055 S12 Ep 05 - Army Special Forces During Large Scale Combat Operations w/BG Wortham of 1st SFC(A) 

He was my commander at 5th SFG. Amazing officer and even better commander! Sir we miss ya

The Basics will set you free!!! Well said General!

I have 27 rotations as NTC OPFOR in the mid 1990s. This Podcast is gold. If I were still in uniform I would add it to my “reading list” for all green tab officers and senior NCOs. LSSCO (e.g. high-intensity combat against a near-peer foe) was mostly what we did. The low/mid-intensity was for RSOI week. The box was the big boom boom war. I was a Krasnovian Guards motorized rifle company commander (T-72s and BMP-2s) in the “attack through the washboard” in the CALL publication about it, and played a small part in Gen (then LTC) Palmer’s and CPT Mandes’ “Decision Point Tactics - Fight the Enemy, Not the Plan” pamphlet, now the most-requested CALL publication of all time. I was then on the Battle Staff as the Chief of Fires. I coordinated with notional division artillery group for fires and planned and executed all OPFOR regimental indirect fires, chemical agents (persistent and non-persistent nerve/blood/blister agents, etc.), airspace management with our TACP, and my shop was responsible for the regimental graphics for each mission. The planning cycle and the execution of those plans was intense. Being a Battle Captain on long-duration high-intensity rotations, with continued operations, I learned how important every MOS in the Army really is. There are no small, unimportant tasks on the battlefield. Nobody ever has time for them. And sleep management has to be learned the hard way because all the best leaders want to do everything they can - so they have to learn to NOT do that. I see that is still how the CTCs work. I learned so much so fast, it was like firehose to mouth instruction. It was almost impossible not to enjoy being OPFOR. If we win, we felt great. If we did everything right and BLUFOR surprised us, we were proud as hell of the BLUFOR. Only if our mistake resulted in BLUFOR success were we unhappy - it occurred rarely given the OPFOR standard of decisive victory. Our soldiers loved it in the box. Those old CALL bulletins and the Red Star pamphlets appear to be full of detailed lessons learned that you folks on duty today are re-learning, sometimes the hard way. As the wise general said here, read history. The mid-to-late 90s was when the Army was focused on exactly the LSSCO fight the Army is re-learning today. And GPS was around and we used it all the time - except when we didn’t, which was just as often. We were prepared to win without technological dominance. A TOC needs a few folding tables, a few laptops, only one if any generator is used at all, and hard copy for almost everything else. A few humvees, or a few 113s, and with the Jump TOC the enemy found it hard to locate a constantly moving target. No fixed HQs with desks and chairs and 25 huge displays. Instead a few map boards and butcher paper easels. All electronic transmissions, antennas and any massing of vehicles or troops was considered recklessly dangerous, used minimally because such things could always explode on you. There were always eyes in the sky. Avoiding a heat signature was also critical. This was the OPFOR regimental battle staff - TOC, Jump, and commander always hiding and moving while operating in the box. Bare bones, mobile, and hard to find while still in command. In short, exactly the same as the way the Army is learning to fight today. Not as much new technology in warfare today as I had expected. Nothing truly disruptive or unexpected yet. You guys are on top of it. It’s an f’ing hard job. God bless you all for doing it now that I’m too old. The future looks dangerous. But when hasn’t it? My eldest is now in an 82nd scout/sniper platoon today. He loves it. Good leaders = good soldiers. Keep it up! This We’ll Defend.

Wow my unit patch is on the wall ! 20th engineers, fort Bragg 😀

Sir, please don’t glaze over @2:48! -Curious to know about that 10 year story.. Hope they talk about it during the rest of the interview. -Love this podcast I listen as a civilian executive specifically for the strategic leadership aspects ✊

Where’s the 509th Gingerbread man? I see every other unit assigned to Polk, no 509th.

😒🙄😒