THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 24, 1995 TAG: 9511240096
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRED BAYLES, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA LENGTH: Long : 193 lines
Frederick Kroesen used to command the U.S. Army in Europe. Huntington Hardisty once commanded U.S. forces in the Pacific. Carl Vuono was Army chief of staff during the Persian Gulf War.
Today, they and others like them are part of a company with a hot commodity to sell to the post-Cold War world: U.S. military expertise.
Their company, Military Professional Resources Inc., is unique among the dozens of U.S. firms that sell military know-how.
The others consist mostly of retired majors and colonels. But MPRI is a Who's Who for a generation of officers who rose through the ranks during the Cold War, led the troops in Vietnam and built an all-volunteer military force of historic ability.
``We like to think of ourselves as the guys who, after Vietnam, rebuilt the U.S. Army,'' says MPRI spokesman Ed Soyster, West Point '57, an artillery officer in Vietnam and head of the Defense Intelligence Agency who retired in 1991 with three stars on his shoulders.
David Isenberg, an analyst at the Center for Defense Information, a Washington group that keeps a skeptical eye on military issues, says: ``These people have found a niche in the new world order no one was exploiting.''
The company has offered seminars on Desert Storm in Sweden and the Republic of China, sent a team of trainers to Liberia and worked with an Eastern European country Soyster declines to name. He says other nations are interested, particularly those emerging from the rubble of the Soviet Union.
Another MPRI customer is the Croatian defense ministry, a deal that brought unwanted attention to the 8-year-old company.
Recent military victories by the Croatian forces raised questions about the role MPRI may have played in a conflict in which the United States has remained officially neutral. MPRI insists it taught the Croats only mundane aspects of leadership and the military's role in a democracy.
Nevertheless, some critics are uneasy with the idea of retired military brass who are privy to American military expertise going into business for themselves.
Sitting in the company's ``Infantry Room,'' which is decorated with Civil War paintings, Soyster plays down such concerns. ``These are guys who devoted 35 years of their lives supporting government policy,'' he says. ``We're not going to turn our back on that.''
Analysis, leadership,
computerized war games
At first, MPRI worked mainly for the Pentagon, which remains the company's largest customer. The Pentagon hires MPRI to analyze management techniques, evaluate and write doctrine and teach leadership.
MPRI also has run computerized war games using the talent that formulated AirLand Battle. That lightning war doctrine, developed to counter Soviet superiority in numbers, was used in Desert Storm.
The company branched out to the international market two years ago.
Soyster says MPRI's reputation led Croatian embassy officials to approach the company in early 1994. The Croats, bloodied by Serb and Bosnian Muslim foes, were looking to swap their Soviet Bloc mentality for a western-style military organization, Soyster says.
A contract, licensed by the State Department, was signed at the Croatian Embassy in late September 1994. As MPRI held classes at the officer academy in Zagreb, Croatia re-armed itself with an estimated $1 billion in Warsaw Pact arms and sophisticated Western communication gear that slipped through the United Nations embargo.
Rumors about MPRI's involvement in Croatian training and planning grew in August when a Croatian offensive retook most of the Krajina region rebel Serbs had held for four years.
Instead of head-banging frontal assaults favored by their one-time Soviet mentors, the Croats surprised their foes and Western observers with quick, choreographed movements of artillery, armor and infantry to flank the Serbs. The tactics echoed the U.S. military doctrine MPRI generals helped set.
``The overall strategy did not come from the minds of Croat officers,'' said Paul Beaver, editor of Jane's Balkan Sentinel. ``You'd have to conclude that either someone has read from Western textbooks or been taught from them.''
There were reports that the Croatian high command met prior to the offensive with MPRI's Vuono and Crosbie Saint, a retired general who helped refine AirLand Battle and battlefield training techniques.
Soyster said the pair was in Zagreb shortly before the August offensive, but only as part of a regular quarterly review of the contract.
``It takes a long time to build an army,'' he said. ``We're good, but we're not that good.''
More work with Croatia, interest from others
Despite the scrutiny, MPRI is looking to a growing overseas market. A second contract has been signed with Croatia. Discussions continue with other Eastern European countries eager to form military alliances with the West. MPRI is also mentioned as the logical choice to help train and arm Bosnian Muslims, a U.S. promise made to entice the Bosnians to the conference table.
``The end of the Cold War has created a tremendous potential for this kind of work,'' said Lawrence Korb, a Brookings Institution senior fellow who was assistant secretary of defense for manpower during the Reagan years.
But Korb frets that building a better military for a foreign customer comes with risks. There were allegations of Croatian atrocities in this summer's offensive. And there was saber-rattling by the Croatians at the peace talks in Dayton, Ohio.
``We need to understand the ramifications of it,'' Korb said. ``If we don't pay attention to it, we could create a monster.''
To continue its growth, MPRI is looking for a few more good men, recruiting through ads and military conferences.
Soyster said MPRI maintains a database of about 2,000 retired military personnel. Company literature boasts a range of expertise from general to tank gunner.
``The concept behind this company was to take what we view as a national resource and use it as an advantage for the country,'' he said.
It is a rich resource in these days of military cuts, with many professional warriors thrown back into civilian life.
This pool of military talent makes analysts like Korb uncomfortable.
``We've developed a cadre of military professionals and the problem is what do you do with them when they're done,'' he said. ``We need to be very careful about how this expertise is used and what controls we keep it under.''
Soyster acknowledged that Korb's concerns are real. But he believes the retired generals at MPRI have a special understanding of the military's responsibilities to a democratic society - the essence of what he says MPRI is teaching in Croatia.
``The reason they came to us rather than some Georgetown professor is that we were the practitioners of it,'' says Soyster, who can still recite the oath he took to defend the Constitution. ILLUSTRATION: SKETCHES OF THE BRASS
Hardisty
Kroesen
Soyster
Thurman
Vuono
Key figures in the company:
Maj. Gen. Vernon B. Lewis Jr.: Parlayed his Army skills in
research and development into an entrepreneurial career after 29
years in the military. In 1977, he founded Cypress International, a
military consulting group that helped work on the M-1 tank. He
started MPRI in 1987 with seven retired generals. Today he is
president of the company, with 150 employees and $7.2 million in
earnings last year. He is a veteran of three combat tours in two
wars - an artilleryman who has taught at the Army's artillery and
infantry schools.
Gen. Carl W. Stiner: 35-year Army veteran with combat experience
in two wars. He led the Joint Special Operations Command, where he
was responsible for the readiness of special operations forces from
all branches. He personally helped in the 1985 capture of the
Achille Lauro hijackers in 1985, facing down Egyptian commandos to
negotiate the terrorists' surrender. He was the Joint Chiefs special
envoy in Beirut when U.S. Marines were stationed there, and was
tactical commander of combat forces in the Panama invasion.
Gen. Maxwell R. Thurman: Five weeks after announcing his
retirement in June 1989, he met with President Bush and was quickly
appointed commander of the Southern Command in Panama. He oversaw
the Panama invasion in 1990. Thurman, 64, is a brilliant tactician
who helped develop modern warfare doctrine. As head of the Army's
Recruiting Command he originated the ``Be All You Can Be'' campaign.
He has held numerous other important posts, including the Army
Training and Doctrine Command and the Joint Chiefs.
Gen. Frederick J. Kroesen: He entered the Army in World War II
and retired 41 years later as commander of the U.S. Army in Europe.
He also is a veteran of the wars in Korea and Vietnam, and holds a
master's degree in international affairs. He commanded the Americal
Division in Vietnam and the 82nd Airborne Division immediately after
the war. His is a former Army vice chief of staff and an expert in
force and manpower training. Kroesen, 72, survived a rocket-grenade
attack on his armored limousine by German terrorists.
Gen. Carl E. Vuono: As Army chief of staff, he supervised the
invasion of Panama and the Persian Gulf War. An expert in management
and readiness, he headed the Training and Doctrine Command and the
Combined Arms Center. Vuono, 61, served as deputy chief of staff for
Operations and Plans. Vuono also served six tours overseas,
including two combat tours in Vietnam as an artillery officer.
Adm. Huntington Hardisty: A former test pilot with more than 100
combat missions in Southeast Asia, he served as vice chief of Naval
operations, the No. 2 job in the U.S. Navy. He finished 38 years
with the Navy as commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, the largest
of U.S. unified commands. He was director of operations for the
Joint Chiefs. Later, Hardisty was appointed to the military advisory
panel of the CIA. He is a senior fellow at the National Defense
University.
Lt. Gen. Harry Edward Soyster: He specialized in artillery and
intelligence operations during 33 years with the Army. Soyster, 60,
is a West Point graduate who served in Vietnam and later in Korea.
He was head of Army intelligence and served as head of the Defense
Intelligence Agency until retirement in 1991.
Lt. Gen. Richard G. Trefry: He rose from a World War II private
to a West Point graduate to a three-star general during 33 years in
the Army. He was Inspector General of the Army for six years and is
a recognized expert in Army management, personnel and auditing.
Trefry served as adviser to the U.S. embassy in Laos in the 1970s
and was military assistant to George Bush in 1990. He is a noted
military historian and serves as program manager of the Army Force
Management College.
by CNB