The Troops Train to Reassure Europe

Dagger Brigade members completed the Danger Focus II training Feb. 16. PHOTO: 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Fort Riley, Kan.

EXCERPT FROM THIS ARTICLE:  How did we get to this point? During the Cold War, the massive U.S. forces that patrolled the West German border—nearly a quarter-million soldiers strong—were the best-equipped and readiest in the Army. Today the “frontier of freedom” in Europe has moved 1,000 miles east and runs from the Baltic to the Black Sea, but U.S. forces have neither moved with it nor retained their size. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who commands U.S. Army Europe, says his job is to make 30,000 troops “look like 300,000” to the Russians.

President Obama announced the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) in 2014 to “reassure allies of the U.S. commitment to their security and territorial integrity as members of the NATO alliance.” The initiative promised increasingly large summer exercises with allied militaries and new “heel to toe” rotations of Army heavy brigade combat teams.

As usual, however, the Obama administration sent mixed messages. Even while trumpeting the ERI, it continued drawing down the permanent U.S. garrison in Europe and funding it through the Defense Department’s Overseas Contingency Operations account. Even more telling, the administration reduced the overall size of the Army from its Iraq-surge strength of about 560,000 to today’s approximately 470,000, without measurably reducing U.S. military commitments world-wide.

The Pentagon has confirmed it will send the Army’s Dagger Brigade—the Second Armored Brigade of the First Infantry Division—to Europe this September in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve, the American military’s response to Russian meddling in Ukraine.

The announcement signals that President Trump has embraced President Obama’s expansion of the U.S. commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That’s good, but unless Mr. Trump delivers on his promise to restore America’s military readiness, the brigade will have a hard time carrying out its mission.

Dagger Brigade has long known the assignment was coming and has trained nonstop to prepare for it. The brigade’s commander, Col. David Gardner, is a lifetime infantryman with a shaved head and an office packed with dumbbells and protein powder. With six tours in the Middle East and another in Kosovo, he does not excite easily. Dagger, he says, is stretched thin.

Col. Gardner first opened Fort Riley’s gates to us late last year. He faces many challenges, which we outline in a just-published study. The biggest of them is people—having enough and having the right kind. In particular, he needs leaders, from the squad and platoon level up through his principal staff.

Turnover is the main problem. With 4% of the brigade’s personnel changing every month, Col. Gardner and his subordinates work tirelessly to keep troops trained and personnel slots filled. He may have enough crews to drive the tanks, but he has given up hope of having a full complement of dismounted infantry.

At full strength, Dagger has a little more than 4,000 troops. On the day before the brigade loads onto buses for a 1,400-mile drive to the Army’s National Training Center in California’s Mojave Desert, Col. Gardner has almost as many people as he needs. In reality, when one subtracts the soldiers who are sick, hurt, lame, pregnant, criminally charged, or about to transfer or leave the Army, Dagger is only at 80%. And Col. Gardner knows he’ll be lucky to have that when he takes the brigade to Europe.

Dagger’s equipment is on the thin edge of readiness, too. More than 90% of the brigade’s tanks and infantry vehicles will be taken to the training center, but Col. Gardner expects to deal with a steady stream of major repairs. The M1 tank, in particular, is an old system. It’s been repeatedly upgraded, but in relatively small numbers, making maintenance a constant headache. When parts break, spares are hard to come by and regularly take up to six months to be delivered. To prepare for the training center, Dagger conducted a three-week-plus field exercise at Fort Riley, but the time needed to repair tanks and other equipment cut a week out of the exercise. Of course, there are no timeouts in combat.

How did we get to this point? During the Cold War, the massive U.S. forces that patrolled the West German border—nearly a quarter-million soldiers strong—were the best-equipped and readiest in the Army. Today the “frontier of freedom” in Europe has moved 1,000 miles east and runs from the Baltic to the Black Sea, but U.S. forces have neither moved with it nor retained their size. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who commands U.S. Army Europe, says his job is to make 30,000 troops “look like 300,000” to the Russians.

President Obama announced the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) in 2014 to “reassure allies of the U.S. commitment to their security and territorial integrity as members of the NATO alliance.” The initiative promised increasingly large summer exercises with allied militaries and new “heel to toe” rotations of Army heavy brigade combat teams.

As usual, however, the Obama administration sent mixed messages. Even while trumpeting the ERI, it continued drawing down the permanent U.S. garrison in Europe and funding it through the Defense Department’s Overseas Contingency Operations account. Even more telling, the administration reduced the overall size of the Army from its Iraq-surge strength of about 560,000 to today’s approximately 470,000, without measurably reducing U.S. military commitments world-wide.

Today, the Trump administration is keeping Mr. Obama’s pledges but without seriously reversing course on defense spending. Mr. Trump promised the “biggest defense buildup in history,” but his Pentagon budget proposal does not provide the funding required to address the personnel and equipment shortfalls that plague units like Dagger Brigade.

When defense experts talk of “strategic insolvency” or generals chart “an ends-means mismatch,” they’re describing day-to-day life for Col. Gardner and the soldiers of the Dagger Brigade. They’re tough people. They know their trade and are too busy to whine. But our country is not giving them the support they need to do their job.

Messrs. Donnelly and Cunningham are, respectively, a co-director and senior research associate at the American Enterprise Institute’s Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies.