsibility is to serve as Senior NCO observer/trainer during the conduct of Brigade level mission command staff training (MCST) exercise using computer simulations to prepare units for their wartime mission. Assist in the planning, coordination, and execution of simulation exercises. Provide verbal and written observations of exercised units. Coach and mentor the NCO battle staff of an exercised unit command post and tactical operations center. Serve as a duty military occupational specialty (DMOS) subject matter expert for the exercise branch. Provide guidance and direction to the branch chief regarding all NCO matters. Knowledge and Ideas Communication and observing go hand in hand in the mission command principle...
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...During Operation Husky, insufficient command and control (C2) contributed to the ineffective use of fires to support movement and maneuver. The three attributes of mission command: commander’s intent, mutual trust, and understanding will provide the evaluation criteria to illustrate that the Allies fell short in blending the art and science of C2, and other joint functions, between services in Husky. First, explanation will describe command and control, show the Sicily Campaign suffered from a poorly communicated commander’s intent and demonstrated mutual trust did not exist between subordinate commanders. Next, comments will expose how the previous deficiencies led to subordinate commanders’ deficits in operational understanding. Finally, explanation will show how...
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...Discipline is the glue that holds a combat team together. Without it there is no unit cohesion, no espirit de corps, no coordination. However, discipline is a complex product of training, leadership, and respect. It is respect which creates devotion to the team, and the important part is that that respect flows both up and down the chain of command. A leader respects the skills, strengths, and sacrifices of the people who work for him, and by giving that respect, in time and with effort, his troops come to respect him as well. That respect grows into devotion: the devotion of the leader to his troops, to do his best to see them through tough times and bring them home to their families, and the devotion of the troops to accomplishing the tasks of their unit under the vision of their leadership. Disrespect, however, has exactly the opposite effect. If a leader disrespects his troops, he fails to earn their respect and therefore fails to create devotion to the team. His attitude will be noticed and will become detrimental to morale, which in turn will hurt the combat effectiveness of each troop as well as the whole. Because he cannot respect his troops, he will also fail to recognize their true strengths and employ his forces to the best of their respective abilities. If, on the other hand, a troop fails to form respect for ANY leader, no matter how good that leader is at their job, then that troop forms a sort of uprising point... a point of discontention that saps unit...
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...Apply the Ethical Decision Making Method at Small Unit Level 158-C-1230 FM-1 FM 6-22 AR 600-100. Performance Steps: 1. Clearly define the ethical problem. SFC Sharp failed to shred secret documents that he personally marked as shredded. SGT Day is trying to cover for SFC Sharp and is encouraging me to look the other way. 2. Employ applicable laws and regulations. The unit commander and the unit’s standard operating procedure will determine if the documents were mishandled. SFC Sharp recorded the destruction of the book theses pages were from but the commander and proper personnel can determine if misconduct occurred. My responsibility is to report any questionable or unsafe acts. 3. Reflect on the ethical values and their ramifications. FM 1-60 States: “The Army is a values-based organization (Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal courage). It upholds principles that are grounded in the Constitution and inspire guiding values and standards for its members.” FM 1-61 builds on the value based ethics by stating: “The Army Values are the basic building blocks of a Soldier's character...
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...Introduction In March 20, 2003, President George W. Bush gave his military forces to invade Iraq and overthrow the Saddam Hussein and his government. These attacks resulted in an operation named “shock and awe”, which tumbled the nation’s government swiftly and allowed U.S. troops to create a sense of mission command within the overthrown country of Iraq. During the initial invasion Major General David Petraeus commander of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division was given the critical task of creating mission command (ADRP 5-0, p.1-1) of the city of Mosul, Iraq (capital of Nineveh province). This paper will focus on Major General Petraeus understanding of his mission command in Mosul, based on his understanding of the following: the initial...
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...THE LEGACY OF WILLIAM CAREY OLUKAYODE ADARIJO AKINDELE Multicultural Evangelism Individual Assignment Study September 2007 ‘The legacy of William Carey” by Vishall and Ruth Mangalwadi is one of the must read titles for any mission minded Christian of the twenty first century. William Carey’s mission field was in India and being an Indian place the authors in the best position to collate the achievements and the challenges faced by the 17th Century missionary from an insider perspective. This book tells us who actually William Carey was. According to the authors, Carey was a man of humble origin. His father Edmond encouraged him to be educated. At the age of 12 years, he had to abandon all formal education so as to earn a living. He tried his hands in agricultural labour, but due to his sensitive skin problem, he could not do this job for long. He then became an apprentice shoemaker to Clerk Nichols of Pidington. This job actually kept his hands and mind active. He taught himself Theology, Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages and these facilitated his understanding of the Bible. As a shoe maker, Carey came to the realisation that the grace of God was more sufficient for him than anything else. The author described him as ‘pioneer of modern western Christian Missionary movement reaching out to all parts of the world.’ He was an evangelist who used every available medium to illuminate ever dark facet of India with the light of truth. There is little wonder...
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...Mary Mitchell Slessor was born in 1848 in Scotland, she was the second of seven children. She credited much of her good character to her upbringing from her deeply religious mother. Her father ran a shoe making business that did not go well, he became an alcoholic, which resulted hardship and poverty for the family. Mary started working to help provide for her family at a very young age, her wages became the primary source of the family income, she worked up to ten hours a day to make ends meet for her family. She became a Christian at a young age. She enjoyed going to church; it was a getaway from her unhappy life at home. Her older brother who was planning to go as a missionary died, at 25 years old, she decided to go in his place. She embarked on her missionary journey to calabar in 1975 where her battle for women’s rights began, she fell sick from malaria several times and eventually passed away in 1915, nearly forty years after coming to Africa, at the age of 66. Mary Slessor has become an inspiration to all who hear her story. She was not only a pioneer missionary, but also an activist for women in general. Slessor campaigned against injustices against women. Witchcraft and superstition were prevalent in Nigeria when she arrived there because traditional society had been torn apart by the slave trade. Human sacrifice routinely followed the death of a village dignitary for instance tribal customs like killing one wife of a chief in order for her soul to accompany her husband...
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...our knowledge of the 19th century is patchy because little research has been done on this period. RESEARCH TOPIC: MONIQUE CLASSEN CLSMON002 The ‘Christianization’ process of the London Missionary Society in 19th century South Africa: A case study of Bethelsdorp and Thornberg Contents PLAGIARISM DECLARATION 2 ABSTRACT 3 INTRODUCTION 4 THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY 7 Driving Ideologies Behind An Archetype of Civility and Modernity 9 THE ‘CHRISTIANIZATION’ STATIONS 11 The Institute of Bethelsdorp for the Khoekhoe 11 Thornberg Mission Station for the Heathen San 17 THE GROUNDWORK 21 CONCLUSION 26 BIBLIOGRAPHY 28 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Village of Bethelsdorp (from John Philip: Researchers in South Africa, London 1828) 2. Church and Mission House at Bethelsdorp (from a watercolor by John Campbell, 1819.) By courtesy of Africana Museum, Johannesburg 3. Map: Nineteenth-Century Mission Stations to Bushmen (from Tricksters and Trancers, 1999) 4. Erasmus Smith (from Christianity in South Africa: A Political, Social, and Cultural History, 1997) PLAGIARISM DECLARATION ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- PLAGIARISM DECLARATION -------------------------------------------------...
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