...Engagement and Six Levels in the Chain of Command Introduction Rules of engagement (ROE) are needed to fight any war efficiently and they usually work. However in Vietnam the ROE did no more than hinder our troops, and did not allow them to fight efficiently. Ultimately, causing a huge loss of life for American troops and a unwon war in Vietnam. The ROE in Vietnam were not effectively used throughout the chain of command during the war. ROE and Six Levels of the Chain Of Command ROE dictate the application of military power during a war. ROE provide everyone in the chain of command rules to conduct themselves by. It gives a complete set of rules and options for fighting a war. President Johnson had to restrict the ROE to a degree as to be able to allow warfare within the limits of the limited war strategy. (Moss, 2010) He restricted the types of targets that US soldiers could engage and to what degree they could engage them. Johnson wanted to reduce or eliminate the possibility of civilian casualties which was very difficult in a war where the combatants looked like civilians and the combatants were well versed in blending in with their surroundings. (Moss, 2010) Johnson also implemented these strict ROE to avoid China and the USSR from getting involved in Vietnam. Johnson did not want the US to look like aggressors in the Vietnam War. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was second hand to Johnson in developing the ROE for the war. He would join with Johnson to discuss...
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...Week 4 chain of command Nancy Folley Chamberlain College of Nursing Introduction Information passes up the chain of command and orders and commands are passed down the chain of command ("Chain," 2003). As the Proverb says a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If the wrong or ill-informed information is sent up the command chain then the decision at the top will be ill advised and the commands down the chain potentially disastrous. Individual soldiers in the field The soldier serves America, his fellow citizens and protects our way of life ("global," n.d.). Enlisted officers promise to obey the President and the Officers appointed over them ("global," n.d.). The Officer appointed over the soldier is responsible for their actions as long as they are following commands. They are to have blind faith in their leaders to guide and direct them with the goal of accomplishing their mission and keeping them safe as possible. Battalion A battalion is manmade up of four to six companies approximately 1000 soldiers. They are capable of independent operations of limited duration and scope they are usually under the command of a lieutenant colonel ("Army," n.d.). Battalion commanders answer to their division commanders. Division A Division may have up to 15,000 soldiers. It is usually commanded by a major general. They are assigned missions based on their structures they can conduct sustained battles ("Army," n.d.). They get their orders from the commander...
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...Windou Mimy November, 24th2014 Vietnam: a 20th Cent. Experience HIST-415N-71123 Donald Burnette President Johnson’s Rules of Engagement During the Vietnam’s War, President Johnson has implemented the Rules of Engagement (ROE) in order to maintain control of the war and also to prevent its escalation into global nuclear warfare. The Rules of Engagement precisely dictated who and when the American soldiers were supposed to attack. Thus, from the first junior rank and up to the chain of command, a specific set of rules were enacted. Indeed, rules of engagement training at all level of leadership has allowed each officer to make responsible choices in the battlefield in a conventional war. Unfortunately, Vietnam was no conventional warzone and the Vietcong do not abide to this rule of engagement. It was easy for Washington to set these rules but they have greatly affected the field soldiers and the military through the chain of commands. A look into this rule of engagement (ROE) will show how it has paralyzed the soldiers from carrying out their mission in Vietnam. Moss (2010) confirms that “the rules of engagement paralyzed the soldiers from attacking even when they were shot at because the rules stated that they must be sure that their target was real and not terrified civilians.” The American soldiers were only allowed to attack those in combat uniforms and carrying weapons. They were to follow these rules which prevented them to effectively defend themselves...
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...Phillips Assignment #4 Vietnam Introduction Rules of engagement (ROE) “are a device used by a commander to set forth the parameters of when, how, for what duration and magnitude and geographical location, and against what targets our forces can employ force, generally deadly force … in a theater of operations. …” (Bolgiano, 2008). The ROE have been used in conventional wars fought throughout history. The United States of America used the ROE as tool to guide their soldiers in accomplishing their mission during the Vietnam War. Unfortunately the ideology of a limited war, placed limits on exactly what could be done and how it could be done throughout all levels of the chain of command. For the purpose of this paper the chain of command includes: the individual soldiers in the field, battalion commanders, division commanders, General William Westmoreland, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and President Johnson. Soldiers in the Field Soldiers sent to Vietnam to fight in the war consisted mostly of draft calls and enlistments. The soldiers lacked sufficient training and had an insufficient amount of ammunition. Also, “other combat units arrived under strength and without all of their weapons, equipment, or supplies” (Moss, 2010, p. 166). The ideology of limited war had limited the resources for the soldiers already creating issues for U.S. forces at the beginning of the war. The ROE created a conventional style of war in which North Vietnam and the Vietminh did...
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...Rumor of War The Vietnam War was one of America’s greatest mistakes. Considered by most to be the only war that the United States has ever lost, Vietnam was a debacle from the start. Lieutenant Philip Caputo, who served in Vietnam throughout the war, shared his experiences in his 1977 memoir entitled A Rumor of War. Caputo, a soldier who narrowly avoided a court-martial for allegedly murdering innocent Vietnamese citizens, discusses his view on the dehumanizing atrocities of the war. Using Caputo’s book, this essay analyzes the reasons why American soldiers in Vietnam found themselves in unsustainable combat situations. In addition, it diagnosed how the lies told by those in command translated into confusion for the already...
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...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 of South Vietnam. The 3-187th...
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...the Pacific Command. The Division of nearly 17,000 soldiers stationed in Hawaii, at Fort Wainwright and Fort Richardson, Alaska, focuses primarily on training for low intensity conflicts throughout the Pacific region. However, the 25th ID is fully involved in the Global War on Terror and deploys units in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq. The Tropical Lightning Division underwent the Army's modular re-organization in 2006. The 25th Infantry Division now has four Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) and an Aviation Brigade. The 1st and 2nd BCTs have fielded the Stryker combat vehicle, and the 4th BCT is Airborne qualified. The division's shoulder patch, a lightning bolt superimposed on a taro leaf, was formally adopted in 1943. The colors of gold and red were those of the late Hawaiian monarchy. While soldiers over the years have jokingly nicknamed the patch the "Electric Chili Pepper" or the "Electric Strawberry," in 1953, the nickname "Tropic Lightning" was officially adopted. In 1921, the United States Army formed the Hawaiian Division to protect the islands and our growing interests in the Pacific region. On October 1, 1941, the Hawaiian Division was split to create the 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions. The 25th Infantry Division was stationed at Schofield Barracks, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The Division was just over two months old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor thrusting the United States into World War Two. After...
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...Orange County, California inside or outside a residence because it is illegal. However, you can smoke inside and outside a residence in Riverside County, California. These are just laws in California. In war, these are called Rules of Engagement (ROE). These rules were designed to “control the response of troops in combat and to protect friendly, civilian, and sometimes enemy troops from harm and danger.” ("Soldiers Perspective - The Purpose of Military Rules of Engagement (ROE)," n.d.) There are two basic reasons ROE was developed. The first main reason was to prevent killing and injuring innocent people. The second is to allow troops to defend themselves from real threats and to prevent friendly fire. ROE also focused on mission accomplishments and obedience of law and policy. The ROE for the individual soldiers left them with their hands tied. They were unable to defend themselves at some times by commands far above them. Their largest worry was their primary job properly while maintaining a heightened level of alertness, which borderlines paranoia (E. Higgins, personal communication, March 30, 2015). Within the ROE for the Vietnam War, the troops were not allowed to use indirect fire, as well as constrained air support. Logically, this furthered the stresses of war and paranoia. Battalion commanders also had complex issues as well. These higher-ranking troops needed to ensure the troops under them were ready for combat mentally, physically, and spiritually. At all...
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...recently. These materials have paved the way to the possibility that distorted facts led to the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. There is no arguing the fact that a North Vietnamese patrol boat attacked the USS Maddox while the destroyer was in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2nd, 1964. What is in contention are the subsequent actions of the United States officials in the coming days. The actions taken by the officials in Washington has been shrouded in mystery ever since that night. Hundreds of documents have been declassified and released to the public. These documents have helped show what transpired in the Gulf of Tonkin. The papers include phone transcripts, interviews, radio messages, and chronologies of the Tonkin events developed by officials at the Department of Defense. These documents provide compelling evidence about the ensuing decisions that led to the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Raids in the Gulf of Tonkin...
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...helicopters. In June 1964, Lieutenant Colonel Harold G. Moore, Jr., took command of one battalion of the 11th Air Assault Division, he trained them for over a year and by July 1965 the Pentagon gave the order to rename the 11th Air Assault Division as the1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), including Lieutenant Colonel Moore´s 1st Battalion and its sister 2nd Battalion, which were deployed to Vietnam in July 28th 1965 according to the President´s order. This book relates the story of these two Battalions and their respective battles at Landing Zones X-Ray and Albany in the Ia Drang Valley. In just four days, more than two hundred Americans and thousands of North Vietnamese died in combat. The memories of those who fought and died in the Ia Drang Valley are brought to life throughout “We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young”. Both authors, Joseph L. "Joe" Galloway and Lieutenant General (Retired) Harold G. "Hal" Moore, are distinguished in their respective fields. Joe Galloway was a war correspondent for United Press International (UPI) from 1965 to 1966. He was...
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...Unearthing the 1960’s It is the year 2325 and I have been assigned to a dig site where some colleagues of mine have found a time capsule that they claim is from the 1960’s. I have done extensive research on the 1960’s era and am looking forward to giving my expert advice into the items found in the time capsule. As I reach the dig site and look into the time capsule I notice that there are five items inside the capsule. The first item seems to be a circular disc that from my research shows that it used to be for playing music. The second item is a newspaper that seems to be about an assassination of someone of great importance. The third item is an old military uniform that appears to be from the Vietnam War. The fourth item was a picture of what appeared to be a piece from something called the Apollo 11 spacecraft. The last and final artifact found in the time capsule is a gold medal that is awarded to a one Muhammad Ali. All of the items found seem to have importance in this era and even though I know a great deal about this time in history I am going to have to do some extensive research to get more knowledge about each item. After a few weeks of searching I have found what used to be called a record or vinyl. Once I cleaned the record I found in the time capsule I placed it into a turntable that is used for playing these discs and found that it was a band known at that time as The Beatles. The album was known as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. This album was...
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...ARMY AVIATION OPERATIONS IN LOW INTENSITY CONFLICT Introduction “Foot slogging” by infantrymen has been most important and fundamental to address an insurgency; however, there are limitations to their mobility. To increase their versatility, the Portuguese introduced two contrasting means, the helicopter and the horse. While there were other, more conventional solutions to the mobility problem, such as trucks, jeeps, and light armored cars, these vehicles required at least crude roads, had other terrain limitations, and were vulnerable to land mines. The advent of the helicopter and its application in counter-insurgency began with the British in Malaya on 1 April 1950, with the formation of the Far East Casualty Air Evacuation Flight at Seletar with strength of three Westland S-51 Dragonfly helicopters. During the Malayan Emergency the British used their helicopters primarily for casualty evacuation and later for airlifting troops. Question that looms ahead for the future, no matter what the outcome in Jammu and Kashmir, and North Eastern States, is how the army aviation succeeds against fierce insurgency in strategy and capabilities. The Taliban’s resurgence, tenacious resistance against NATO forces in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda’s ability to elude United States forces, and the trouble Israel has had in trying to subdue violence in tiny Southern Lebanon (Hezbollah) and tinier Gaza (Hamas) deepen concern that even world’s finest militaries have problems against any kind...
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...Joseph Tanaka Dr. Whipple Eng 150 Apocalypse Now Review The sound of machine guns, the whirl of helicopter blades, and “the smell of napalm in the morning” makes Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola look like a traditional, action-packed Vietnam War movie. However, upon further examination, the film reveals a much deeper, ominous, and senseless reality that realistically depicts the Vietnam War. Apocalypse Now is a masterpiece of the nineteen sixty counter culture movement that is transposed into the characters of the Vietnam War. The aspects of Apocalypse Now that make it one of the most horrifying movies of the Vietnam era are the characters, the plot, and the setting. The horrifying way human beings treat one another is an enduring quality present in the characters Apocalypse Now. Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore’s Ninth Air Calvary embodies the brutality of the war because of his callous attack on a village filled with non combative residents. In the scene of the helicopter attack on the Mekong Delta village, a Vietnamese villager comes up to an American helicopter loading a wounded soldier and throws a hat with a grenade inside, blowing up everyone inside. Upon seeing this attack by a single villager, Kilgore exclaims, “Holy Christ she’s a savage, somebody get that Dink!” and a group of helicopters decimate her family trying to run away. Not only ruthless was Kilgore’s response but also the amusement that his own soldiers felt while shooting the woman and other innocent civilians...
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...The History of the Navy SEAL’s Cory Mooney Comp 1 November 16, 2012 Minnis Abstract Today’s SEAL’s heritage, missions, capabilities, and combat lessons-learned from daring groups that no longer exist, were important to Allied Victory’s in World War II and the Korean conflict. These groups were the Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDU’s), and Navy Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT’s). These groups trained in the early 1940’s and saw combat in Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific, now disbanded after World War II. The UDT’s were used again and expanded quickly for the Korean War in 1950. Exercising ingenuity and courage; these special maritime units executed, with relatively few casualties, many of the missions, tactics, techniques and procedures that SEAL’s still perform today. The History of the Navy SEAL’s The history of the US Navy SEAL’s dates back to World War II and the numerous units that were created to fill specific military needs. Amphibious landings were still a new operation and new tactics had to be written with every operation. New vehicles were developed to get soldiers to shore quickly and efficiently, yet there were still obstacles that could cause failure of a landing. The enemy could fortify a beach with obstacles which could tear out the hull of an approaching boat and sink it; drowning its men and preventing the approach for other boats. Underwater obstacles could also be natural, such as coral or sandbars, completely uncharted, and changing daily...
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...The 187th Infantry Regiment is a regiment attached to the 101st Airborne Division stationed our of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The 187th Infantry Regiment was initially inducted into the Army as the 187th Glider Infantry Regiment during World War II. The regiment was constituted on the 12 of November 1942 and then became active on the 25th of February 1943. Initially, the 187th was assigned at Fort Mackall, North Carolina for their initially infantry training and afterwards were moved to Fort Polk, Louisiana for their glider training. From Fort Polk, the 187th then moved to stage themselves at Camp Stoneman, California where they would depart to New Guinea. The 187th arrived in New Guinea on the 29th of May 1943 to become part of the New...
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