A Marine platoon commander went with his company to the Gulf War ten years ago and brought back lessons on small-unit leadership.
The Commanding General, 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade, boarded the 747. He grabbed the public address mike and said, "Marines, welcome home!" A lasting cheer filled the cabin. "You did one hell of a job over there, and you should be proud. Let me be the first to welcome you back," he said. The cheer continued. As we left the plane, I immediately noticed the large crowd assembled at the hangar of Hickham Air Force Base. The cheers and flags were overwhelming as we made our way down the ramp and onto U.S. soil. The crowd was on both sides of the cordoned-off passageway to the buses. Emotions were soaring. We boarded the buses and made a quick exit from Hickham. What was this? Blue lights and sirens? I could not believe it—a police escort back to our base, Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps Air Station (KMCAS). The streets were lined with people shouting and waving flags. Our quick drive brought us to Hangar 101, packed with people.
My return from the Gulf War was one of the greatest hours of my life, a true hero's welcome that I will never forget. I felt something that day that is impossible to describe. But this reception ended a long journey that, at the time, seemed to go on forever. Although this moment was a great one for me emotionally, the journey was filled with many great moments where Marines performed at their best and truly rose above the challenge. As a weapons platoon commander, I experienced many leadership challenges during each phase of the Gulf War.
Predeployment
In the beginning of August 1990, my battalion was participating in an exercise on the big island of Hawaii. In the middle of this month-long exercise, my company commander pulled all the officers aside and said, "Gentlemen, Iraq has just invaded Kuwait. We are retrograding back to Kay Bay for immediate deployment to the region." We were stunned. Since we had no access to news in the field, we had no idea what was going on. After three days we were back at KMCAS. Another three weeks passed before we finally got on an airplane for Saudi Arabia. As a leader, I remember three challenges that stood out during the predeployment phase.
- Preparation: I determined early that ensuring my Marines and their families were ready was essential. A Marine's effectiveness would suffer if he left home without taking care of his personal affairs. Unlike previous deployments, we were unsure of how long we would be away. My guess was one year, but I knew that during World War II, Marines were gone as long as five. As a company, we made every effort to assist our Marines in putting their personal affairs in order. Luckily, we had three weeks to do so. I know, however, that this is not always the case.
- Perceptions: A common theme throughout this deployment was that what you envision is going to happen is much different from what actually happens. In other words, perception is different from reality. As a leader, you must recognize that your Marines are not all processing situations in the same way. There are two important aspects to remember: First, be careful when describing situations to your Marines. At times, I found myself describing a situation as I perceived it at the time, which was not necessarily the way it was. Second, as your Marines tell you of a situation, realize that they are describing it to you according to their perception of the event.
- Keeping Marines Informed: Rumors were rampant, particularly during the predeployment period. When we were in the field, the sources of information were more controlled, but during the predeployment Marines were receiving information from many sources. To combat rumors, I made it clear from the beginning that the only reliable source of information is the chain of command. In addition, I ensured that information was disseminated frequently so that rumors would die quickly.
Arriving in the Desert
After we arrived in Saudi Arabia, my unit was staged in a warehouse at the Port of Jabal. We stayed there for two weeks. During this time, my leadership focus was in two areas.
- Small-Unit Discipline: It was immediately evident that small-unit discipline would be vital to success, particularly in this environment. Such things as ensuring Marines were drinking enough water and maintaining their personal hygiene was what would sustain us during the extended field operations. I knew this was a noncommissioned officer (NCO) function and instilled this during the earliest stages.
- The Little Things: The things one normally takes for granted took on immense importance. Mail, showers, and decent chow all were critical for morale. It is surprising what these things did to keep us going.
The First Mission
Our first mission was to establish a company defensive perimeter on the main north/south road that led from Kuwait to Saudi Arabia. At this stage, we were defending Saudi Arabia against invasion. Our position was approximately 70 kilometers from the border, but since the invasion force was mechanized with easy routes of advance, our reaction time was limited. During this phase, I faced the following leadership challenges:
- Acceptable Living Standards: Developing acceptable living standards in the harsh desert environment was essential. I knew from basic human psychology that a certain level of living conditions must be met or the Marine would not remain focused on the job at hand. Actually, this took little effort on my part other than providing some time. The initiative and creativity I saw was phenomenal, particularly considering the lack of resources we had in the early stages. It did not take long for the Marines to create relatively acceptable living conditions.
- Training: For obvious reasons, training took on added importance. After completing our defensive positions, my company established an aggressive training program. Actually, the training conditions were optimal. I had all my Marines in one place with plenty of area to train in and few distractions. The plan was to prepare for a variety of contingencies, but because we had no idea how much time we had, we were forced to prioritize.
It was my experience that Marines always retained more by doing, so practical application was the main training technique I used. In addition, I always used the critique after each training event. During the critique, I focused on why a Marine did certain actions rather than on how he did them. In this way, I focused on the thought process rather than the technique.
To remain organized, I broke our training into five categories:
- Environment Training: Because 3d Marines was stationed in Hawaii, all of our training was oriented toward jungle warfare. It was our belief that if we were deployed for a contingency, it would be in the Western Pacific. Accordingly, we never placed any emphasis on desert warfare and had little experience from which to draw. Extensive transition training was required for us to create tactics and standard operating procedures for desert operations. Developing these techniques and procedures took time, practice, and trial and error.
- Threat Training: In the early stages of Operation Desert Shield, our greatest threat was terrorism. Because there was extensive civilian traffic along the highway in our area, terrorism was difficult for us to defend against. We always had to keep our guard up. In addition, because our training in terrorism was limited, we developed an extensive counterterrorism training program.
The other aspect of threat training was conventional. We knew the Iraqi Army was formidable, and the more we knew about what we were up against, the better our decisions would be. I wanted to ensure my Marines knew everything about the enemy. In turn, we studied the threat from every possible perspective.
- Leadership Training: I knew that developing good leadership skills would be essential for success, especially for weapons platoon, where NCOs frequently would be operating independently. I had some NCOs who needed leadership development. I found that an excellent technique for developing leadership skills was patrolling. Each day, I assigned an NCO in my platoon a patrol mission in addition to the normal patrols that my company was tasked to conduct by the battalion. During the day, the patrol leader would conduct patrol planning and preparation, to include order writing, patrol coordinations, inspections, and rehearsals. That night, the patrol would conduct the mission. Although the threat was low, it was still a "live patrol," giving the patrol added emphasis. It was challenging for the NCOs and they all responded well. It forced them to take charge, make decisions, operate independently, and accomplish the mission. When we returned to Hawaii, all the NCOs involved said that this was a highlight of the deployment.
- Individual Training: I viewed individual training as developing the whole Marine. This included not only basic warrior skills, physical fitness, and specialty training, but also areas that were more difficult to develop such as self-confidence, initiative, and a willingness to accept risks. My strategy for developing these latter traits was to create progressively challenging situations for each Marine and to place the individual Marine in a situation where he had to make a decision. Usually, this situation caused a dilemma where there was no good solution. Ultimately, the Marine had to develop a solution in which, no matter what, a sacrifice was made.
- Team Training: Since all the weapon systems in the weapons platoon are employed as teams, team training was extremely important. For team training, I emphasized gun drills where Marines had to work together to accomplish the task. In addition, everyone on the team had a specific function. For success, each Marine had to do his job right. We conducted gun drills constantly, under every possible circumstance. By the start of the ground war, the teams were solid.
Air War
My battalion moved several times between our first mission and the air war. Each move brought a different set of circumstances and challenges. Despite all we were told, it was not until the air war started that the reality of the war set in. At this point, the emphasis changed. Our mission had shifted to offense and driving the Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. In addition, because there was enough troop buildup in the region at this stage, we felt secure against an Iraqi invasion into Saudi Arabia. We were no longer in an entirely defensive posture.
I will never forget the first day of the air war. We were in and out of our nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare gear all night long. Everyone had the jitters. The first time we saw rockets from a multiple rocket launcher, we all jumped into our fighting positions, even though the rockets landed nowhere near us. For my unit, the air war actually gave us an opportunity to work out some of our anxieties. After a while, we became accustomed to working in this environment. This greatly assisted us during the ground war.
The Ground War
Initially, my battalion was the ground combat element for Task Force X-Ray with a mission to conduct a helicopter-borne insert into Kuwait at the beginning of the ground war. Because of a lack of helicopter lift, however, the line companies were scrubbed from the mission. At the last minute, my company received the order to move out two days before the announcement of the ground war.
We were almost at the second minefield belt before the ground war officially was announced. My company had no real assigned mission at first, but we ended up traveling with Task Force Ripper, collecting their prisoners of war and transporting them to prisoner compounds. Two leadership points emerged during the ground war:
- Emotions: Emotions were intense during the ground offensive. I immediately recognized that my senses were heightened. Accordingly, I did not want my racing emotions to override my common sense. The most intense emotion I felt was anxiety. I did not want to fail or to let down my fellow Marines. As their leader, I knew my Marines were counting on me. To this end, I felt that the training paid off. We had rehearsed so often that many of our actions were second nature.
The other important factor was being mentally prepared for the task at hand. The Marines must have no mental reservations about what they are doing. I think one of the biggest contributors to the positive feeling was all the support we received from back home. Knowing that the people back home and all over the world were behind our mission greatly contributed to the Marines positive frame of mind throughout the operation.
- Discipline: One of my main priorities was to get all my Marines out of the Persian Gulf War alive. The one thing I knew I had to do to accomplish this was to ensure discipline. For example, before the ground war, a strict policy was established concerning souvenir collecting. I saw, however, many personnel violate this policy. I did not want to lose a Marine needlessly to a booby trap or a mine. I remained steadfast on this policy as junior Marines questioned why they could not collect souvenirs while others were doing so. This was an example of maintaining discipline in a extremely chaotic environment. For me, the one way I knew to ensure discipline was maintained was by setting the example and by doing the right thing in the absence of supervision.
Returning Home
Because we had deployed to the region during the early stages, my unit was one of the first to return. Upon return, the intense patriotism seen throughout the country and the reception that we received by our fellow countrymen was incredible. As a leader, I felt that it was important that the Marines returned home with honor and a sense of pride. I knew that the Marines had been through much, both psychologically and emotionally, and how they felt about our mission would have a lasting impact. The hero's welcome we received meant a great deal to us and our positive frame of mind. I am forever grateful to all the people back home who rose to the occasion to honor the warriors.
Major DeFrancisci has been an infantry officer since 1988. He served on active duty with 1/3 from 1988 to 1991 as a platoon commander.