- 14 May 2006 -

Food for Thought
From the Other Side * More Than A Job * No-Man's-Land * Remember Me? * Military Blues

Bill Wolf Promoted to BG

28 August 2006

On Tuesday, 22 August 2006, COL(P) William T. "Bill" Wolf (B-1, '79), received his first star at Fort Rucker, AL, where he currently serves as the Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Aviation Warfighting Center and Fort Rucker.  The following first-hand account was provided by our raving roving reporter, Rob Robertson:

I was able to attend the promotion ceremony for BILL-EYE Wolf this Tuesday at Ft. Rucker. BILL-EYE pinned on his star and I was there representing the Beta House ensuring that his head didn't get too big. Attached are a couple of pictures of the event.  . . . I was a pretty proud dude watching one of the good guys make Flag rank.

In response to a congratulatory note, Bill replied:

Thx for the note. I am still sitting in the DCG billet here at Fort Rucker. Hard to believe but I am the number two guy here for the Aviation Branch! I should be here until next Spring/Summer and then we will see what the future will hold.  . . . Take care my friend and stay safe, and please keep our Troopers and their families in your thoughts and prayers. Bill

For more information on the ceremony, visit the Fort Rucker Army Flier web site.

Inside The Army: Age Pops Off!

3 April 2006

ER/MP, ACS called key to future intel efforts

ARMY INTELLIGENCE FORCES SLATED TO ADD 7,600 SOLDIERS BY FY-13

Though the Army’s goal is to increase the size of its intelligence force by 9,000 soldiers, current budget plans allow for an increase of only 7,600 soldiers between now and fiscal year 2013, service intelligence officials said last week.

Last fall, budget pressures forced the Army to scale back its plans to grow intelligence force to just 3,550 additional soldiers (Inside the Army, Oct. 17, 2005, p1).

But that figure has changed, intelligence officials said. The planned growth between FY-08 and FY-13 now includes 5,600 intel soldiers in the active force and 2,000 in the National Guard and Reserve, Collin Agee, Director of Army Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Integration, told ITA in a March 30 interview.

“That’s secured programmed growth,” said Lt. Col. Yvette Hackett, chief of actionable intelligence in the Army’s intelligence office (G-2).

The goal of reaching an additional 9,000 intel soldiers, cited in congressional testimony early this month by Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody, was a target in plans to change the Army from a division-based force to a modular, brigade-based force. The number remains valid, Agee said.

“We haven’t completely resourced up to that level yet. So it doesn’t mean that we’ve abandoned that number, but it’s an incremental process,” he said.

The Army has channeled the increased number of intelligence soldiers toward the service’s tactical units to support the service’s modular force structure. For example, at the brigade combat team level, the number of intelligence officers increased from 14 to 21 -- a development Agee called “very significant.”

In addition, brigade combat teams gained a 72-soldier military intelligence company (MICO), giving the teams the ability to collect, process and analyze intelligence information. The company includes four tactical human intelligence teams and a management and leadership cell to control and employ those teams, he said.

In addition to the increased manpower, the service is connecting those soldiers to advanced intelligence processing networks and Joint Intelligence Operations Centers.

“Now these guys down at the BCT level are connected to much broader set of resources well beyond their echelon. So it’s a matter of acknowledging we need to plus them up but also leveraging the whole enterprise back here to things within national agencies in the Beltway -- the databases, the automation, the sophisticated things, the analytical tools and the specialists that are resident at higher levels can help these guys down at the tactical level,” Agee said.

Enhancing the service’s intelligence force is a move endorsed by the Pentagon via its Quadrennial Defense Review process, Agee said. For example, the QDR cites an increase in the number of intelligence professionals working in intel collection and analysis to support homeland defense and antiterrorism efforts.

The QDR also directs the military to invest in a number of areas to improve intelligence gathering and analysis. Those areas include improving human intelligence assets, expanding signals intelligence by restructuring the Aerial Common Sensor program, increasing investment in unmanned aerial vehicles, investigating high-altitude loitering capabilities and achieving net-centricity.

According to Agee, the Army already is working on a number of those materiel solutions.  Chief among them is bringing the Distributed Common Ground System-Army to fruition. That is a matter of bringing 13 precursor systems together, including the analytical tool, the All-Source Analysis System, he said.

DGCS-A actually will free up intelligence personnel because each of the 13 precursor systems required its own crew. “So the theory is that our guys are doing the cognitive things, rather than being wedded to a particular piece of equipment. Most of their time, if we’re honest about this, was spent translating what they knew on their systems, with all these other systems,” Agee said.

The program manager for DCGS-A has been working with units to provide an early capability to support realworld operations in Iraq, officials from the Communications-Electronics Command told ITA last year.

The Army’s Extended Range Multi-Purpose UAV, now called the Warrior, will be key for the intelligence community, Agee said, adding that its multi-intelligence features can help provide quick confirmation of a fleeting target that many only be visible for a short period of time. “That’s the promise that ER/MP brings,” he said.

The ER/MP’s multi-intelligence ability would be complemented by the Army’s Aerial Common Sensor program, he said.  That program, however, is in limbo. Early this year, the Army canceled Lockheed Martin’s contract to develop ACS, a rapid-response information sensor system slated to carry a mix of payloads to detect, classify, locate, track and disseminate data to soldiers at all echelons. The service had previously stopped work on the program because the chosen payload would have caused the Brazilian-built ERJ-145 aircraft to suffer weight, size, power and cooling
issues, ITA previously reported.

Despite the program’s woes, “There was a whole lot of value in the [Joint Requirements Oversight Council] approved requirements for ACS,” Agee said.

The QDR directed the Army, Navy and Air Force to take another look at requirements for the program with a six-month study, which is under way, Agee said.

ACS, which allows a human touch from the back seat of the aircraft, empowers the analysts and helps the Army in ways UAVs can’t, he said.

“If you look to the future -- going into places before a shooting war starts, where you want to have really good resolution but you don’t have troops on the ground -- ACS can do that. Because you don’t need to establish the ground stations that are needed for UAVs, they can easily fly and be fueled by civilian airfields. So it gives you a whole lot of flexibility in terms of meeting global requirements,” Agee said.

At the end of the month, the Army and the Navy will brief OSD on plans to upgrade and modernize the Airborne Reconnaissance Low, the Guardrail Common Sensor and the EP-3 -- currently fielded assets that were to be replaced by ACS (see related story).

-- Jen DiMascio

B-1 Mini-Reunion: Napa Valley, CA

24-26 February 2006

Sorry it took a while to respond.  Been traveling and going to my daughter Megan’s graduation from NYU.

The Napa trip was a tremendous success.  Kudos to the Plutt clan for the planning and execution.

We gathered at the Domaine Carneros on the first day to drink champagne and be generally obnoxious.  After we drove off all of the locals we gathered on the veranda for a photo op and to imbibe a bit more.  The large bottle you saw me carrying was what I bought for the NYU graduation party.  A picture of it in use is attached.  Megan is the one holding the bottle.  Also attached another photo of her in her cap and gown.  Yeah, we’re a bit proud…

Back to Napa.  We were all quartered at the Napa Valley Inn.  Wonderful accommodations and the local restaurants were fabulous.  Of course Steve had reconned the entire event several times (hence the enlarged liver) and had ensured every step of the trip was perfect.  Brayhead joined us for the first day and we all were able to reconfirm the fact that he married well above himself and that he is very much unchanged from cadet days.  

Day two we had a chartered limo and went to several vineyards.  We drank, ate, were loud, were obnoxious, and had a tremendous time.  I don’t recall the number of vineyards we went to but I do know it was an incredible experience.  As I look at the list of names in the address line of this message I can recall at least four or five embarrassing things each of us (or our spouses) did during the vineyard trip.  And that made it an unqualified success.

Last day we went our separate ways but the majority reconvened at Steve’s house for a wonderful dinner.  Steve had a bottle of 1980 wine in his cellar waiting for a special occasion.  He opened it for dinner and we all shared it.  We met Steve’s kids and had a blast teaching them bad habits.  Brayhead and Mary rejoined for dinner.

Truly a remarkable weekend.  Great friends, great location, great fun.  We decided on what the next trip was going to be but the decision came late at night and didn’t stick in my brain.  All I remember is that it was a terrific idea.  Looking forward to hearing about it all over again.

Anyway, hope this is enough detail for you.  Wish you could have been there!

v/r
Rob Robertson

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Comments on the 1980 Crop:

The B-1 varietal of the 1980 vintage has become more full-bodied with age, but still immature.  Contains overtones of sarcasm and hints of cynicism, but not much wit. The early growing season on the Hudson makes this vintage robust, but time has mellowed it somewhat.  Best if sampled in small quantities, but frequently leads to weekends of excess consumption.  Should probably be sealed in oak barrels and kept out of public circulation.

- Wolfeye

Otto's Promotion to Colonel

21 January 2006

It was a great weekend...36 holes of comp'd golf at Disney with my friend from Raytheon days... a 3 year "going-away-to-war" reunion with my detachment....a Senior TC Army Transition Conference.....the big promotion.....promotion party at Otto's house until midnight.....Huge nap on Sunday after the conference....Steelers and Seattle win!