What to Make of National Guard Tankers?

Strong unit cohesion is a given...they’ve been together for years

When I left the Regular Army under the Voluntary Early Release and Retirement Program (VERRP) in 1995, I was required to complete my active duty service obligation (ADSO) in the Army National Guard. My image of the National Guard had not been a good one. Kent State. Overweight slobs guzzling beer on the gunnery range. Draft dodgers who joined the Guard in the late Sixties and early Seventies to avoid service in Vietnam. Plus, how could a tank battalion be run on a part-time basis? While I had been assigned to 1-34 AR and 2-34 AR at Fort Riley, I’d observed that tanking was a full-time… correction… an over-time job. A company commander in 2-34 AR who had served in the Guard while going through ROTC in college told me that it was “a nice club to be in, but not much else.” “Sir, I heard you’re joining the Nasty Girl,” a mortarman from HHC remarked as I was about to ETS. “God help ya.” So it was with much trepidation that I reported for duty as the executive officer of C/1-104 Cav, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, at Fort Indiantown Gap. A year later, due to a civilian job change, I reported for duty as the XO of yet another Guard unit, D/1-101 Cav, New York Army National Guard, in Newburgh, N.Y. I am still serving in this capacity. I have been in the Guard for a few years now and have participated in enough weekend drills, annual training rotations, and disaster relief efforts to draw some conclusions about the quality of the citizen-soldier and the effectiveness of an Army National Guard armor unit. Personnel The first stereotype that I found to be untrue was the overwhelming presence of fat, beer-guzzling draft-dodgers. Never once have I seen or heard about alcohol being consumed in the field. The overwhelming majority of soldiers in the Guard units I have observed have prior active duty experience. Unlike the Vietnam-era Guardsman who may have joined to get out of going to war, many present-day Guardsmen are veterans of Operation Desert Storm. These are men who joined the Guard after their time on active duty because they wanted to maintain ties with the military, not men who joined the Guard to avoid combat. The difference is a fundamental one, and goes a long way toward explaining the professionalism of the modern Army National Guard. The majority of company grade officers in 1-101 Cav have prior active duty experience. Four of these young officers are graduates of West Point. Three of these West Pointers — the CO, the XO, and the third platoon leader, are in Delta Company. (Yes, I meant to say company. For some strange reason of lineage that I don’t understand, our cavalry squadron has companies, not troops.) For the rest of this article, I will focus on Delta Company, as this is the unit about which I have the most intimate knowledge. Ninety percent of Delta Company’s members are former active duty soldiers. Fourteen are former active duty Marines. Former Marines are not unique to my unit. They pepper the duty rosters of many an ARNG unit. The frequent deployment of the Marine Reserve is a big reason that several of these few good men cross over to the Army. Another is the absence of a Marine combat unit nearby. Guys who were Marine infantrymen are now ARNG tankers. The Marines’ loss is the Army’s gain. Every Marine brings with him a duty-first, Semper Fi mentality that is quite comforting and inspiring to be around. The presence of 14 former Marines in our company stiffens our backbone quite a bit and adds tremendously to our professionalism. About 75 percent of Delta Company is employed by the highway patrol, the state correctional system, and several municipal police and fire departments. Again, this is not rare. It has been my observation, while serving in two units and talking to soldiers from many more, that many active duty soldiers who ETS trade in their battle dress uniform for the uniform of a civil servant. They go from one disciplined environment to another. They leave one chain of command to enter another. The result is that these men never lose the “military mindset,” which in turn adds to the professionalism of the unit. This mindset rubs off on those of us who do not work in civil service. Whatever the civilian occupation, when a soldier leaves active duty he doesn’t go into a vacuum. He gets a job, he buys a dog, he gets older, he finds a wife, he has some kids, he continues his civilian education, he often advances into management positions at work. All of these combine to make him a more mature, more intelligent, more able-to-take charge soldier. A sergeant who, in civilian life, has to manage a family and a mortgage and an office and his evening master’s degree program is at least as mature and responsible as his active-duty counterpart. Unit Cohesion The men of Delta Company have served together for several years. One of the things that bothered me about an active duty armor unit — no matter what reasoned explanation I was given — was that you spend a year building a team through platoon and company lanes, gunnery cycles, countless hours in simulators, combined arms live fire exercises (CALFEX), and finally with a rotation at the NTC. And then, when you’re finally all working together like a machine, PCSes and ETSes bust you all up, and you have to start building a team all over again. In the Army National Guard, promotion is slow and movement outside of one’s battalion in limited. The positive result of this is that men spend more time working together, building tighter crews, platoons, and companies. A sense of heritage and tradition that develops only with shared time and shared events does indeed flourish in the National Guard. And while promotions are slow, the STAP program (Select Train Assign Promote) ensures that upward mobility does indeed happen. One out of four weekends each month, a fourth of a Guard soldier’s free time, is spent with his unit. Over half of our drills this year required us to take a Friday off of work, making a weekend drill actually 42 ARMOR — July-August 2000 three days long. The Guardsman spends two weeks out of the year at an active duty post with his unit. And, in the case of Delta Company, the governor, at least once a year, mobilized us to do disaster relief, whether it was after a tornado in upstate New York or when a hurricane struck the lower Hudson Valley. Adding all of these together, and including weekly training meetings, a National Guard lieutenant or sergeant can expect to spend 100 days each year wearing a uniform. Most active duty folks don’t realize that. Nor do they stop to think that this is all done on a person’s free time. Something else to consider: At Fort Riley, a quarter to a third of our time was devoted to post details and routine services. While it’s true that a Guardsman spends more time out of uniform than he does in, it is also true that active duty tankers don’t spend every day on a tank. Solid Training in the Fundamentals Each year, Delta Company tankers complete common task training (CTT), the tank crew gunnery skills test (TCGST), countless hours in the mobile conduct of fire trainer (MCOFT), and then either two weeks of gunnery at Fort Drum or two weeks of simulated maneuver training at Fort Knox. This year, we will conduct one week of gunnery at Drum and one week of SIMNET at Knox. Our relative proximity to Fort Drum allows us to run through the preliminary tank tables during regular drill weekends. This past annual training (AT), we conducted a live-fire of the new Tank Table VIII at Fort Drum with observers from the 3rd ID making sure we trained to standard. Eleven of our fourteen crews qualified Q1, while the other three were Q2. When it comes to individual tank crew gunnery, we can hang with anybody; active or reserve. As far as platoon-level gunnery, we will be conducting a Tank Table XII for the first time this year. As far as maneuver training, company-level SIMNET exercises are always a success. In terms of command and control, Delta Company is solid. What is untested, however, is our ability to maneuver over long distances on real tanks, in the dark and cold and rain, with malfunctioning radios and thrown tracks. A real weakness to be sure, but one that would be the primary focus of a 30- or 60-day train-up at the NTC prior to combat. It is also a challenge faced by the active duty, whose field time has been limited due to budget constraints. As the active component relies more and more on simulators and expends fewer rounds during fewer gunnery cycles, the gap between active and reserve narrows. Much coverage was given to the poor performance of National Guard tank units at the NTC during the time of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. As strange as is seems, that was nearly 10 years ago. Many of those soldiers were of the old Guard, pre-STAP, pre-drawdown ilk. The majority of company-level officers and men of today’s Guard have been on active duty, and many served honorably with active duty units during the Gulf War.) A quick note on equipment. Most Guard units train on M1 tanks. While not as hi-speed as its younger brothers, this tank serves its purpose when it comes to keeping current with maintenance procedures and gunnery skills. Can National Guard drivers drive a tank? Yes. Can the loaders load, the gunners gun, and the TCs command? Yes, yes, and yes. Do they work well together as a crew? As a platoon? Yes and yes. Do they have a basic understanding of maneuver tactics based on past active duty experience and continuous SIMNET training? Yes. Would more maneuver time on real tanks be helpful? Of course. Active Duty Support Delta Company conducts most of its training at Fort Drum, Fort Knox, or Fort Dix. Because we are only a few hours by bus from Fort Drum and Fort Dix, we can go to both places often. Being a couple miles away from Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, we fly down to Fort Knox during two or three regular drill weekends each year to use the SIMNET and COFT facilities there. The full-time staff at all of these installations — whether they be active duty, active guard/reserve (AGR), or federal technicians — are always professional, and they enthusiastically assist us in accomplishing our training objectives. Without them, and without the full-time skeleton crew organic to our company and HHC, we could not accomplish our missions. The full-timers at home station do the basic maintenance, logistics, and administrative duties necessary to keep our company going. Weekly training meetings with all key part-time personnel are also essential. The telephone and e-mail are the two big tools National Guard leaders rely on to keep a handle on things during the time between drills. Support from active duty personnel also comes from the folks in the schoolhouse and in the virtual schoolhouse. On-site courses at Camp Smith, Fort Dix, and Fort Knox keep Delta Company tankers abreast of current doctrine. And with the Army’s distance learning program, NCOs can complete Phase I of BNCOC and ANCOC (to name two), while officers can complete BMOC in total, Phase I of the Advanced Course (now, the Armor Captains Career Course), and certain phases of subsequent, more advanced, military education. Distance learning is a wonderful thing and the men and women who put it together and maintain the various programs should know that their efforts are appreciated by citizen soldiers in every state. Use of Army National Guard Tankers in Real-World Missions Army National Guard tankers train to standard on individual, crew-level, and platoon-level tasks. A National Guard tank platoon can hold its own against any platoon on active duty. Companies, because they are normally spread apart from each other across the state, enjoy great camaraderie and esprit d’corps. Prior active duty experience, continued military education, and over 100 days of training together each year make these companies a valuable addition to any larger team. With minimal preparation — 30 to 60 days of continuous field exercises — Delta Company would be fully deployable for combat. In terms of battalion-level deployments, I am too junior to make that assessment. Personally, I would feel better being deployed with my entire battalion for no other reason than it would be comforting to know a lieutenant colonel from the 1-101 Cav would have a say in how and where Delta Company fought as part of a brigade combat team. This ain’t your father’s National Guard. It is a professional, well-functioning, warfighting organization. For those on active duty who might be assigned to work with a citizen-soldier tank unit, rest assured that you and they will profit greatly from the experience.

1LT Jim Sosnicky is the XO of D/1- 101 Cav, NYARNG. He is a 1993 graduate of the United States Military Academy.

ARMOR — July-August 2000 43 item on your primary hand receipt printout from PBO. Write down the TM/SC number and the date of publication, too. It’s very important for you to have a master listing that shows this information. Write a memorandum for the PBO to document all the TMs and SCs that you used to conduct your inventories. This way, when it comes time for your change-of-command inventory, you have a reference to prove what you used to conduct your inventory. The new commander may show up with a more recent publication. It may list different components than the one that you used, which could make it appear as though you are missing something. Commander’s Hint: Keeping a master list of your property is one of the most important things you will do while in command. I strongly recommend that you keep this data in a spreadsheet. The benefits that you will reap from keeping this type of spreadsheet up-to-date are worth the 15 to 30 minutes that you will have to put into maintaining it each week.

2. Whenever you are missing a TM or SC, send someone to try to find a copy. If they find it, have them make a copy of the cover and the pages that show the COEI, BII, and AAL. Your local Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) library and Logistics Assistance Office (LAO) are two good places to look for TMs and SCs. If they can’t find it, inventory as best as you can and be sure to document that you did not have the proper references to inventory with. Keep a list of all the TMs and SCs that were missing and task your Publications NCO to get them ordered. Commander’s Hint: The supply room should already have a TM and SC library for your company. I’ve found that all too often Supply Rooms are missing at least some of what you need. I recommend that you keep a TM/SC extract library in your office, as well as in the Supply Room. Get an old “copy paper box” and file the COEI, BII, and AAL extracts in LIN order. Some will say that this is “micro-management,” but this way you will always have what you need. It’s especially nice on weekends and after duty hours when the supply sergeant isn’t around to let you in the supply room.

3. Check all serial numbers. Have the supply sergeant prepare and submit AARs for any minor deficiencies. If you have any items where the serial numbers are completely different, the PBO may require the outgoing commander to initiate a Report of Survey to correct the problem. Make sure that you document EVERY item that has a serial number on the sub-hand receipt, even if the serial number is not listed on the primary hand receipt from the PBO. This can help you out in identifying your equipment if it is lost or stolen down the road. Commander’s Hint: Trailer-mounted power generation equipment can be difficult to inventory when it comes to serial numbers. Normally, each trailer-mounted generator will have a serial number for the generator itself, one for the trailer, and a third one for the entire “power unit.” If the generator has been equipped with an Acoustic Suppression Kit (ASK), then you may have a fourth one on it, too. The serial number that you are supposed to use to account for it on the property book is the one for the entire “power unit.” It is normally located on the front right side of the tongue of the trailer. Some of my generators were missing the “power unit” data plate and I had problems trying to figure out what was what. I built a spreadsheet to help me keep it all straight. After the inventory, I added the power in kilowatts and frequency for each generator into my spreadsheet and ended up using it as a reference several times per month throughout my command. Commander’s Hint: Wheeled vehicle-mounted radio installation kits can be a headache to inventory. These installation kits are normally not part of the actual radio sets that mount in them. They are non-expendable and appear as a separate LIN on your PBO primary hand receipt. Often, these installation kits are composed of nothing but a bunch of expendable/durable items, which can be requisitioned if short. Contact your local Communications & Electronic Command (CECOM) Logistics Assistance Representative if you have difficulty obtaining a component listing to identify the components.

4. When you inventory your arms room, be sure to inventory any Personally Owned Weapons (POWs) that are stored there. You are required to inventory these as part of your monthly sensitive items inventories, too.

5. As you inventory, check torque wrenches and electronics test equipment for calibration stickers. Are they up to date? If you don’t see any, ask your NCOs to find out if the items should be enrolled in your calibration program. Similarly, check your motor pool’s “jack-stands” and wrecker for “load tests.” Ask when the last time your weapons were submitted for their annual “gauging” and when your night vision devices last had semi-annual Low Level Resolution Tests (LLRT). Finally, ask your NBC NCO when your M-8 alarms and Chemical Agent Monitors (CAMs) last had their annual “wipe-tests.”

6. Stay organized throughout the inventory process. Keep a folder for each sub-hand receipt. I used “pocket-folders” and kept the master sub-hand receipts on one side and the related component hand receipts on the other. Commander’s Hint: Keeping track of all the change documents on your sub-hand receipts is no easy task. You really need a system of checks and balances to help your supply sergeant and to ensure that you account for everything. Depending upon the size and activity of your company, you may have only a few or large numbers of changes in non-expendable property on a month-to-month basis. I averaged 15 to 25 changes each month. I recommend that either you or your supply officer maintain second copies of all sub-hand receipt. Have the supply sergeant give you a copy of EVERY nonexpendable change document on a weekly basis. Put them in your sub-hand receipt folders and update your property spreadsheet on a weekly basis. This way, you have two complete, up-to-date copies of all the sub-hand receipts. This can be a life saver for you. After the Inventory When you have finished accounting for all your property, sub-hand receipted everything down to the supervisors and users, verified serial numbers, written memorandums for all deficiencies, reconciled your non-expendable shortage annexes, and finished all the other things that I’ve mentioned above, you should be ready to sign your primary hand receipt from the PBO. After the change-of-command, don’t forget to follow-up and ensure that shortage TMs/SCs and all component shortages are placed on order. Electronic copies of some of the memorandums I’ve mentioned in this article are available on the ARMOR website at: www.knox.army. mil/armormag/ja00indx.htm. Good luck!

MAJ Pat Flanders is an Ordnance officer currently enrolled in the Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. He commanded D Co, 701st Main Support Battalion, 1st ID, in Kitzingen, Germany. He is a Microsoft-certified systems engineer and holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.

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