Learning Through DISASTER


Military catastrophes teach IDEAL students about strategic planning and leadership.


by Debra Valine D


esert One, the 1980 attempt to rescue 52 Ameri- can hostages in Iran, failed. America’s Delta Force, formed just three years earlier, lost eight men, seven helicopters and a C-130.


Task Force Smith, the first U.S. Army ground maneuver unit to enter combat in Korea, in July 1950, was supposed to be a show of strength to delay North Korean troops advancing near Osan. Some 150 American infantrymen were killed, wounded or miss- ing. Te North Koreans were delayed only seven hours.


In Tunisia’s Kasserine Pass, the U.S. Army experienced defeat in its first engagement with German troops during World War II. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps broke through an Allied defensive position Feb. 20, 1943, kill- ing more than 1,000 American troops and taking hundreds of prisoners.


Robert Moore, deputy to the commanding general of the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command (USASAC), used these examples to illustrate the need for strategic planning and lead- ership, Aug. 31, during the Army Acquisition Workforce’s Inspiring and Developing Excellence in Acquisition Leaders (IDEAL) course at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Te six-month course, designed for Army civilians at GS-11 through GS-13, prepares participants to lead people and teams effectively.


Moore spoke to 31 workforce members during the course, explain- ing that the lessons learned from those three events show that


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strategic planning and better preparation would have helped to successfully accomplish the missions.


“All the things you have been studying are caught up in these three events,” Moore said. As strategic planners looking at the current fight (now – 2025), the next fight (2026 – 2035) and the future fight (2036 – 2050), use lessons learned from these events to help make sure those kinds of things do not happen again, he advised.


He used USASAC as an example of the importance of building a team, walking the class through the USASAC hierarchy and the worldwide partners it takes for the foreign military sales mission to succeed. USASAC, a subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, develops and manages all foreign military sales and security assistance programs for the Army, to build part- ner capacity, support combatant command engagement strategies and strengthen U.S. partnerships.


“As a leader, you are a team of teams,” Moore said. “You do not do this by yourself. As you work and plan, it is about bringing your team together. You have to look at where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow. As you plan, it has to be a collaborative effort. Tere has to be a culture of trust, teamwork and partnerships.”


Moore reminded the group of the importance of the Army values and the Army Civilian Corps Creed. “Tese are not new to you. I know you have seen them before. Tese are values to instill in employees, personal traits to which all employees should aspire and a code of conduct to follow; it’s about doing the right thing.”


Army AL&T Magazine


January-March 2019


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