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DEL.ICIO.USMission, makeup of 48th in transition
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team returned home from Iraq this spring, it was just the beginning of major changes for the unit.
The brigade is transitioning from a mechanized to a light infantry unit, losing its tanks, self-propelled artillery and Bradley Fighting Vehicles that were integral to its efforts in Iraq. In addition, jobs are being cut or changed and some armories are expected to be moved to more populous parts of the state.
National Guard officials say these changes are part of the federal government’s greater reliance on citizen-soldiers to fulfill homeland security duties. Last week, President Bush announced a plan to use 6,000 Guard soldiers at a time to help police the border with Mexico, though it’s not clear whether the 48th will be tapped for that duty.
The 48th is ahead of a trend that is likely to catch up with most state Guard brigades, going to lighter, speedier vehicles with its mission geared more for urban warfare than traditional battlefield maneuvers.
“The bread and butter of the Army is going to be light,” said Maj. Gen. David Poythress, commander of the Georgia National Guard. “The 48th will essentially align itself to the mission we are already doing.”
Poythress said he does not envision “anyone will be forced out who doesn’t want out. But there will be people who will be changing jobs.”
The brigade eventually will have about 700 fewer soldiers, reducing the total strength from 4,129 to 3,429. Most battalions will lose positions except the 148th Support Battalion, which will grow by 159 soldiers.
Three entire units that returned from a yearlong deployment in Iraq will be deactivated by September 2007, according to the restructuring plan. They are Echo Troop of the 108th Cavalry Regiment, the 248th Military Intelligence Company and the 648th Engineer Battalion.
The brigade will add a new battalion that will combine engineering, intelligence and communications elements.
The two infantry battalions — the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 121st Infantry Regiment — will convert from heavy mechanized units to light infantry; the 118th Field Artillery Regiment will trade its self-propelled howitzers for smaller 105 mm towed howitzers; and the 108th Armor Regiment will convert from a tank unit to a reconnaissance and surveillance squadron.
Some 48th companies will be moved from their current armories to help boost recruitment efforts, said Maj. Gen. Terry Nesbitt, commanding general of the Georgia Army National Guard. Nesbitt said Guard units were positioned 50 years ago when the demographics of the state were vastly different. Some units from South Georgia may be moved to more heavily populated areas in the northern part of the state.
Units that have both male and female soldiers, for instance, would be moved from rural towns to urban centers to assist efforts to recruit women.
The transformation is part of the Army’s plan to adapt to a new era of combat. The Army’s structure has remained largely unchanged since World War II, but the nature of warfare has changed, say military analysts.
“Heavy brigades were designed to fight the Nazis,” said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the nonprofit Lexington Institute in Washington, D.C. “They simply aren’t the brigades with which you do counterinsurgency operations or peacekeeping. That’s doubly true of the Guard because they are supposed to be the backup for active-duty units.”
Thompson said that following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Katrina last year, “light forces seem a lot more viable than armored divisions.”
The Army is also building smaller, self-contained “units of action” and moving away from larger divisions, which can each have up to 20,000 soldiers.
The smaller units usually have about 3,500 soldiers and offer the Army a bigger pool of brigades for missions around the world. The 48th Brigade’s self-contained structure in Iraq is what most Army units will look like in the future.
“Think of Lego blocks,” Thompson said. “You can snap them together or snap them apart to fit your needs.”
Thompson said the Army is being ambitious in attempting its transformation while fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not all of the repercussions of the makeover are fully known yet, he added.
The 48th’s Bradley Fighting Vehicles are a prime example.
The soldiers credited their 14 Bradley armored vehicles for saving their lives on many occasions. And the 10th Mountain Division relied heavily on the Gainesville-based soldiers in their last few weeks in Iraq to provide security in western Baghdad neighborhoods where sectarian violence was a daily danger. Insurgents are often intimidated by the hulking Bradleys, which can withstand attacks that Humvees cannot.
Thompson said the Army may be underestimating the usefulness of heavy metal in the future.
“It sounds as though modularity is a good idea, but one for which all the battlefield implications are not fully fleshed out,” Thompson said. “That’s inevitable when you are doing something very different and doing it in the midst of a war. If we had come up with this plan in the last decade, we could have fleshed it out at the [Army’s] National Training Center at Fort Irwin. Instead, we are fleshing them out on the streets of Baghdad.”
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Comments
By An opinion
May 22, 2006 01:50 PM | Link to this
Streamling may be a good venture but there will always be a need for heavy armor, better equiped military services (all 5. Never should the lessons shown by the 48th’s Bradleys and the 48th’s warriors (including those from other states, don’t forget) be overlooked. To do away the lessons is absolutely foolish. If using heavy armor can save American lives and accomplish the mission that the warriors of the 48th faced and did well then the Bradleys should never be removed from the service. Where are the heads that have brains with military knowledge and their influence on what is and what is not? Keep some heavy armor not necessarily in homeland security within our borders (unless it becomes necessary) but to use in areas like Iraq. Their effectiveness has been proven. If it isn’t broke - don’t ‘fix’ it because you are truly tearing down our defense. Build it up instead.
By Tony Ashe
May 31, 2006 12:27 PM | Link to this
Lets not forget Somali. If we would have had our on armour on the ground things would have turned out different.