Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 30, 1993 TAG: 9309300231
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The point is for the normally competitive services to learn to fight as a team.
"It really is a historic change," said Gen. Colin Powell, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell, who retires today, pushed for the move in his final months as the president's top military adviser.
The change will be celebrated Friday at a ceremony in Norfolk, and Defense Secretary Les Aspin is scheduled to attend.
The new command - dubbed USACOM for U.S. Atlantic Command - puts most of the men and women from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps in the continental United States under the operational control of a four-star officer based in Norfolk.
An exception will be some forces based on the West Coast who will report to the commander in charge of the Pacific bases in Hawaii.
The new job will go to Adm. Paul Miller, the commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Command. But in the future, the job could switch to an Army, Marine Corps or Air Force commander.
Miller, who is also NATO's Atlantic commander, had the job of protecting the region's vital sea lanes in the event of an all-out war against the former Soviet Union.
But the demise of the Cold War and the return of hundreds of thousands of troops to U.S. shores required a change in the military's organizational chart and the way it trains its men and women.
Instead of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps training their own forces in separate military exercises, the USACOM commander will be responsible for organizing joint, or cooperative, training. The new commander will also be in charge of preparing military forces for the growing number of humanitarian or disaster relief missions around the globe.
Miller, in a recent interview, said the move will "capitalize on the investments that each service has made, and employ them as joint forces as opposed to individual service forces."
"That's the biggest leap that we have to get over. . . . We have to break some molds - and we have started," the admiral said.
Powell argues that the move will not cause the services to drop their distinct identities, as some critics have contended.
"I want every Marine to think he can just whip anyone's butt, and I want every guy who takes to the air, whether he comes off the deck of a carrier or a concrete runway, to think he's better than anyone else in the sky. I like that service culture . . . and the tradition you bring from 200 years of experience in warfare," Powell said.
The concept was tried twice before, but failed because the service branches refused to yield the authority for their troops, Powell said.
But in today's budget-cutting era, the nation's military can't afford such rivalries, the general argued.
The new concept will work because the services will retain their authority to train their individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. The USACOM commander will take over when groups of forces need to learn how to fight together, Powell said.
"We cannot afford not to seek common doctrine, common procedures and common communications and common everything else . . . if we are going to go to war as a team," the four-star general said.
by CNB