More Than Courage (35 page)

HAROLD COYLE

NCOIC of the Land Warrior mobile training team. He has set aside a complete set for yourself and each of your officers," he announced as they stood before the mass of cables, electronic black boxes, weapons, sights, vests, and helmets. "I thought it would be beneficial if we gave you and your officers a leg up on the system while the rest of your command and my people complete the process of unpacking, sorting, and issuing the equipment."

With a nod DeWitt acknowledged Kaplan's forethought and courtesy.

"While the equipment before you is basically no different than any of the other sets your company will be receiving, these computers have several additional programs, which analysts in my office have concluded a company commander and his platoon leaders might need in combat."

"Excuse me, Colonel, I don't mean to be rude or to interrupt, but are you saying what I think you are saying? As in, Gee, we haven't tried this yet?"

For the briefest of moments the self-assured confidence that Neil Kaplan had presented up to this point wavered. But only for a moment. "Well, yes and no."

Far from placating his concern, DeWitt cocked his head and folded his arms. "Colonel, if you don't mind me asking, exactly how much is yes and how much is no?"

Kaplan's expression made it quite clear that he did mind. Still, he took the time to answer DeWitt's inquiry. "The prototype of this version is the outgrowth of years of testing and evaluation.

This particular model was subjected to numerous tests under every imaginable environmental and combat condition with a great deal of emphasis on desert warfare. What we have here," he stated as he laid his left hand on a stack of equipment sitting on the table, "is part of the initial low-rate engineering-protection run, or LREP, that had been slated for full-scale evaluation later this year at Fort Hood."

After studying the equipment for a moment DeWitt turned and looked at his officers. To a man they were as unfamiliar to MORE THAN COURAGE

271

him as they were with Kaplan's high-tech gear, so he could not read their expressions and determine what, if anything, they were thinking. Of course, he concluded, it didn't make a rat's ass what they thought. Nor did it matter if he had reservations over the reliability of the equipment before him. They were all soldiers.

They had their marching orders and that, as they say, is that.

Forcing a smile, DeWitt clapped his two hands together and rubbed them as he looked over at Kaplan. "Well, that's good enough for me, Colonel. Let's get started."

20:10 LOCAL (03:10 ZULU) t

Using the same well-rehearsed presentation that he used every time he was charged with presenting an initial orientation on the Land Warrior, Master Sergeant Benoit added a healthy dose of theory as he picked up each item and explained its purpose.

"This version of the Land Warrior is designed to be incorporated into the MOLLE battle vest and the Interceptor body armor. The personal area network, or PAN, consists of independent communications modules which are arranged so as to distribute their weight evenly without hindering the flexibility or agility of the soldier."

Unable to keep his peace, the most outspoken platoon leader of third Platoon, Second Lieutenant Peter Quinn chuckled. "Gee, that's really nice of them."

In a flash DeWitt turned and gave Quinn one of those piercmg looks that needed no translation. Sheepishly, Quinn bowed his head. "Sorry."

Having taken care of his unruly officer, DeWitt nodded to Master Sergeant Benoit. "You may proceed."

"If you would, sir," Benoit stated as he handed DeWitt the body armor and battle vest that had been set aside for him. Once he had finished adjusting the straps so that they were comfortably snug, the training NCO continued by picking up the first 272

HAROLD COYLE

box on the table. "The heart, or more correctly, the brain of the system is this computer," Benoit stated as he handed it to DeWitt to inspect. "It is powered by a pair of rechargeable batteries that provide forty-eight hours of continuous use under normal conditions."

"Define 'normal' if you would, Sergeant," DeWitt insisted.

"Normal takes into account a day/night cycle," Benoit explained as he took the computer from DeWitt and slid it into the pocket on the combat vest designed for it. "It assumes the periods of rest that a soldier requires, using historical models when measuring the duration of combat in any given forty-eight-hour period. Quite naturally if the man is chatting over the wireless local area network, or WLAN, nonstop, has his thermal sight powered up and on around the clock and is tapping the GPS update button every ten seconds the batteries won't last that long."

DeWitt grunted but said nothing as Benoit continued.

"There are a number of modules built into the computer itself.

These include a GPS receiver, a pedometer capable of measuring the pace of the user, and a digital compass. In addition to the NAV, or navigational module, this system not only maintains your current position but also transmits this data to the situational awareness, or SA, module on other Land Warrior systems."

"So I can keep track of where each individual soldier in my company is," DeWitt stated as Benoit finished securing the computer module.

Understanding where DeWitt was going, Kaplan responded to DeWitt's question. "For some time now the problem has been not providing commanders or soldiers with information. This became painfully obvious to all the services during the First Gun War in 1991. Information management, or packaging data into usable products is the key to success in warfare on the digital battlefield.

While you could try to keep track of every single man in your command, Lieutenant, you'd quickly become overwhelmed with this chore and find yourself unable to do anything else MORE THAN COURAGE

273

Hence the special programs keyed to specific users. On your system, for example, the default settings for locations of your command are platoons, battalion combat support elements, and friendly units to your left and right. Your platoon leaders will see their squads when they access their situational awareness program and, in turn, their squad leaders will see only the members of their own squad as well as their platoon leader and any friendly troops within a prescribed radius. Of course, if you want to zero in on a particular squad or call one of your platoon leaders to meet him face-to-face, you have capability of tracking that squad or platoon leader and finding them right off."

DeWitt nodded. "Sounds like a winner to me. Next?"

"Knowing where your people a~re is only the beginning,"

Benoit continued after he finished locking in a new cable into the computer module. "The secure, non-line-of-sight wireless local area network, or WLAN, has two voiceover IP push-to-talk buttons which allow you to contact anyone operating on the net. It will negate the need for a separate squad radio system."

Lieutenant Quinn raised his right index finger in order to catch Benoit's attention. Since Benoit was involved in hooking up DeWitt's Land Warrior system, Kaplan took the question. "Yes, Lieutenant. You have a question?"

"Does this local area network negate the need for our current tactical radios?"

Without pausing, Benoit responded to Quinn's question as he made a minor adjustment on the next component he would be dealing with. "Not at this time. The current family of SINCGARS

tactical radios have a greater range, frequency hopping, and secure voice capability. They will remain the backbone of our tactical command-and-control system for the foreseeable future."

"Not all units you may find yourself operating with will have the Land Warrior," Kaplan stated. "It will be some time before combat support and combat service support personnel have a system like this tailored to their specific requirements. And even 274

HAROLD COYLE

then, given the attitude of many of our allies toward force modernization and the military, it is an open question as to whether other nations will field a system similar to Land Warrior."

From somewhere in the crowd, one of the platoon leaders sneered. "Three cheers for our allies."

Ignoring the interruption Benoit took up the helmet he had secured from DeWitt in advance and held it before him. "Up until now we have been dealing with command-and-control and land navigation. Now we start looking at the business end of the system, the weapons sights and laser designators."

This brought a smile to DeWitt's face. "Now, that's what I'm talkin' about. Bring it on, Sergeant."

Once Dewitt had his helmet on and had secured the chin strap, Benoit reached up and flipped a small oval disk down.

"This, sir, is your lightweight thermal weapons sight, or LWTWS."

Reaching up, Dewitt gingerly touched the edges of the thin disk between his index finger and thumb. "This seems rather small."

"Until we come up with a system capable of replicating data as images that the soldier can recognize without a second thought," Kaplan pointed out, "the soldier must still be free to use his own eyes. In future versions the soldier will have a completely enclosed helmet not unlike those used by virtual reality systems."

When his colonel was finished, Benoit continued. "You're going to need to adjust this over one of your eyes, sir, to where you can easily see whatever is displayed on it. The adjustments are done like this, and this."

After watching as best he could what the training NCO was doing, DeWitt fiddled with the weapons sight hanging from his helmet until he was satisfied with where it was. "Okay. What now?

A subtle shift in Master Sergeant Benoit's voice hinted that this was the portion of his orientation that he enjoyed. "The weapon s subsystem incorporates two sights, the lightweight thermal weap

. MORE THAN COURAGE 275

ons sight and the ultralight color video sight attached to the weapon. Images generated by both of those are viewed by the soldier on the monocular display attached to his helmet."

Just as eager as his NCO, Kaplan could not help but jump in when he could to point out key-points. "One of the most difficult aspects we have had with digitizing the battlefield at the individual combat soldier level has been the presentation of information in a manner that is immediately recognizable and useful. For example, humans are visually oriented. We respond to things we see based upon their shape, color, posture, and activity. A soldier on the battlefield does not have time to read a message being beamed across his field of vision stating 'Enemy, three o'clock.' The cognitive process required to translate that rhessage or symbols into a coherent thought upon which he can then base his response takes time, time which an infantryman cannot afford. For a system to be worthwhile it has to enhance a soldier's awareness and reduce his response time to threats, not impede it. Therefore all of our efforts have been geared to delivering information and images to the soldier in a form that is natural to him and elicits a response that is more instinctive. Hence the switch to full color instead of the black-and-white imaging used in initial prototypes. In time we expect to go even further by adopting some of the technologies used by the virtual reality people. Not only will the soldier be able , to see a three-dimensional world through his weapon's sight, threats will be highlighted or enhanced."

Anxious to skip the sales pitch and get down to actually seeing if the theories the colonel and his NCO were describing translated into a useful system, DeWitt nodded politely. "Yes, sir, I see, I see." Then he turned to Benoit who was in the process of making the final connections. "Now, Sergeant, how does all this neat stuff work?"

Benoit, who had been leaning over, stood up, looked DeWitt in the eye, and smiled. "Quite effectively, sir."

The quip served to lighten the mood a tad. "Okay, Sergeant,"

DeWitt moaned. "Target, cease fire. Now, back on your head."

276

HAROLD COYLE

For the next few minutes Benoit explained how to power up the system, switch from the thermal sight to the full-color sight and use the built-in combat identification system. "This item," he explained, "is not at all unlike the identify-friend-or-foe that the Air Force has been using for years. As squads become more dispersed thanks to the Land Warrior, the opportunity for fratricide increases. By building a combat identification system into the sight it is hoped that we can reduce friendly-fire incidents to nil."

"Hoped?" DeWitt asked. "I thought hope wasn't an option?"

Kaplan sighed. "Despite quantum leaps and bounds in technology, decisions on the battlefield at all levels will still be made by human beings."

Taking care while doing so, for fear of messing something up, DeWitt turned to his assembled platoon leaders. "Okay, you people, you heard him. Despite what you may have heard, the colonel confirms some of your speculations. I am human."

This brought on a ripple of nervous laughter and more than a few anxious sidelong glances. Emmett DeWitt had replaced a very popular commanding officer under very difficult circumstances.

Even if he had been afforded the luxury of time, which Colonel Shaddock pointed out he did not have, DeWitt was not the sort of officer who believed that a commanding officer could be both a good buddy to his subordinates and an effective leader. Though he endeavored to be fair and just in all his dealings with the men he commanded, he always made it a point to be strict and uncompromising when it came to pursuing the profession of arms.

Both Kaplan and Benoit sensed that there was something more going on here than they knew. So they waited until their prime subject finished with his officers. When he was sure that he had made his point, DeWitt faced the training NCO once more.

"Okay, where were we, Sergeant?"

Without skipping a beat Benoit picked up where he had left off. "I was just getting ready to show you how to use your sights to achieve first-shot kills at ranges of three hundred meters without exposing anything but your weapon and your sight."

MORE THAN COURAGE

277

Not knowing what sort of officer Kaplan was and conscious that he could not afford to compromise himself in any way in front of his platoon leaders, DeWitt chose not to make light of Benoit's choice of words. It was not that he was a prude or that he wasn't tempted to. Even after years of forced socialization and sensitivity training, the American military was still far from being gender neutral. The soldiers who were charged with the duty of doing the fighting and dying were human beings, people blessed with all their wonderful strengths and attributes as well as all their earthly shortcomings and habits. Still, until he knew how far he could go in the presence of this particular officer, DeWitt opted to fly straight and keep his colorful comments in check.