5:14PM
PRTs are the embryonic SysAdmin/DoEE
Saturday, July 21, 2007 at 5:14PM The PRTs are the embryonic SysAdmin and the foot soldiers of the Department of Everything Else.
They are not a new concept. In Vietnam they were known as CORDs. Given time, they work everywhere, but the time required is everything, and--politically-speaking--Bush has wasted an extraordinary amount of time.
So great to see, because it shows how really attacking the problem can yield the outcome desired, but also sad to hear so late in the game.
To me, though, the key becomes less Iraq the proving ground and more Iraq the learning laboratory. As the operational experience mounts, the case for the SysAdmin force/DoEE gets harder to refute.
Thanks to CitSAR for sending this.
Reader Comments (1)
On the first day of first 1968 TET offensive the VC, with NVA engineering support, leveled the large COORDs facility at Nha Trang a supposedly safe location. They left the other four intersection corners' buildings unscathed to send a message to locals about how to regard COORD cooperation. One of the corner buildings was a bar restaurant run by wives of Vietnamese officers, but they had paid protection $ for years.
Just before TET a well educated Vietnamese vehicle mechanic and his wife who worked in base operations were arrested for being VC mortar spotters. Their measurements had permitted the VC to take out protected AC-130s with two rounds. Nha Trang was a major special forces headquarters, so another message was sent.
The VC also used children and old people wearing explosive vests who probably thought they were really being allowed to surrender to our troops. They also used bicycle bombs to lure caregivers to be killed by buried explosives and car bombs. I see same stuff in news today.
So don't let the brass and bureaucrats take over SysAdm efforts with fancy facilities and central operations. That just provides expensive and possibly demoralizing Green Zone type targets. Instead, concentrate on mobile and flexible outreach as someone wrote earlier.
The only large numbers of folks I noticed that came to Vietnam ready to deal with reality were the Korean troops from White Horse division.