THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210638
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 73 lines
Not even a year had passed since the victory in Europe when the Allied commander decided that his officers needed instruction in how to get along.
Years of fighting had shown Dwight Eisenhower that the branches of America's military didn't work well together. Each had traditions and procedures the others didn't understand. Each had capabilities and limitations the others couldn't appreciate. Each had vocabularies the others didn't speak.
The result, Eisenhower knew, was friction between his fighting forces. Misunderstandings. Parochialism.
His solution: a school, where leaders from the various branches of the military would take courses in working together and surmounting their differences.
That school became the Armed Forces Staff College, and its 50th anniversary was celebrated last week with the opening of a two-day symposium aimed at the next century of joint service cooperation and warfighting.
The Joint Operations Symposium drew more than 200 guests, plus 400 faculty and students, to a campus that today sprawls across expansive grounds at Hampton and Terminal boulevards and offers a five-month course to mid-career military officers.
And while much of last week's conference was devoted to the future - examining, among other things, the impact of cutting-edge technology on the military community's future operations, doctrine and resources - the past emerged in its speeches, as well.
James R. Locher III, former assistant Secretary of Defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict during the Bush administration - the symposium's keynote speaker - recapped the decades preceding the defense establishment's decision to push for joint training among its military members.
Locher, a 1968 West Point graduate, directed the bipartisan effort that resulted in the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act.
He is writing a book on the history of that legislation, titled ``Victory on the Potomac - the Five-Year War to Unify the Pentagon.''
While progress has been made since passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, Locker told his audience that future success depends on working not only among themselves, but also with coalition partners.
There is a need, as well, to further streamline military structures, he said.
``We are still operating with a Cold War command structure,'' Locher said. ``There are 56 commands in NATO. We need to look at that excessive bureaucracy. Washington needs to be streamlined as well.''
Finally, Locher warned tomorrow's war fighters about their pursuit of highly technological equipment, saying: ``In my view, we are starting to get an excessive focus on high-tech warfare.
``A lot of people at the Pentagon say the responsibility of the American military is to fight and win the nation's wars,'' he said.
``That is not correct. It is to provide for the common defense . . . which is being prepared for a lot more than high-tech warfare.
``We need to understand that, particularly at the lower end. There is a tremendous challenge in terms of joint warfighting because we are going to put small units of different capabilities and different services together.
``I would ask, as you work on your agenda for joint warfighting, that you have a more balanced approach.'' ILLUSTRATION: V.W. VAUGHAN photos
A sea of flags flanked Air Force Brig. Gen. William R. Looney III as
he spoke at the Armed Forces Staff College 50th anniversary
celebration. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower founded the Norfolk school,
where leaders from the various branches of the military learn to
work together.
A monument marking the college's 50 years was dedicated during
during last week's celebration. by CNB