Seeing red in Army green
Class teaches soldiers to trash checklists, think like the enemy
By Kelly Kennedy
Army Times staff writer
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — Perched cross-legged on a desk at the back of a classroom at the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies, retired Col. Greg Fontenot watched as soldiers learned to question their commanders.
The junior troops’ mission was to play enemy to their commanders’ battle plans.
“We’re going to teach people how to red-team,” he said. “Historically, Montgomery, during World War II, would sit in the evening with his officers, and one of them would play Rommel to his ideas. That’s red-teaming.”
For the 18 students enrolled in the Army Training and Doctrine Command’s first Red Team Leader Class, this means they’ll be given insight on how to think like the bad guy. They will be instructed on new skill sets to bring back to their units, including the ability to:
• Challenge planning assumptions.
• Provide an independent view of friendly and enemy vulnerabilities.
• Provide understanding of the adversary through a cultural lens.
• Anticipate strategic implications.
“Our Red Teams will be part of a commander’s decision-making process,” Fontenot said. “They’ll offer an alternate point of view to the staff’s.”
That could mean a different perspective on what the insurgency might target in Iraq, he said. American soldiers typically might plan to defend only against strikes or think enemies would strike militarily strategic targets, such as an ammunition depot or transportation hub, whereas enemy forces may hit a less obvious but still important site.
“We’re protecting targets they don’t have an interest in,” Fontenot said. “Maybe they’re looking at an easier target that will make a bigger splash in the media, rather than a strategically important target.”
Training the trainers
The pilot class, which began Jan. 8 and includes two groups of nine officers, is meant to “train the trainers” as Red Team leaders. After graduation in May, class members will go back to their units to share their knowledge and train others.
Fontenot said the idea came from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker in 2004. A 2003 Defense Science Board study recommended formal training for Red Team members, and adding a Red Team member to each brigade.
Class participants study everything from ethics to Chinese military theory to politics and religion. they read an average of 200 pages of class material a night, then attend a seminar to discuss what they read.
“It’s an open exchange in an open forum,” instructor Victor Roselló said. “They talk about how they relate to the topics or readings based on their own experience.”
Students use case studies and simulations to gain hands-on experience from what they’ve learned. Fontenot also brings in guest speakers, such as already-operating Army Red Team members, a returned U.S. ambassador, coalition liaison officers or Marine Corps “red cell” members to talk about how what they’re learning has been applied on the battlefield.
Most in the first group volunteered to take the class, though several were solicited or asked by their commanders to attend, Fontenot said. The first class also includes civilians and members of other service branches. Most have combat experience.
School of the future
For Fontenot, who led Army Red Teams and commanded a tank battalion in Operation Desert Storm and the first heavy brigade in Bosnia, the class represents the future of the military.
“This has the potential to be as important as the School of Advanced Military Studies,” Fontenot said. “To me, it’s the logical succession of an important issue. This is the next step.
“Red Teams in the past did not have formal training,” he said. “They’ve been figuring it out as they go. We’re trying to figure out how to train people on purpose.”
The instructors picked for the pilot class, Roselló and Steve Rotkoff, arrived about a month before classes began.
Roselló, a retired colonel, spent much of his military career as a foreign area officer in Latin America, and served two combat tours in El Salvador, as well as one each in Colombia, Operation Desert Storm and Panama.
Rotkoff is a retired colonel who worked in military intelligence with Coalition Forces Land Component Command during the invasion of Iraq. He also served with Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, providing intelligence planning for operations in Bosnia. He served as a military intelligence brigade commander at Fort Hood, Texas.
Understanding human dynamics is key to red-teaming, he said, but it’s also important for soldiers to throw away old ways of doing things.
“The military guys live by checklists,” he said. “Red-teaming is an anti-checklist way of thinking, unless you figure out the checklist the Iraqis are using.”
Although the instructors and Fontenot said they’re enjoying the curriculum, it took a bit for the students to figure it out.
“I think everyone walked in thinking, ‘What is this school?’” Rotkoff said. “I think the lights have turned on for most of them.
“Three times I’ve heard, ‘I wish I had this material before I went to Iraq or Afghanistan.’ I think that’s proof in the power of the class.”