Airborne: A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force

Dragon Leader: An Interview with Lieutenant General John M. Keane, USA

At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, there is a beautiful old building that is a study in contrasts. It looks like a turn-of-the-century mansion, surrounded by carefully trimmed lawns, hedges, and flower beds, and is surrounded by the homes of the senior officers on post. Then you notice what is out of place. A small forest of antennae seems to grow out of the roof, and enough satellite dishes to make Ted Turner envious are scattered nearby. You might even guess that this is someplace that is plugged in to watch the world. If so, you would be more correct than you could ever know. That is because you have just found the headquarters building of the U.S. Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, America’s busiest combat unit.

Based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where it shares the post with the 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps’ various units have had a piece of almost every major military operation since its creation just after the Normandy invasion in 1944. Back then, the corps was commanded by the legendary Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway. It was composed of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, and was getting ready for a shot at destiny in the polder country of Holland and the frosty forests of the Ardennes. Today, XVIII Airborne Corps is composed of four full divisions, and has over forty percent of the Army’s total combat strength on tap. Each of the four divisions (the 3rd Mechanized Infantry, 10th Mountain, 82nd Airborne, and 101st Air Assault) is different, and this diversity is as intriguing as the overall mission of the corps itself: to be America’s crisis response force in readiness.

Much like the Navy/Marine MEU (SOC)s, the units of XVIII Airborne Corps are designed to rapidly intervene in a crisis anywhere in the world that American military force is required. The difference is that unlike the MEU (SOC)s, which are forward-deployed aboard Amphibious Ready Groups (ARGs) and have to be rotated every few months, the units of XVIII Airborne Corps are home-based in the United States, and designed for rapid deployment overseas.

This matter of continental U.S. basing has both pluses and minuses for the units of the corps. It means that they can be division-sized forces with real mass and combat power behind them, unlike the battalion-sized MEU (SOC)s. This also means that they are, man-for-man, cheaper to operate and maintain compared to forward-deployed or sea-based units. The downside of home basing is fairly obvious, though: The corps is here in America when a crisis begins overseas. To get around this, each of the units has been either designed for rapid deployment overseas, or given special arrangements with the units of the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) for the necessary resources to make them mobile in a crisis. At one extreme, this includes the 82nd Airborne Division being able to put a full combat-ready battalion into the air for delivery anywhere in the world in less than eighteen hours. On the other end of the spectrum is the mighty 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division, which has priority with the Navy’s fleet of fast sealift ships, and can put a heavy armored brigade anywhere with a port within two to three weeks. Deployability is the name of the game for the soldiers of XVIII Airborne Corps, and they have worked hard to make the game winnable for America. This deployability has made them the busiest collection of units in the U.S. military, especially since the end of the Vietnam War. Their list of battle streamers includes almost every action fought by U.S. forces since that time. Grenada, Panama, the Persian Gulf, and Haiti were all actions which were led by XVIII Airborne Corps.

If you drive down I-95 into the beautiful pine forests and sand hills of North Carolina, you eventually find the town of Fayetteville. This quiet Southern town is the bedroom community that sits outside the busiest Army base in America. As you enter the post, the history of the place washes over you as soon as you look at the street signs. Names like Bastogne, Normandy, and Nijmegen flash at you, all names of classic airborne actions.

Near the center of the post complex is the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters. As you enter the security section of the headquarters building, you are struck by the image of the corps badge: a powerful blue dragon on a white background. It is a beautiful insignia, and one worthy of and appropriate for the collection of units under the corps’ command. Up on the second floor is the commanding general’s warm paneled office, which reeks of the six decades of service XVIII Airborne Corps has rendered to the country and the world. Battle streamers hang in the dozens from the flag-pole in the corner, and there is a feeling of power in the room. This is further enhanced by the reputations of some of the men who have occupied the office. Recent commanders have included General Gary Luck, who took the Corps to the Persian Gulf in 1990, and then fought it there in 1991. The last commander, General Hugh Shelton, currently commands the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill AFB, Florida, where he controls the nation’s force of “snake eaters.” Today, though, the post of XVIII Airborne Corps commander is occupied by a man who is making his own mark on this office, Lieutenant General John M. Keane.

John Keane is a strong man, over six feet tall. But don’t let the physical attributes of this powerful man confuse you. A career paratrooper and infantryman, he has spent the bulk of his life within the units of the XVIII Airborne Corps. Let’s meet him.

Tom Clancy: Could you please tell us a little about your background and Army career?

General Keane: I grew up in New York City, right in midtown Manhattan. Not many people think of Manhattan as a place to live. I was born and grew up there, as did my wife. I attended Fordham University and graduated in 1966. While at the University, I joined the Army ROTC [Reserve Officer Training Corps] program.

Tom Clancy: What made you want to choose the military as a career?

General Keane: At Fordham, I was exposed early to the ROTC program, and I just liked the people who were in it. I was in the Pershing Rifles, which was a military fraternity, and liked the people who were part of it. Perhaps the deciding factor was that most of the people involved in the military programs at Fordham seemed to me a little bit more mature and had a better sense of direction than the average college student that I was dealing with. We also had a number of students who had returned to school while in the military and had some very good things to say about it. So I stayed with it, and came into my first unit, the 82nd Airborne Division, in 1966. Then I was assigned to the 101st Airborne.

Tom Clancy: You seem to have spent much of your career around XVIII Airborne Corps. Is that a fair statement?

General Keane: In terms of units in the [XVIII Airborne] corps, I guess I’ve had ten or twelve different types of jobs and assignments with it. I started with a platoon in the 82nd, then was a platoon leader and company commander in the 101st in Vietnam, and a brigade commander and chief of staff with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York. Later I was chief of staff and [had] assorted other jobs here at XVIII Airborne Corps for Gary Luck when he commanded [post-Desert Storm], and finally [was] division commander of the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for thirty-three months. That’s three of the four divisions in the corps, and that experience has been very valuable to me. It gives me an inside perspective on the capabilities of those different organizations, as well as a certain comfort that I might not have had I not been a part of them at one time.

Tom Clancy: What drew you toward the airborne career track when you came into the Army?

General Keane: When I joined the Army, the airborne were, not too surprisingly, our [countryʼs] elite soldiers, with a reputation for outstanding non-commissioned officers [NCOs], a high standard of discipline, and a lot of esprit and motivation. I knew that I wanted to be an infantry officer, so I like to think that I was quite naturally attracted to the airborne as a result of all that.

Like many other young Army officers of his time, Jack Keane got his baptism in combat in the cauldron of Vietnam. Assigned as a junior officer to the 2nd Battalion/502nd Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, he saw a somewhat different war from that of other young officers. Unlike so many of them, he learned some positive lessons in the battles of Vietnam.

Tom Clancy: What was life as a young officer like for you in the Army?

General Keane: To be with the 101st in Vietnam, I have to say that our soldiers, our leaders, and our NCOs were all committed to the mission… we were all in it together. We had a sense of duty, and were very much a part of what we were doing. We had a sense of pride associated with our actions, and we knew that we were doing a pretty good job. That organization [the 101st] was feared by the enemy, and I don’t remember a single discipline problem that I had with a soldier, other than one guy who kept falling asleep at night on his position. Quite frankly, the other soldiers in his unit just took care of that, because he was threatening their lives as well as his own. They got with him and made it clear in no uncertain terms that he had to get with it and that he was letting them down. That was the kind of organization that we had. The 101st’s soldiers were disciplined and they responded to our orders very well.

Tom Clancy: What lessons did you bring out of your personal Vietnam experience that are important to you today?

General Keane: A number of things actually. Number one is the value of our force of NCOs in maintaining our high standards and being responsible for the training and discipline of our soldiers. Another is that leaders have to lead from the front, junior leaders particularly. Senior leaders as well on occasion have to demonstrate their capacity to share in the physical dangers that are faced by their soldiers. That was the kind of organization that I was around at the time of Vietnam.

In addition, I became a training zealot as a result of Vietnam. I don’t think that we were as well trained as we could have and should have been. I found myself, as a young officer, training an organization while it was in combat. Putting out security and practicing various techniques and procedures while I was in a combat zone. Part of that was driven by the flawed policy of individual personnel replacement. It ended up causing too much turbulence in our organizations with people coming and going all the time. It was also compounded by the one-year tour of duty versus a long-term personnel commitment.[9] As a result, some of the personnel decisions and lessons stayed with me. Another thing is that from a policy perspective, you need to set specific goals and objectives, and then go after those goals and objectives. Also, make sure that these goals are clear so the American people know what they are. Present those goals and objectives to them, get their support, use overwhelming combat power, and follow the mission to completion.

Today the unit commanded by General Keane is a very different animal from that commanded by General Ridgway in 1944. Back then, XVIII Airborne Corps was composed of only two divisions and was limited to parachuting and airdropping forces within a few hundred miles of its bases. Today, it has four divisions, 85,000 personnel, and a global mission with seven-league boots. Let’s let General Keane tell us about it.

Tom Clancy: XVIII Airborne Corps, which you command, is a rather special unit from a mission perspective. Would you please lay out that mission for us?

General Keane: It certainly is a rather unique organization, not only in the U.S. Army but in all of the armed services. XVIII Airborne Corps’ mission is strategic response/crisis force, deployable by air, land, and/or sea. From there the Corps’ job is to fight and win! Actually, it is a pretty simple mission. On the other hand, though, our organization probably makes as much of a statement about who and what we do as the mission itself. To be able to accomplish the kinds of missions we do takes a lot of different skills and capabilities. Usually, whenever there is an armed [American] response required, we’re involved. That’s been our history and our legacy. We have never failed the American people, and we never will.

As far as the mission itself, when you break it all out, we really do two kinds of operations here at XVIII Airborne Corps. We can do lots of other things, but we specialize in two major types of missions. One is a forced-entry operation, which means that the enemy situation or the hostile government will not allow us to make a “permissive” entry into the territory in question. The U.S. National Command Authorities [NCAs: the President, Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, etc.] currently hold three capabilities to do such forcible-entry operations. One is a parachute assault, the second is an air assault (helicopter-borne), and the third is an amphibious operation from the sea. Obviously the Marine Corps is the centerpiece for the amphibious-type assaults, and XVIII Airborne Corps provides the units for the parachute and air assaults.

In these missions we can act as a Joint Task Force [JTF, a multi-service military force], or as a part of a JTF. As such, we train more with our sister organizations [Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force] than any other organization in the U.S. Army. The amount of work that we have done with the other services over the years has grown and matured. It’s friendly cooperation. Given the potential levels of fighting that are possible, we are interested in one thing only, and that is accomplishing the mission with the minimum loss of life. As such, we have no time down here for inter-service rivalries. We only have time to get the job done, working with others if that is the best way. Each service component brings, in many cases, unique capabilities that while they are important to that service, can achieve a certain synergy when you bring them together with those of the other services. It also give us here additional capabilities which can prove overwhelming when dealing with an enemy, as well as helping provide a more rapid resolution to a combat situation. The “joint” business [with other services and allies] is what we do here in XVIII Airborne Corps.

On the flip side, our other specialized mission is to operate as a U.S. Army corps in the field, which is the foundation unit of large Army warfighting organizations. This is how we organize and operate our divisions and other units under a three-star [Lieutenant General] commander. Our history tells us that normally when we do that, the United States and our allies are probably in a relatively large conflict like we were in Desert Storm, fighting an army on a deployed battlefield. We could see ourselves doing that back in Southwest Asia or someday perhaps in Korea. In any case, these are the two ways in which the XVIII Airborne Corps packages itself, and in each instance it is a little different.

Tom Clancy: In addition to the more traditional combat roles, XVIII Airborne Corps has developed quite a reputation in the areas of peacekeeping and humanitarian operations over the last few years. Tell us about it, will you?

General Keane: These short-of-war operations are just as important to us as our combat ones, because they bring stability to countries and areas that may be struggling with famine such as in Somalia, or a lack of political stability such as we encountered in Haiti. The mission that XVIII Airborne Corps received in both cases was to provide some stability to those countries and their people. The corps is ideally suited for that kind of mission, because it can move rapidly, and we can tailor our forces to the particular mission of the moment. In addition, we have a history of dealing with battlefields that are not conventional in the sense that our soldiers have to constrain their use of combat power and deadly force. In addition, we recognize the value of civil affairs and psychological warfare operations on that kind of battlefield.

XVIII Airborne Corps also uses special operations forces [SOFs] extensively. In fact, no other unit in the U.S. Army uses SOFs in concert with its mission to the degree that we do. We plan for their use all the time, work with them regularly during training exercises, and they are of enormous value to us. SOFs provide us with knowledge of the country we’re operating in, break down cultural barriers for us, give us the capability to have valuable human intelligence [HUMINT] resources out to great distances from the front, and provide us resources for direct-action [covert] missions should that be required, on the ground, sea, or in the air. I think that we understand their capabilities, and have a history of taking advantage of their special talents and skills, and using them properly. Conversely, I think that they have confidence in our abilities to properly use them. This is a special concern of SOFs, because of their traditional worries about conventional force leaders possibly misusing them. I think that XVIII Airborne Corps has proven that this is not the case. We have very close relations with them. Remember, a lot of our officers and leaders have served in both.

Much like the United States Marines, the troopers of XVIII Airborne Corps proudly wear their berets with a “can-do” spirit and a powerful sense of history. Let the general explain it in his own words, as well as telling some more about his command.

Tom Clancy: Is it fair to say that if XVIII Airborne Corps has a spirit or ethos, that it has derived from the airborne units and their history/ traditions?

General Keane: I think that the airborne ethos is as good an expression of the pride, esprit, and high standards of discipline that you find throughout the XVIII Airborne Corps. The airborne certainly set a standard for us and our army for such things. The corps clearly has a special spirit and capability.

Tom Clancy: You command a unique mix of units in XVIII Airborne Corps. Could you tell us something about each of them?

General Keane: We have four divisions in the XVIII Airborne Corps, out of only ten divisions in the entire U.S. Army, and each of them is different. We have four basic types of divisions in the Army (armored/mechanized, airborne, air assault, and light infantry), and one of each type is in this corps. That is by design, not by accident. That variety gives us the versatility to organize and package those units based upon our mission, the intentions and organization of our enemies, and the overall political and military objectives that we have to achieve.

You can see that packaging manifested in deployments like Desert Shield/Storm, where we pretty much packaged up the entire corps and took it to the Saudi Arabian desert, and actually had other units like the French 6th Infantry and 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment attached. Now contrast that with a quite different organization that we put together for Operation Just Cause [the 1989 invasion of Panama]. There, we operated as part of a Joint Task Force [JTF], where we used some of our own units [the 82nd Airborne], and we also brought in special operation forces, as well as the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. We work well with those organizations, and package/tailor our forces based on the type of conflict that we encounter, as well as the terrain.

Our corps is 85,000 personnel strong, which is a formidable force in itself. It has four divisions (3rd Mechanized Infantry, 10th Mountain (Light), 82nd Airborne, and 101st Air Assault) that make up 50,000 of the 85,000 personnel on strength. The other 35,000 are assigned to the thirteen separate [attached] brigades. Certainly in the U.S. Army, there is no parallel for that type of an organization, with that particular mission, and also with the enormous versatility that we bring to bear. Now, with regards to the individual units, let’s run them down:

82nd Airborne Division (the “All Americans”). They represent a completely unique capability as the only parachute division in the U.S. Army. It is a strategic response force in the sense that from the time that they receive an alert order, within eighteen hours they can begin movement to virtually any place in the world. That is a formidable capability, and it is clearly an instrument that the NCAs have at their fingertips to use. I do believe that it is also a deterrence force as well, because its capabilities are well known. Any country is very rapidly approachable by the 82nd, and they know that we have the aircraft and resources to get our soldiers and their equipment there very quickly. The 82nd, probably more than any other division in our Army, sends a message when it is deployed. When we commit the 82nd, it’s an expression of the political will of the nation. It’s also a statement to anybody who is involved or observing that the United States is really serious. They have just put their best on their airplanes, and they are coming!

One interesting thing about the 82nd, though. When people think of the 82nd, they certainly think of the paratroopers with their rifles, packs, and machine guns. But it’s much more than that. When the 82nd goes someplace, it takes lots of combat power with it. We deliver parachute artillery with them, along with air defense systems, command and control vehicles, and all the other instruments of war the 82nd needs to do its business. This gives them a lot of combat power upon arrival!

101st Air Assault Division (the “Screaming Eagles”). Another unique organization, one of the two specialized divisions in the XVIII Airborne Corps and our Army. Like the 82nd, it was born out of the history of the airborne and its rich tradition. It still has the same esprit and spirit that it has always had. Its special capability is that it can take, within a theater of operations (like the Persian Gulf or the Balkans), brigade-sized task forces and move them out to distances of up to 93 mi/150 km ahead of the forward lines, and do it within hours. It’s the only organization of this kind in the world that can do something like that. During Desert Storm, they moved 155 mi/250 km deep into Iraq in just twenty-four hours, a maneuver that today is still being studied by military academicians. It was an incredible performance. How they were able to move so far, so fast, into the northwest part of the Area of Operations [AOR] is still a marvel to most folks. Then General Schwarzkopf ordered them within a day or so to move to Basra, over on the eastern side of the AOR, flying across corps and divisions to accomplish the task. Making a lateral move of this sort was unheard of in military operations. Since they operate independent of the tyranny of terrain, their mobility gives them an enormous capability. It is a very flexible organization, and with seventy-two AH-64 Apache attack helicopters as part of their organization, they pack one hell of a wallop!

10th Mountain Division (Light).[10] The 10th Mountain Division is our foot-infantry division. Our lightest force, and smallest in terms of personnel and equipment, even compared to the 82nd. By way of comparison, the 10th Mountain has 8,700 personnel compared with 15,000 for the 82nd and 17,000 for the 101st. Those 8,700 soldiers are split between a pair of foot-infantry brigades with a very high leader-to-led ratio, not much of a logistics or sustainment base compared to our other divisions, and very few vehicles and aircraft. The idea behind all this is to be able to quickly move them to a theater of operations, conducting either a permissive [i.e., unopposed] entry, or as part of a follow-on force to a forced entry. The 10th Mountain Division has been deployed quite a bit over the past few years, participating in peacekeeping operations in Somalia and disaster relief operations following Hurricane Andrew, and the primary force during Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. In fact, since the end of the Gulf War in 1991, they have been the busiest infantry organization in the whole U.S. Army.

3rd Mechanized Infantry Division (Formerly the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia). The 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division [MID] is a typical armored force, what we refer to as a “heavy” division. They represent raw combat power when you need an iron fist. In fact, they are the largest such unit in the Army today. They have 250 M1A1 Abrams tanks alone, with hundreds of other armored vehicles like M⅔ Bradley fighting vehicles and other systems. In and of themselves, the 3rd MID would have no problem utterly destroying two or three equivalently organized units, given their technological and training advantages and overmatches. This is especially true using sensors, night-fighting capabilities, and raw firepower.

2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR)—Based at Fort Polk, Louisiana, this is a light armored cavalry regiment currently undergoing a review of its organization and equipment. Presently, 2nd ACR’s cavalry squadrons are supported by their own organic artillery and engineers. This is a very flexible unit capable of rapid deployment, it was a major contribution to our success in the Haiti operation.

Attached Corps Brigades. Along with the major component units, we have thirteen separate attached corps brigades. They include a military intelligence [MI] brigade, which gives us an enormous capability on a daily basis to reach into the national intelligence assets, and also to supply intelligence products to deployed operations overseas. Obviously, this unit has the capability to tie into all the various platforms, agencies, and systems, manned and unmanned, that supply intelligence at all levels. The MI brigade has the necessary downlinks to their headquarters, and we can see all of this data real-time. It’s an extraordinary capability, though some of what we have now we did not have during Desert Storm and some of our other earlier operations.

This improvement in our MI capability has a lot to do with the criticisms of General Schwarzkopf and other senior leaders following the Gulf War. Remember that back then our field commanders and units did not have access to the full variety of tactical intelligence products, particularly those from national-level sources. Since then, the intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense [DoD] have worked hard to make that [information] available to us. Not only to push it out to us, but also to give us the capability to pull on it as well, right into our operations centers within the XVIII Airborne Corps. We can display lots of that information real-time in our operations center, and provide that intelligence information to our units. This is a very powerful organization in terms of what it can provide to us in both basic information and intelligence data. In addition, they provide a robust analytical capability to take information and data, and then turn it into something that is useful for our field commanders and units.

In the artillery business, we’ve got units equipped with both tube artillery and the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System [MLRS], firing both rockets and the Army Tactical Missile Systems [A-TACMS]. So we have lots of rocket artillery, in addition to tube artillery. We also have two AH-64 Apache battalions in the XVIII Airborne Corps aviation brigade, as well as all the other helicopters necessary for us to move and support our soldiers on the battlefield. The corps also has an entire air-defense brigade with Patriot and Avenger/Stinger surface-to-air missile [SAM] systems. There’s also an entire engineering brigade in support of the corps, with a number of different and specialized battalions in it. Those are the combat support organizations that keep us functional, along with the logistics units. In fact, the toughest part of our business may be logistics.

No other army in the world is doing what we do with the numbers of people and things that we deploy. So the capability we have to organize ourselves and do that, to use airlift as well as sealift, takes logisticians of the Army and the other services, and it is an enormous undertaking. Then to sustain that army in the field is another thing entirely.

We as Americans sort of take it for granted that we are taking an army, in many cases, to an immature [i.e., undeveloped] theater of operations, where from the minute that we arrive we cannot even drink the water! And yet everybody in that army has to drink to survive. They also have to eat in a place where the food may be tainted, and we obviously have to protect ourselves from disease. So logisticians have got to get these things right, in terms of how they organize themselves and our sustainment operations. It goes back to the ways that they put things on ships and in airplanes, so that they arrive in the theater of operations in concert with when we need them.

This is an area where our National Guard and Reserve components are especially useful to us. Now, while the XVIII Airborne Corps probably has a larger active-duty logistics force than most other units because of its rapid-response mission, we depend heavily on the Reserve and Guard for logistics, as well as areas like civil affairs and psychological warfare operations.

The logistics side of XVIII Airborne Corps operations, which we call the COSCOM [Corps Support Command], also includes our personnel and finance groups, which are very important to us in sustaining our operations.

You know, our army has a history of producing and conducting excellent logistical efforts. World War II was an example of our mastery of the logistical art, with the way we projected our combat power into Africa, Italy, and Normandy. We’re still doing that kind of thing today, but we’re having to do it much more rapidly as well.

It is an axiom that in these times of downsizing and declining defense budgets, joint and coalition warfare has become the norm. No other military organization in the world has more experience in such operations than XVIII Airborne Corps. They do this through a long-standing set of relationships with other services and nations that would be the envy of any foreign ministry in the world. We’ll let General Keane explain.

Tom Clancy: You’ve been saying that XVIII Airborne Corps has a unique relationship with the units of the U.S. Transportation Command [USTRANSCOM], particularly the Air Mobility Command [AMC] and the Military Sealift Command [MSC]. Talk a little about your partnership with these organizations, would you please?

General Keane: The U.S. Air Force and XVIII Airborne Corps tend to think of ourselves as being just one [entity]. We’ve been, in a sense, brothers for years going back to World War II. We train together, exercise together, deploy on operations, and go to war together. We cannot complete our missions without the Air Force, it is that simple! XVIII Airborne Corps could not be a strategic crisis response force without the Air Force’s ability to respond as rapidly as our units. Their challenge is just as great as ours. The Air Force is out operating as an air force every day, peacetime or war. Their planes are all over the world, and if a crisis comes, they have to bring their planes back and assemble their crews. And if the mission includes a parachute assault (with the 82nd Airborne Division), they have to assemble their airdrop crews that are qualified to do that, because not all transport crews are. So they have a great challenge, and they practice for it with us all the time.

Our relationship with the Navy’s Sealift Command [MSC] is the same. As you know, we now have nine of the fast sealift ships [33-knot ships like the SL-7 class] and we’re going up to [a force of] nineteen with the LMSLR program. They just christened the first two of those, the USNS Shughart and the USNS Gordon, named for our two Army Medal of Honor winners [posthumously] from Somalia. We cannot project the nation’s combat power to great distances without sealift. It’s that simple. We could project a smaller force, but only sealift gives us the capabilities to project the forces we need, in the time required, and sustain them over time.

Now, in conjunction with MSC, we’re constantly exercising with them. Once a quarter [every three months] here at XVIII Airborne Corps, we conduct what we call a Sea Emergency Deployment Exercise. Just recently, we ran one of these with elements of a brigade from the 101 st Air Assault Division. We moved their equipment and flew the helicopters down 625 mi/1006 km from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to Jacksonville, Florida (at the Blount Island Naval Terminal), then shrink-wrapped the aircraft and loaded them aboard a fast sealift ship. We then had the ship moved up to Norfolk, Virginia, where it practiced three different types of operations at the time. First we off-loaded part of the load at the Norfolk cargo terminal, which represented an improved port facility which we may encounter, similar to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. At the same time, we took some of the equipment off the vessel, and put it into the water onto amphibious literage and drove it onto a pier that we had built, as if it was a degraded port, like that of a Third World country [like Mogadishu, Somalia]. Finally, we took other equipment off the ship on lighters and drove it over the beach as if it was a beach landing. We call that last one an “over the shore” operation. It was a tremendous operation, and we do three or four of these a year. In addition, back to my previous comments on our partnership with the Air Force, we do at least several similar operations with them each month. Obviously, though, the Air Force element that we spend the most time with is the 23rd Wing, which is based right next door at Pope Air Force Base [AFB], North Carolina.

Tom Clancy: Could you tell us about the joint [inter-service] training exercises that you participate in?

General Keane: In addition to the exercises that I described previously, we also continuously practice joint operations with our other sister services. In fact, we’re doing twenty-two joint exercises this year [FY-96], with sixteen more planned for next year [FY-97]. Most of the joint exercises we do are with II Marine Expeditionary Force [II MEF, based at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina], 9th and 12th Air Forces, and the 2nd [Atlantic] Fleet. The approach that we take with these joint exercises is that each one of the service components [Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps] will be responsible for a JTF headquarters on an exercise, and we switch that responsibility out during the year. The nature of the operation or scenario that is conducted will have the other service components working for that JTF headquarters. For example, for the JTFEX-95[11] exercise that we conducted in August of 1995, Admiral Jay Johnson [now the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO)] who commanded 2nd Fleet, was the JTF commander, and I [at the time commander of the 101st Air Assault Division] was his deputy commander. Now sometimes these are field or fleet training exercises with troops [actual ground, air, etc.], though more and more, we conduct these exercises using networked computer simulations. We have found that we can hone and maintain our skills through computer simulations, and reduce the cost of large-scale exercises.

Tom Clancy: You’re getting ready right now [May 1996] for a very large joint exercise known by the various names of JTFEX-96/Purple Star/Royal Dragon. Could you please tell us how you expect it to run?

General Keane: For Royal Dragon, we’ll [the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters] be the Joint Land Component Commander when our part of the operation kicks in. Prior to that, though, I’ll be working for the JTF headquarters, which will be aboard the command ship USS Mount Whitney [LCC-20], and commanded by the new 2nd Fleet Commander, Admiral William Vernon Clark, who recently took over from Jay Johnson.[12] One of the more interesting parts of our part of the exercise will be the inclusion of multi-national forces. We recognize that coalition warfare has manifested itself as a vital part of our national security policy, and we obviously have treaties and arrangements with allies around the world. We have to make certain that we have some level of interoperability and compatibility with the forces. So on occasions when we can, we practice with them.

We recently sent a brigade task force of the 3rd MID [formerly the 24th MID] over to Egypt for Operation Bright Star with upwards of five thousand plus soldiers training with the Egyptians. We also just finished having a battalion from the same division training with the Kuwaitis in Operation Intrinsic Action-96, and the 10th Mountain also did one in Oman. For Royal Dragon, we’ll have over seven thou-sandBritish troops taking part, plus a Gurkha battalion, and soldiers from the 82nd Airborne, the 10th Mountain, and the 3rd Mechanized Infantry divisions. In addition, the Royal Navy is contributing over thirty naval vessels, including a carrier battle group built around HMS Illustrious [R 06] which will operate off the Carolina coast with our naval forces. I might also add that while all this is going on, we’ll still have a brigade each from the 82nd and 101st Airborne on eighteen-hour alert, ready to go just in case. If we’re going to maintain our [fighting] edge, and the American people expect us to do just that, we have got to practice our craft. That means getting out in the field and honing our skills. We have got to make certain that our soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen are practicing and staying ready.

For all their capability and skill, the soldiers of the XVIII Airborne Corps have paid a high price in personal sacrifice and emotional strain. High OpTempos over the past decade, as well as force and budget reductions, have stretched our forces to the breaking point in places. Given their large number of overseas and combat deployments and a rigorous exercise schedule, they arguably have the toughest routine of any corps in the Army. Let’s hear General Keane’s thoughts on the quality of life for his soldiers, as well as some other challenges that he is facing.

Tom Clancy: All these operations, both real and exercises, have placed a high strain on your personnel and equipment. Could you tell us your view of the high OpTempos that you have been experiencing these last few years?

General Keane: Well, to be sure we cannot control the world, nor would we as a nation think of doing that. We’re here to respond to the NCAs, and we will respond in the fashion that they expect. We are busier in the last six years, to be sure, than we were previously in the Cold War. But there are some things that we can do to moderate the effects of these high OpTempos.

Despite all the operational requirements, we are in control of most of the time of our soldiers. So we try when we’re back here at Fort Bragg and our other bases to have a “standard” duty day for our soldiers, so that they’re not working terribly long hours, though by most people’s standards, it is a pretty long day! From 6:30 in the morning to 5:00 o’clock at night as a standard, though we do try to give our soldiers weekends off when we can. Sometimes we cannot, because they are on exercises and deployments.

In addition, whenever a three-day weekend or holiday comes up, we normally give them a fourth day off. That gives our soldiers and their families an opportunity to go somewhere and do something away from the base. Obviously, the soldiers from the corps alert units are not doing that, but will be confined to the local areas surrounding their bases at Fort Bragg, Fort Campbell, Fort Stewart, and Fort Drum. But we try to manage that pace and OpTempo as best we can.

“Quality of Life” is an Army term, and we’re very concerned about the amount of separation our soldiers have from their families. On average, XVIII Airborne Corps soldiers will spend six to seven months a year gone from their families, either on deployment, on exercises, training, or away at school. We’re trying to mitigate that as best we can in the areas that we can control.

Tom Clancy: Along with the high OpTempos, there is the matter of force modernization. Obviously this is a huge challenge because of the money involved. Can you give us your insight on this?

General Keane: There are significant challenges in modernization to be sure, and the reasons for them are obvious: the downsizing of our budgets. The instruments of war with the precision that they have and the technology involved are extraordinarily expensive, though they do have a large payoff on the battlefield. For example, if I might digress for a moment, in my judgment, one of the most important weapons developments in the post-World War II era in terms of conventional warfare has to be precision guided munitions [PGMs]. When delivered from a suitable platform [aircraft, helicopter, ship, submarine, vehicle, etc.] PGMs have an enormous payoff for us. This is because their precision and lethality provides us with the ability to target and destroy only the portion of a target array that we are interested in.

For example, if I want to take out a portion of a factory, we can now go in with PGMs, and take out only the part of the factory that is important to us, and not do any damage to the surrounding areas. Only an errant missile or malfunction would keep the strike from being successful, and the probability of this happening is dropping every day.

Contrast that with what we had to do in World War II, when we tried to reduce the industrial bases of Germany and Japan. We had to fly armada after armada of heavy bombers to do that, and we lost hundreds of crews in the process. Also, quite tragically, a large number of civilians lost their lives in those strikes. The PGMs we have today enable us to send a single crew on a mission that previously might have required dozens, with a very high assurance of achieving the desired mission results with a minimum of collateral damage.

Of course, PGMs and other technologies like that cost a lot of money, but at the same time they are truly saving lives, of our own military personnel, of non-combatants, and even of our enemies. We have no interest in taking unnecessary lives from our enemies. We just want to stop them from doing whatever it is that we’re opposed to. So technology costs money, and there is a lot of that involved when you’re talking about outfitting an entire corps or army. So we have to make the case for the technologies that we desire, and our people in Washington, D.C., are doing that.

Our concern for the future is the continuing modernization of our corps. Right now we’re moving the last of the old AH-1 Cobra gunships out and replacing them with newly remanufactured OH-58D Kiowa Warriors. Our force of AH-64A Apache attack helicopters will be upgraded in the latter part of this decade to the new AH-64C/D Apache Longbow configuration, which will be a significant improvement in our capability.

We’re also bringing in the new Advanced Field Artillery System [AFATAS], which is going to increase our fire-control capabilities for artillery and air support. We’re also going to see a near-term improvement in our artillery capability with the introduction of the new M 109A6 Paladin 155mm self-propelled howitzer, and improved versions of the MLRS rockets and A-TACMS missiles. We’re also still modernizing our fleet of armor with the M1A2 variant of the Abrams main battle tank, and the coming — A3 version of the M⅔ Bradley fighting vehicle. Finally, the new version of the Patriot surface-to-air missile system [known as the PAC-3] will provide the units of the corps with an advanced antitactical ballistic missile capability to the current fielded system.

These are all proven technologies with enhanced capabilities. We don’t really need to go out and discover or invent something new when we have something so proven and capable. What we have to do is improve to make certain that we have an overmatch with regards to our potential adversaries. Right now, as we look at it from our perspective, we really don’t have a near-peer competitor out there, and therefore we clearly have an overmatch with our potential enemies. The Army has decided to take some risks in modernization efforts for the near term, so we can hold onto our force structure and units, to try and build some quality of life for our soldiers, and to make certain that we’re maintaining readiness.

Readiness to us means that we’re training our soldiers, and maintaining our equipment up to standards [i.e., adequate supplies of repair parts]. Right now we’re doing very well with all of that, and our readiness reports are indicative of that. But obviously, any military organization has to keep its eyes on the future if it’s going to continue to evolve at the right pace. The challenge is to find the correct balance. The balance has to be among the mix of unit structures, the readiness of that army, the quality of life of its soldiers, and also the modernization of its equipment. The biggest modernization program in our future will be the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, which will dramatically change how we do our business.

Tom Clancy: Can you review some other programs and give your comments?

General Keane: NAVISTAR Global Position System [GPS]. GPS has just been tremendous! We started using it out in the Gulf War back in 1991, and in that particular theater of operations with its lack of topographical features, GPS was a significant enhancement to our operations. So much so that now it is a way of life. If you go down into an infantry outfit today, while outwardly the soldier looks the same with a rifle, helmet, pack, etc., those soldiers are also moving around with night-vision goggles [the PVS-7B], a night aiming device for their weapons [the PAC-4C], a laser pointer to designate targets for PGMs, and perhaps a Portable Lightweight GPS Receiver [PLGR] to locate their position. As it stands today, GPS receivers are in all of our helicopters, in our entire combat vehicle fleet, and in the hands of our soldiers at all levels, whatever their function.

Javelin Antitank Missile. Javelin is a really great initiative, a true “brilliant” PGM which will be man-portable for our soldiers. We really wish that we had been able to field it sooner, everyone in the Army knows that, but it just was not possible. Clearly it’s going to replace the old M47 Dragon weapons system, and will give our foot soldiers the ability to destroy any tank on the battlefield. The key feature of the Javelin is the use of “fire-and-forget technology” and an imaging infrared seeker to lock on to the target before launch. It’s a “brilliant” weapon in the sense that if the operator finds a target, the missile will lock on to the thermal signature of that target, and then home in on that specific target with a minimum of launch signature. That’s a tremendous advantage and should give us an enormous capability right down in the hands of our infantry.

Command and Control Systems. To no one’s surprise, one of the technology explosions that’s taking place at the moment is in the world of digital communications and information. Our experimental force out at Fort Hood is on the “bow wave” of that technology. As we work our way through this revolution, there’s probably going to be an explosion of technology. Ultimately we’ll have soldiers as well as vehicles on the battlefield that will be able to “look” at a target or other item of interest. Their onboard camera/sensor system will feed that to a computer which will transmit information digitally back to command posts at various levels with everyone seeing the data/pictures “real-time.” These operations centers will be extraordinary examples of technology, with state-of-the-art visual/graphic displays and data-fusion technology being able to rapidly call down fire in just a matter of seconds.

This will finally mean that we’ll have a good idea of where the enemy is, as well as knowing the locations of our own troops. You know, in a general sense these are things that we have always known, but in a specific sense, we have not. That’s remarkable for an army that is somewhat nomadic and complicated in the sense that it contains tens of thousands of personnel, vehicles, and pieces of equipment.

As we came to the end of our visit with General Keane, we were curious about the future of XVIII Airborne Corps. In particular, with the coming of the 21st century and the high OpTempos of the previous few years, how does he see the corps’ units evolving? Also, his comments into the future soldiers and their technologies were insightful.

Tom Clancy: What do you see the XVIII Airborne Corps foot soldier of 2010 looking like, given the technology that will be coming on-line?

General Keane: Well, the soldiers will be the same in all the ways that we want them to be. That means that they will be American soldiers who will come from a values-based society, who care about their teammates and what they are doing, and they want to do that job correctly. They will be mentally and physically agile and tough, full of esprit, and with ever-increasing combat skills. Those core ingredients that we have always had in our soldiers will continue to be there. They’re very educated now, better than they’ve ever been, and will probably continue to improve in this area, I suspect. They already are much more computer-literate than many of our senior leaders in the corps today, and fifteen years from now, it will be even more remarkable with the technology that will be here. Best of all, they will be comfortable with technology and probably will enjoy using it as well.

The soldier, in terms of individual capabilities, will probably have a new personal weapon by then [to replace the existing M16A2 combat rifle]. At some point our weapons may transit to some sort of beam technology. I would also imagine that there is a possibility that the soldiers will carry an onboard computer/sensor system with digital communications that will enable them to become a node in a network, and send back “real-time” data and pictures direct from the battlefield.

They may also be in a climatically controlled battle dress uniform, which could possibly have some type of cooling and/or heating system integrated into it. In addition, it will probably have an improved capability to provide protection against small-arms/ballistic/shrapnel-type threats and nuclear/biological/chemical [NBC] agents. Certainly there is technology already in place which would allow us to make great strides in this area. The key, though, is to make the garments and other equipment both comfortable to wear, and lightweight enough to be carried by a soldier. We have to keep this stuff light! That’s because there is only so much you can hang on a soldier, and still have that person be able to move, fight effectively, and survive on the battlefield. This means that you have to be careful how far you go with some technologies.

Tom Clancy: Following up the last question, what do you see the XVIII Airborne Corps looking like in 2010, with regards to units, capabilities, and missions?

General Keane: I think that I see it developing in an evolutionary manner, rather than revolutionary. My view of it is that by the turn of the century, much of the equipment that we already have will still be with us, especially in terms of tanks, helicopters, artillery, and other heavy vehicles and systems. While some of the equipment and systems will modernize, the uses of that equipment will generally stay the same.

The quality of our soldiers, by every indication that we have, will not diminish, though we’re very concerned about that. We want to hold the quality of the people in the Army, and if possible improve it. Right now, retention rate in XVIII Airborne Corps is well over 100 percent of our assigned objectives. In fact, they’re in the neighborhood of 126 percent at the moment. Better yet, we seem to be retaining the best of our soldiers. You have to remember that we must keep between 35 and 40 percent of our first-term soldiers to maintain a viable force, and right now we’re not having any trouble doing that. Still, we’re watching reenlistment rates very closely. In summary, I think that the quality of the soldiers will stay the same, or possibly increase because of superior education.

I don’t see a dramatic change in the technology of our equipment, though I do see an evolutionary change. The RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, if we have it in the force by then, will be a very significant change on the battlefield in terms of expanding the third dimension. This will allow us to see better, and to organize a lot of our combat capability around that aircraft, because it will be able to digitally transmit enemy locations, and organize targeting and responses to the enemy threats. That will be a very significant change.

I would expect that the missions of XVIII Airborne Corps will also stay the same. We’re going to be a crisis-response force, ready to answer the nation’s needs. By then we’ll be using the C-17 Globemaster III heavy transport aircraft as the core of our strategic airlift force, which will double the load capability. We’ll be able to project that combat power faster because of the C-17, and to shorter airfields [less than 3,000 feet/914 meters] than existing heavy-lift aircraft. Right now, with our existing force of C-141B Starlifter and C-5 Galaxy aircraft, we always look for the longest and biggest airfields. With the C-17, though, a whole range of short/undeveloped airfields will be available for our use. This will allow us to get our combat power forward faster, and with less likelihood of interdiction by enemy forces.

In addition, the nation is buying a force of nineteen large Medium Speed Roll-On/Roll-Off [LMSR] ships where we used to have eight Fast Sealift Ships [FSS] and ninety in reserve. The increase in cargo stowage of these LMSRs will give us an additional five million square feet of sealift capacity. This is because each LMSR has 300,000 square feet of cargo space, where the older FSS has only 150,000 square feet per ship. This will allow the Army and other services to more rapidly project our heavy combat forces and keep them sustained. So in terms of power projection, our capability is actually going to increase. We have begun to solve some of the airlift and sealift challenges that were recognized by senior leaders at the conclusion of the Gulf War in 1991.

Once that army is on the battlefield, and XVIII Airborne Corps is deployed, the information technology explosion will enable the pieces and parts of that army to communicate much more effectively than it’s doing now, and we’re already doing a remarkable job. I see all of that as a natural evolution in terms of what’s taking place in the world today. The mission of the corps is not going to change. Our organization will probably go through some changes, and our capabilities will certainly increase. And we will be there in 2010, as we have always been there in the past.

As we prepared to leave, General Keane shared with us some of his personal feelings about the force that he commands, and about being the nation’s senior paratrooper.

Tom Clancy: One last question. Are you having fun in this job?

General Keane: Yeah! If you’re not having fun doing this, there’s something wrong with you. I’ve got the best job in the United States Army, hands down. Some people I know who have more money than me would like to have this job, because it is so much fun! It’s also a humbling thing too. Remember, I started out as a 2nd lieutenant down the street here at Fort Bragg in 1966, and I never thought I would wind up doing something like this three decades later. So you remind yourself of that from time to time. You have to focus properly too. With over 85,000 soldiers out there, I’ll tell you that I’m always working to do what’s right for the team and it’s a heck of a team to be part of!

Given the pace of world events, it is more likely than not that sometime during his tenure, he will have to commit elements of his corps to action somewhere in the world. This certainly was the pattern for the two men who preceded him in the job, Generals Luck and Shelton. Luckily, the Army has made a point of putting warriors of quality in the job. That tradition has been sustained with General Keane at the controls of the XVIII Airborne Corps.