The US Army in the Pacific

The Army in the Pacific
Soldiers Magazine December 06, 2005

With ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan continuing to capture headlines throughout the nation and around the world, the Army's vital mission in the Pacific Rim area has received little attention of late.

A vast region -- it covers 16 time zones, encompasses more than 50 percent of the world's surface and is home to 60 percent of the world's population -- the Pacific Rim has long been of strategic importance to the United States. Various conflicts continue to simmer in the region, which has also seen terrorist acts committed by Al Qaeda and its allies.

In this exclusive interview, U.S. Army, Pacific, commander LTG John M. Brown III talks about USARPAC's missions and capabilities, both within its own area of operations and around the world.

Q: What do you feel is USARPAC's most important mission?

Brown: As with every other command in the Army today, USARPAC's primary mission is to ensure that we provide well-trained, well-equipped and competently led forces to fight the global war on terrorism. USARPAC undertakes this primary mission in two ways.

First, we send individual Soldiers and entire units through U.S. Pacific Command to U.S. Central Command for use as part of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

Second, we provide those same types of forces to U.S PACOM for operations in this theater. Those operations can be part of PACOM's theater security and cooperation program; engagement with the 43 other nations that operate in the Asia-Pacific region; or peacekeeping or counter-terrorism operations such as those in the Philippines.

But USARPAC also has a second mission that is growing in importance every day, and one which certainly complements our primary mission. That second mission is to execute our part of the Army campaign plan for transformation.

USARPAC has been designated as the third of the Army's five upper tier operational Units of Employment, and almost every one of our brigades and divisions, and all of our major headquarters, will be undergoing transformation over the next two years to configure them into the Army's new modular and expeditionary structure. That new structure will certainly better enable USARPAC to provide, and command and control, forces in the war on terrorism or any other military operation.

Q: How then do you feel about USARPAC's readiness to carry out those missions?

Brown: I'm very confident that we are sending the very best-trained, best-equipped and superbly led units into OIF and OEF. I base that assessment on the performance of the thousands of Pacific-based Soldiers who have participated in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past two years.

At the same time, we remain fully engaged within our own theater. While 24,000 Pacific-based Soldiers participated in OIF and OEF last year, we actually increased the number of engagements -- exercises, combined training or real-world operations here in the Pacific. That wasn't an easy thing to do at a time when we were sending so many Soldiers outside our own theater.

But despite the challenge of increasing the number of our in-theater engagements, it was necessary because there is a war against terrorism going on here in the Pacific. If we don't look after this theater, we may have to pay a heavier price in the future.

Q: What do you feel is USARPAC's greatest strength?

Brown: While I believe we have many strengths -- the caliber of our Soldiers and the thoroughness of our training, for example -- I believe that perhaps our greatest strengths are, first, our ability to master the vast distances we encounter in this theater of operations and, second, our ability to maintain close working relationships with other nations in the region.

People tend to forget that the Pacific is the U.S. military's geographically largest theater, and that the distances here are staggering. Yet we have not allowed the tyranny of distance to prevent us from conducting the same sorts of operations that have been so successful in other, smaller theaters.

As part of the U.S. Pacific Command team -- along with the Navy, Marines and Air Force -- we undertake the multinational exercises that are such a vital part of our ability to maintain the interoperability that is essential to successful coalition operations.

I think the international response to the recent tsunamis in South Asia is an excellent example of why it is so vital for USARPAC and PACOM to do whatever is necessary to maintain that interoperability with other nations in the region. Because we have trained and interacted with our counterparts in such nations as India, Thailand and Australia, we in Pacific Command were able to begin providing vital assistance within a matter of hours.

Q: While the nation has heard much about the fine work done by the Navy, Marines and Air Force in the wake of the tsunamis, we have perhaps not heard as much about the Army's role in the relief effort. What role did USARPAC play?

Brown: We were probably the minor partner in the relief effort, in that the nature of the damage -- for example, the destruction of road networks -- dictated that most of the relief effort went in by sea and by strategic airlift. Our sister services did an excellent job, and they deserve a huge vote of thanks.

Having said that, USARPAC was able to provide considerable logistics support. We sent specialist units to the base camps in Thailand and Sri Lanka, to help push supplies and equipment forward to where they were needed. And because we have a large number of forensics specialists, we were able to make a huge contribution to the very difficult task of identifying human remains.

We also provided such important equipment as water-purification units. In addition, we released large amounts of our contingency supplies -- such as construction materials and tents -- for use in the devastated areas, and we provided civil-affairs teams.

In addition, Soldiers from USARPAC's 58th Signal Battalion provided around-the-clock communications support for Combined Forces-536. The battalion was instrumental in providing the network-bridging strategy that allowed U.S. forces deployed throughout the region access to the Department of Defense's global information grid, which provided secure and non-secure data networks, telephones and video teleconferences. The battalion continued its support around the clock throughout the duration of the operation.

In short, I think USARPAC made a meaningful contribution to the tsunami-relief effort, though I would emphasize that the bulk of our nation's contribution to that effort was made by Sailors, Marines and Airmen.

Q: How do you feel about the Job USARPAC Soldiers are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Brown: They are performing superbly in what is obviously a very complex and challenging type of warfare. They are well prepared to succeed, and when they come back to home station their confidence in themselves and their acknowledgement of the mission's importance is reflected in their re-enlistment rates. They're staying in the Army in record numbers, and I think that speaks volumes about their dedication to the mission and to the nation.

Q: What do you see in USARPAC's future?

Brown: I think our future will be a very dynamic one.

As I mentioned earlier, today's USARPAC is a force provider that sends well-trained, well-equipped and competently led forces wherever they're needed. But we send them under the command and control of other headquarters. Over the next 18 to 24 months things will change; we'll keep all our existing missions and responsibilities, but we will also become a war-fighting headquarters. We will restructure ourselves to be able to provide forces and command and control them across the full spectrum of military operations.

That's a very exciting opportunity, but there are other things happening as well. In Alaska, for example, we just completed the fielding of the Army's third Stryker brigade combat team, and we've stood up the Army's newest airborne brigade combat team. Here in Hawaii we're going to field the Army's fifth Stryker BCT, and the 25th Infantry Division headquarters will convert to the new UEX structure.

So, over the next two years the nature and capability of the Army in this vital theater will change tremendously. It is truly an exciting time for U.S. Army, Pacific.
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