LT. Gen. Ray Odierno looks like he could snap an NFL linebacker in half. Yet his voice is so quiet you strain to hear him across the table in an empty pub.
And the general’s worth listening to.
Just back from commanding our day-to-day military operations in Iraq, he’s been nominated as the Army’s next vice chief of staff. He’ll take the battlefield’s lessons along to that post.
What did Iraq teach Odierno as a soldier? What professional tenets were reinforced by his multiple combat tours?
“First, you have to empower your subordinates. That means you have to underwrite the risks involved,” to take the heat when they make mistakes. The general sees this as crucial to our 21st-century Army.
“Second, as a senior leader, you have to trust your instincts . . . you never stop learning and you have to adapt to the changing situation . . . but trust your instincts.”
“Third, you have to get out and touch it, feel it, see it.” You can’t manage a war or a counterinsurgency effort from an office. Nothing substitutes for the sense of reality you get from walking the streets with soldiers and Marines.
So what did an old soldier like Odierno learn about our troops during his successive – and successful – tours in Iraq?
“They are compassionate. They genuinely care – not just about each other, but about Iraqis, too. I saw it again and again. They are compassionate young men and women.”
Any surprises about our soldiers? “They’ve surprised me with their resilience. . . They continue to re-enlist, continue to perform. . . Both leaders and soldiers have shown incredible resilience in the way they’ve adapted” to the changing situation in Iraq. “And I realized how much we can trust our soldiers.”
That certainly goes for Marines, as well. The general sees the old inter-service rivalry as a relic of the past: “In Iraq, there’s only respect for capabilities between the Army and Marines. Marines command soldiers, soldiers command Marines. We’re all brothers in arms.”
And sisters in arms, too. Odierno stresses, proudly, that women have become so integrated into our military that “it’s second nature now. I’ve seen female officers commanding Military Police companies in some of the toughest spots in Iraq, leading a hundred men – and Iraqis, whose culture doesn’t put women in such positions. Because of their pure leadership qualities, it wasn’t a problem.”
The general also feels that a great untold story has been the advances in cooperation between special-operations and conventional forces – right down to the brigade and battalion levels – in just the last 18 months. In the past, the special operators and the grunts usually went their separate ways. Not anymore: “There’s real synergy now.”
Yet war’s essence remains the same: “The principle of war of mass hasn’t changed” – the piling-on that overwhelms an enemy – “but now it’s a question of what you mass. It may mean massing troops. Another time, you mass aircraft or rockets.” In counterinsurgency operations, “it may be money that you mass, or resources.”
In the what’s-new department, the Army’s prospective vice chief is convinced that “We need to better understand the cyber-world piece. . . It’s critical to our enemies.” In that field and in our information operations, we still have to come to grips with everything from practical capabilities to laws.
“It’s not just about the enemy anymore. It’s about the environment . . . the population, sectarian considerations, perceptions . . . or tribal politics, as in Iraq. What kind of government do you have to deal with, for example?”
Odierno keeps returning to the theme of doing our best for our soldiers, the key mission he’ll face in his new job. “What does the Army bring? We bring soldiers. How do we develop, educate, train and equip them to do their best?”
These are tough challenges at a time when there won’t be enough defense dollars to replace all the materiel lost or worn out in our wars and to acquire the next-generation systems each service hopes to field. The general intends to turn a skeptical eye on promised “wonder” systems, to make sure the Army and the taxpayer get good value.
“We have to make the most of the budget we’ve got,” he says bluntly.
So . . . what about Iraq? Do any specific incidents leap to mind from this past year? Was there an unforgettable Aha! moment?
“It was back in March and April. I went down to Ramadi, to 1-9 Infantry, who were doing the final clearance operations. I saw what they had to go through” in the brutal fighting. “Then I went back, just 30 days later, and saw an amazing difference. Once they were free of al Qaeda, the people just came back to life. They felt free.
“That’s when I thought to myself, ‘Yes, we can do this. We can make this happen.’ ”
The general was about to begin a long-overdue leave, and this interview was his final mission of the day. Anything he’d like to say directly to Post readers?
“I want to thank all the readers for the support they’ve given our soldiers. It means a lot to us. And I’m very proud to be a part of the Army of the United States.
“As for Iraq, we have made significant progress . . . and it’s in our strategic interests to have a friendly government in Iraq. Our soldiers have sacrificed a great deal. It should not be in vain.”
The general went quiet for a moment, looking inward. “It means a lot to me to finish this mission.”
Ralph Peters’ latest book is “Wars of Blood and Faith.”