FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, JOLON, Calif. -- “This (Distributed Operations capability development) is important.”
— Gen. Michael W. Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps
Lava Dogs from 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, based out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, are currently training on the cutting edge of an evolving concept known as Distributed Operations at Fort Hunter Liggett, a 165,000-acre U.S. Army Reserve installation located on California’s central coast amongst the rolling hills and oak savannahs of Jolon, Calif.
But the beautiful scenery of the area is arguably offset by not only by the strenuous training evolution 1/3 is undergoing, but also by the profound importance of the reason they are here in the first place — one that could potentially change the face of the Marine Corps — forever.
The Marines of 1/3 are slated to make history by providing the first Distributed Operations platoon for combat during their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The platoon’s training evolution at Fort Hunter Liggett began July 8, and will continue until they return to Hawaii.
“A Concept for Distributed Operations,” statement released earlier this year by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in Quantico, Va., states that “Distributed Operations describes an operating approach that will create an advantage over an adversary through the deliberate use of separation and coordinated, interdependent, tactical actions enabled by increased access to functional support, as well as by enhanced combat capabilities at the small-unit level.”
“The essence of this concept lies in the capacity for coordinated action by dispersed units, throughout the breadth and depth of the battlespace, ordered and connected within an operational design focused on a common aim.”
In other words, according to Staff Sgt. Robert Lytle, an Iraq veteran from Asheville, N.C., and 1/3’s Distributed Operations infantry platoon sergeant, “It’s the way an infantry platoon should operate.”
“With a DO platoon, the command is more decentralized, which places greater responsibility on the noncommissioned officers and junior Marines who are on the ground seeing scenarios unfold right in front of them,” said Lytle. “This is important, especially considering the fact we are fighting an unconventional enemy, who doesn’t wear a uniform and who blends in and out of civilian communities and who disappears into the landscape quickly after engaging.”
Staff Sgt. Jose Rodriguez, an Afghanistan veteran from Tampa Bay, Fla., and a MCWFL weapons instructor, responded in a similar vein.
“We are trying to get the concept across that fire team and squad leaders need to know how to run themselves and make decisions, even in the absence of platoon commanders and platoon sergeants,” said Rodriguez. “Small-unit leadership is paramount. In a DO platoon, you will never hear a lance corporal say, ‘I don’t know how to do that,’ or a private first class say, ‘I’m just a pfc’ They are being taught not only how to call for fire and advanced tactics, but more importantly how to think on their own on the move instead of waiting for word from a platoon commander at all times before acting. This DO training is a step above, and eventually, DO platoons will be a step above anything we have seen at the platoon level before.”
According to Sgt. Jerome Stevens, MCWFL chief instructor from Belgrade, Maine, the advantages to a DO platoon over a “standard” platoon are many.
“A DO platoon can spread across the battle space in smaller groups and cover more space, while still maintaining communications with higher headquarters or command operating centers,” said Stevens. “One squad can take over one sector, while another squad takes another sector, which enables them to accomplish more missions with fewer Marines. A DO platoons gear is also more advanced and high tech. They have the proper tools and training, and there is more responsibility on the small-unit leaders to not only lead their men, but to train them.”
Despite all the high-speed training in both day and night tactics, techniques, procedures, patrols, communications, ambushes, land navigation, marksmanship, indirect and direct fire, fire and maneuver, convoy operations, weapons technologies and a host of other skills, Maj. Dan Schmite, MCWFL Experimental Executive Branch officer-in-charge, is quick to point out that brilliance in basic warrior skills is what is going to be the deciding factor on the success of a DO platoon.
“There is no new or fancy technique to firing a SAW (squad automatic weapon),” said Schmite, a native of Glen Ellyn, Ill. “We don’t shoot a SAW differently in a DO platoon. What we do instead is focus on the proficiency of the SAW gunner. Distributed Operations in and of itself on a piece of paper is a great concept, but its success all rests on the shoulders of the discipline and abilities of the individual Marines in the small units. These 1/3 Marines in the DO platoon are being trained up to a standard of excellence, and I have every confidence they will perform up to that standard during combat in Afghanistan.”
Part of that training includes having a numerically superior ‘enemy’ acting as aggressors throughout the nearly four-month long training evolution.
“We’ve got sixty Marines out here performing in the role of aggressors against the DO platoon,” said Capt. Stephen Theberge, MCWFL opposing force platoon commander and a native of Laquey, Mo. “These aggressors have grown beards, ride in the back of pick up trucks, and use AK-forty-sevens and other weapons common to the enemy. They don’t wear traditional uniforms and they employ many of the same tactics as the terrorists. We have given the aggressors an independent will to respond to the DO platoons activities.”
According to Cpl. Benjamin Spann, a 1/3 riflemen from Fayetteville, N.C., currently serving with the aggressors, the whole goal of the aggressors is to make the DO platoons life “a living nightmare.”
“We basically simulate the enemy they will be facing in combat,” said Spann. “One thing I’ve noticed though, it’s getting harder and harder to be successful as an aggressor against them, because these DO platoon Marines are really getting their stuff together.”
“1/3’s DO platoon has come a long way since arriving here back in early July,” said Schmite. “Their skill level has increased dramatically, and part of the reason for that is that we have constantly had them up against the aggressors, who are a thinking enemy. We train the aggressors separately from the DO platoon. They have a mission to accomplish and the DO platoon has a mission to accomplish. That way, a free thinking enemy faces a free thinking DO platoon on the battlefield. It is one of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab’s jobs to record those ‘battlefield’ results.”
And if those results are any indication, then Distributed Operations may indeed be the future for platoons in the Marine Corps.
“The DO platoon isn’t just waiting around to get attacked by us,” said Staff Sgt. Andrew Michaelson, an Iraq veteran from Gig Harbor, Wash., who is 1/3’s Staff NCOIC for the aggressors. “They are actively pursuing us and actively engaging us. It’s hard to defeat a foe, even one with inferior numbers, when the proverbial lowest man on the totem pole, a private for example, has got the skills, know how and training to stand in for a ‘wounded’ or ‘dead’ NCO and call in an air strike or artillery on a moments notice. These junior Marines in the DO platoon also fully understand their mission, and are allowed to think and make decisions on the battlefield, and therefore their fire and maneuver is conducted in a way that leads to their maximum advantage.”
Michaelson’s assessment seems in keeping with the MCWFL’s concept for Distributed Operations release, which stated: “Continuing the trend toward decentralization of authority that has been a hallmark of the Marine Corps combat development, this concept posits the distribution of decision making authority across a wide number of junior leaders, who are directly engaged in the fight. By moving the authority ‘downward,’ we will dramatically increase the speed of command.
“This distribution of authority among many seasoned and well-trained junior leaders will result in a combination of actions that creates for the enemy a rapidly deteriorating, cascading effect, shattering his cohesion. Units conducting Distributed Operations will use these advantages to focus on the enemy’s critical vulnerabilities, exploiting fleeting opportunities, and thereby achieving tactical success that will build rapidly to decisive outcomes at the operational level of war.”
It is important to note that Distributed Operations capabilities are meant to be “complimentary in character,” and “additive in nature,” according to the MCWFL concept statement.
The concept states that Distributed Operations will provide “Marine commanders a new method for tactical deployment and employment. While the concept will drive the development of the enhancements required to render Marine units capable of functioning effectively in a Distributed Operations scenario, it will not supplant existing capabilities. All Marine units will retain their capacity to operate effectively using the full range of tactical employment methods.”
“Units employing these (Distributed Operations) techniques will deploy and fight in coordination with other units using conventional tactics.”
As with any implemented concept however, the true test of credibility for Marines comes not from reports or well-articulated statements, but rather from the actual infantry Marines on the ground.
“Distributed Operations is the best training I’ve ever had in the Marine Corps,” said Lance Cpl. Berton Chambers, a riflemen by trade from Lakeview, Ore., who now serves as a squad leader with 1/3’s Distributed Operations platoon. “You can’t even compare it to SOI (school of infantry) or any other type of sustainment training. I also previously trained with Force Recon as a security attachment, and as ‘good to go’ as that was, this is better. I now know how to call for fire, and so many other things that I thought only officers could do. It has given me a lot more confidence as a Marine, and I feel fully prepared to go to combat and be not only successful, but deadly.”
Pfc. Richard Villazon, a native of Miami who previously served as a rifleman back in Hawaii with 1/3, now finds himself as a SAW gunner with 1/3’s Distributed Operations platoon.
“I feel like I could step up and be a squad leader at a moments notice now,” said Villazon. “I never would have had the confidence to say that before, but this Distributed Operations training has given me that type of faith in myself. In a DO platoon you don’t just learn everybody else’s job; you become an expert in it. That way, if one of us goes down, any Marine in the DO platoon can step up to the plate and fill that position. The morale Marine Corps-wide is always high, but here in the DO platoon it is higher than I’ve ever seen before. We feel, as junior Marines, that we are being trusted, and to a man we’ve made it our life’s mission to live up to that trust.”