State-of-the-art, high technology provided the backdrop, but the low-tech role of troops on the ground was the focus of the 16th annual WEST 2006 conference in San Diego last month.
Roughly 10,000 people attended the conference, entitled "Service Roles and Structures: What's Right for the Way Ahead?" Nearly 400 defense contractors, information technologies groups, government agencies, and small businesses filled the exhibition hall at the San Diego Convention Center with displays of high-tech innovations designed to help today's soldiers, sailors, and Marines.
The most eagerly awaited speaker, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Mullen, told attendees that the 281 Navy ships now spread across the globe is "not enough." The Navy's responsibilities are growing daily. In addition to fighting on two fronts, the Navy is monitoring terrorist activities, drug and weapons trafficking, and piracy at sea. It helped with rescue efforts in New Orleans and in countries hurt by the tsunami. That expansion of duties-"in blue, green, and brown water"-is part of a broad, long-term "generational" war for which the Navy must be better prepared and equipped.
"We're going to be at this a very long time," Admiral Mullen said, referring to the war on terror. "I believe my grandchildren and perhaps even their children will be fighting it."
But the 281 ship level is "about as low as I'm comfortable going," said the admiral, who has called for an increase to 313 Navy ships.
Admiral Mullen's comments came on the final day of the massive, three-day conference, sponsored jointly by the U.S. Naval Institute and AFCEA International.
While most of the lectures and panel sessions were dedicated to warfare technologies, many of the remarks by some of the nation's top military officers centered around the increasingly important role human relationships and cultural awareness play in today's war on terror.
"Our weapon system is the human," Vice Admiral Eric Olson, deputy commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, said during an address on the growing role special forces now play.
The unconventional state of modern warfare has turned today's special operations officer into a Hollywood icon. "Today, we're very much in the spotlight-in the spotlight and sexy," said Navy Captain Roger Crossland, a former SEAL. "You can't get away from us, and we're a little uncomfortable with that."
Captain Crossland moderated a panel entitled "What Kind of Special Forces Do We Need and How Do We Support Them?", whose speakers addressed the increasing role played by special operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We're being pretty aggressive, pretty ambitious," said Brigadier General Dennis J. Hejlik, who commands the newly created Marine contingent to the U.S. Special Operations Command.
But Captain Sean A. Pybus, commander of Naval Special Warfare Group ONE, said today's special operations groups must be more than "gunslingers." They need training in the language and culture of other regions, to help them become more versatile "enablers."
"That, to me, is just as important as the gunfighters," he said.
Such remarks were echoed by Army Colonel Edward Reeder, commander of the 7th Special Forces Group, who said that as unconventional warfare has grown to encompass the U.S. military, special operations must diversify. SEALs and Special Forces must be proficient in subversion, sabotage, guerrilla warfare, intelligence gathering, and analysis, while also being "politically and culturally proficient . . . and lethal when required."
In a sign of the changing face of special operations, Captain Crossland, Captain Pybus, and Colonel Reeder were joined on their panel by Erik Prince, the founder, president and CEO of Blackwater USA, the largest private military and security training facility in the United States. Prince said Blackwater now has 1,800 of its people deployed in "dangerous places," and he defended the growing role of private paramilitary groups , like his, which are more nimble, financially efficient, and have a "smaller footprint" than the Department of Defense.
The theme of human weapons being more important than technology was echoed across all three days of the conference. "We do technology really, really well," Ralph Peters, an author and retired Army lieutenant colonel said on a panel discussing intelligence issues. "But in these times, technology isn't enough. It will never, ever be enough."
Similarly, Marine Corps Lieutenant General James N. Mattis said, "war is a human problem that demands a human solution." While moderating a panel entitled, "Warfighters' Lessons Learned-What Have We Learned We Need to Do from Combat?", General Mattis said that the weapon responsible for killing and maiming more people in the past ten years isn't a gun or a bomb but the machete.
His point: technology isn't the primary means of pursuing the "disaffected men" who belong to the "murderous tribe" that is using terrorism to disrupt the world.
(General Mattis joked about remarks he made at last year's conference-that it was "a lot of fun to shoot" insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan-for which he was criticized. "After last year's publicized remarks, you'll know why I'm honored to be invited back," he said.)
One of General Mattis's panelists, retired Major General Robert Scales, former commandant of the Army War College and coauthor of The Iraq War, said that today's enemy has pushed the U.S. military into a "new epoch of war" that he called the "human, cultural, and cognitive" era. General Scales said the shortcomings in the war on terror have not been of a technological nature; the U.S. military perfected its technological capabilities during the Cold War. The shortcomings, he said, related to human issues such as cultural awareness, soldiers' sensitivity, and public relations.
"It's one thing to have a smart bomb," General Scales said, but it's becoming more important to have smart, well-trained soldiers. Getting the Pentagon and corporations like RAND to focus on the "back alley" issue of human capabilities, however, is "the biggest hurdle we have to get past in preparing soldiers and Marines to fight," he said.
It was a remarkable statement at an event that bills itself as the West Coast's "largest state-of-the-art warfare and technologies conference." Yet the low-tech role of ground-level troops remained an important focus across the first two days.
For example, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs Thomas F. Hall, who oversees the 1.2 million members of guard and reserve units, presented an impassioned defense of the important and expanding role now played by reservists.
In response to a question about the possibility of increasing military reserves as active-duty numbers are reduced, secretary Hall said a broad argument could be made for an ongoing increase in all aspects of guard and reserve roles. But he said that could only occur if it was done cheaply, if the guard and reserves were fully equipped, and if the Pentagon could be assured that those guard and reserve units can be mobilized quickly.
"The concept of weekend warriors is dead," he said. "We are transitioning to a strategic and operational Reserve."
Mr. Thompson is a veteran journalist and the author of Light This Candle: The Life and Times of Alan Shepard, published in 2004.