Jerry Smith’s War: 2025

Newly promoted Sergeant Jerry Smith and his team were not new to war. But Jerry and his team were particularly challenged by the tempo of this war. Upon arrival they became swept up in a very tight operational cycle that put the team on a grueling treadmill of autonomous operations separated by only a few hours to rest, refit and plan for the next dangerous foray into a hostile countryside. Terrain and the enormous expanse of this area of operations gave Jerry and his team a disturbing sense of isolation. Now, even more than in training, they drew together as a unit to combat this feeling – they were not alone as long as they were working as a team. Each man had his brothers nearby. The unit’s chain of command was superb and engaged. But his company headquarters was hours away by road and his battalion an hour’s flight by fixed wing aircraft. In irregular war distance matters particularly given the need for immediate and intimate information about the terrain and enemy.

While the environment was hostile and unfamiliar the mission carried with it a sense of timelessness. The team was part of the Seventh Infantry, a venerable outfit with a long and proud history. Their mission was not much different from infantry units in previous wars: to find and kill the enemy. The prospect of facing violent death in an in extremis situation made them view familiar surroundings with a new awareness through professional, practiced eyes. No place on earth was more barren, isolated and inhospitable. Miles of dry desert floor were surrounded by two-mile high peaks often snowcapped for much of the year. What passed for civilization and commerce clung to the banks of the few rivers that coursed through the barren lowlands. The villages were strung along at five mile intervals like a green string of pearls linked by rivers and single lane, dirt roads choked by dust in the dry season and virtually impassible to wheeled vehicles whenever it rained.

At Firebase Tiger the team relieved a squad from a partner regiment that had finished a six month rotation. Years of paired rotation had melded these two regiments into tactical soul mates. For all this time they maintained an extraordinary intimacy down to squad and individual level thanks to soldier social networking system that allowed team members to carry on a continual discourse with their counterparts and to follow all operations in real time using a continuous streaming video downlink. Every tactical operation was a paired exercise in which the home based squad sat together inside the regimental cognitive gym. The squad followed their partner and re-lived every event by looking through the individual helmet cameras of their counterparts. Much like a Monday night NFL session the regimental coach led both squads through an AAR following the mission. Throughout the week the partners kept each other up to date on every aspect of the rapidly morphing tribal and clan politics that so greatly influenced their lives. Jerry had learned a great deal from these exchanges and so his and his team’s “ramp-up” into the combat environment was much less steep than in past wars. He felt the presence of these partners and the rest of his virtual support structure, and like his experience in the “Cognitive Gym” used them to push away the sense of isolation, even though it would take an actual relief force some time to come to their aid. He and the rest of the team were determined to operate so that they never needed to call on that force.

Nearly three decades of continuous war since 9/11 had taught these infantrymen how to fight and win in such a hostile environment. In Iraq and Afghanistan Firebase Tiger would have housed at least a company, perhaps even a battalion. But weapons and sensing technologies and the creation of hyper-performing small units now allowed the unit to control territory and influence populations, the essentials of irregular warfare, with a human presence less than a third as dense.

The platoon took over the sub province mission from their sister unit now recovering in the States. The previous unit had done well. It had made a good start in the task of unraveling the enemy’s networks, lines of communication to the border regions and chain of command. But the enemy was still embedded in the fabric of the population and fully intended to fight to stay there. The platoon fully intended to give them that fight, and to win.

The American forces were not the only ones learning about modern war and adapting to the actions of the enemy. Three decades of fighting against western militaries had made the enemy far more skillful and adaptive than his Al Qaeda and Taliban antecedents. These were well armed and highly trained fighters, financed and supported by a skillfully concealed and adaptive network. These weren’t “your uncle’s enemies”, but true insurgents of the deadliest sort. Years of well financed training and study abroad had transformed the enemy from a traditional, somewhat primitive insurgent to a new and more lethal force whose fanaticism was amplified by twenty first century weapons and tactics. They were armed with just enough precision anti-tank and anti-air missiles to deny the coalition absolute dominance of air and ground lines of communications – they could and occasionally did shoot down a modern aircraft, or defeat heavy armor under the right conditions. They possessed sophisticated communications like encrypted cell phones but still avoided channels that could potentially be intercepted, preferring more primitive interpersonal connections to their overseas sponsors. The team depended on others to break those links; it was their function to interrupt the local communications that allowed the enemy to fight and survive in their region.

During pre-deployment preparation the team, in a manner reminiscent of an NFL team’s game preparation, spent days reviewing videos from previous engagements. They knew from these and their AAR sessions with their predecessors that the enemy was determined to keep an iron grip on the several villages around Fire Base Tiger. If the enemy lost control of these villages the enemy fighters would lose easy access to the sanctuaries across the border just a stones’ throw to the East. The unit’s first mission was to break the enemy’s grip on those villages. The longer term end state for the unit was to transition to a stability and support mission. They needed to introduce effective indigenous army and police units that would provide long term security to the population. But gaining control and providing security were both elusive and terribly fragile. They would have to fight for them.

Every day the team moved out to establish a presence in one of the surrounding villages. Jerry’s skill as a tracker and combat hunter earned him the key spot as Team scout. For this mission Jerry and Sergeant Hassam, his Moroccan battle buddy had established a preliminary hide position outside the base camp before the unit left. At dusk they crept out of that position and started moving along a line about a thousand meters from and parallel to a ridge line that formed a rough arc that nearly encircled the village. In a few hours their team would sortie from the firebase by vehicle and travel into the village through a road that cut though the main opening in the ridge line.

The climb up the ridge line was strenuous in the thin air, particularly since they couldn’t afford to use any sort of trail, but their conditioning paid off. Finally near the ridge line the pair crawled carefully to a hidden position where they could observe the village as well as the approaches to the gap. They profiled the terrain to determine the most likely position of the enemy. For hours Jerry traversed the thermal scope from male to male, seeking to match him with the profile he had developed so carefully of how an enemy leader might be acting this early in the morning. At last he got a solid thermal “hit” and silently directed Hassam’s attention to him. It was a black turbaned, well built assertive man who matched Jerry’s behavioral profile of an insurgent leader. Jerry also noticed that the nearby villagers were observing the man warily. If that was the leader, where were his followers? Suddenly the man started gesticulating and talking to someone. Jerry moved the scope along the line the man was facing and found three men assembling. He recognized from his profile training that this was probably an IED emplacement team but he kept in mind the possibility an ambush in the beginning stages of formation. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be good. He passed the information on to the Team Leader and continued to monitor the men while Hassam screened the rest of the village for any other threats.

By now the initiative had passed from the insurgents to the Team, thanks to Jerry’s well-honed intuition and patience. Jerry and his partner set up an on-call precision strike from the platoon’s orbiting UAV, also locking in its thermal sights on the insurgents. Both thermal images were piped via the UAV down link into the Team Leader’s visual display inside his vehicle. Now the whole team was up to speed on the developing action.

The Team Leader traveling below accelerated his two infantry fighting vehicles and moved off the main road, going around the ridge line to another seldom used approach to the village. The silent electric drive of the vehicles allowed the team to approach unheard and unseen as they nosed into the village. Jerry’s thermals and the thermal sensor aboard the Team UAV kept constant watch over the prospective insurgents looking for any sign that they might be alerted. Jerry and his leader watched as the enemy team implanted the massive IED on the approach road, covered the detonating wire and returned to their safe house to wait for dawn and the approach of the Americans.

Now the action ran just like a well practiced play: the Team leader held fire until the enemy is completely inside the thick walled structure to lessen the probability of collateral damage. The Team vehicles split and approached the building from opposite sides, effectively covering all exits. On order Jerry launched the UAV’s on-board missile from his distant perch and watched as the thermal image in his viewfinder “whited out” with the explosion. Dust from the explosion engulfed the Teams as they rushed from their vehicles a half second after the explosion. They only had to move a few feet to kick in both doors of the insurgent hideout. A few quick double shots and the insurgent leader and his three followers were dead. The entire action took less than half a minute and was much easier than the easiest day in Movie Town or Playas. The play worked just as they had practiced it.

Jerry’s performance during the “overwatch” mission and others like it propelled him to higher levels of responsibility during the Team’s remaining six months in combat. Everyone on the team clearly recognized Jerry’s extraordinary tactical field sense, his ability like a pro point guard to know where all the players were and how to make the right play. They respected his innate leadership abilities and willingness to take risk. When the Coach, now their Squad Leader, was wounded and evacuated a few weeks into the rotation, the company leadership had no difficulty selecting Jerry to take over.

Once in charge Jerry sensed a change in his relationship with his teammates. He took over from a legend and he was sensitive to fitting into a very big pair of boots. Although they all had bonded so closely during their time together that they had become like brothers, and even though they recognized that Jerry was the right one for the job, he now was a bit different. He knew he had to work hard to retain the right balance in their relationship.

But as the Coach had told him, he wasn’t alone, even in his new position. The isolation of leadership was mitigated to considerable degree through his access to the Team’s expansive virtual soldier social network. The military was slow to follow civilian society in adapting to the opportunities to connect individuals virtually using cellular technologies. But now that the network was mature Jerry had access to a virtual community of expertise connected electronically across the globe.

Jerry had to draw on all these assets and test all his considerable talents a few weeks after taking command. The company commander had determined that since they had destroyed the insurgent IED team the area was sufficiently secure to allow an extended sweep. The objective was to hold a Medcap in a distant village, passing though numerous other villages to show their presence on the way to the objective. It was a complex and dangerous mission with many opportunities for trouble. Jerry coached his team, clearly outlining his intent and was pleased when the team caught his enthusiasm, despite the danger. For a second he felt the Coach nodding in approval. Just before pulling out of Fire Base Tiger Jerry took a moment to check the small convoy of armored fighting vehicles lined up behind him. Then he dropped into his vehicle to go over the game plan and audibles with his virtual friends one last time. He said “Online” into his helmet phone and a familiar voice drowned out the rush of background noise:

“Jerry, how are you?”

“I’m OK, Martha, just a little stressed thinking about what’s out there in front of us. This is my first mission in command and I can feel the team watching me. I’m almost more concerned about what they think than I am about the enemy. As you know the bad guys have been quiet lately…”

“Martha” was a pseudonym for the Pastun interpreter connected to Jerry through the online hookup. She had his back and he could express his concerns to her without fear it would be seen as a sign of weakness. More importantly, she knew a lot that could help him. She was born near Fire Base Tiger and had immigrated to the states just a few years ago. Today’s foray would also take his team into Hazara country so “Mike,” a Hazaran fluent in that dialect was standing by on the line as well. With quiet competence the conversation turned to the immediate task at hand. The principal mentor and shift supervisor for this particular mission came on the line and introduced the team assembled for today’s mission:

“You’ve not taken this route before, Jerry, so Tim will be your terrain guy today. He’s monitoring from DC and as you know he’s been over this route a hundred times. Your S-2 told you about the evolving IED threat. It’s fluid and changing constantly. George, from JIEDDO University in Newport News is on the line to follow your route using your video stream and will look for anomalies in the ground. He’ll also inform you of all the latest IED hot spots. I’d like to introduce Sam from Minneapolis. He’s a soldier wounded recently in a fire fight along your route and he’ll punch in as you get closer to your expected danger area. As usual we are standing by to connect you with your human terrain resources. So call us when you need them. Look, Jerry, we can tell from your most recent bio-feedback data that you and your team have been pushed by seven firefights in six weeks. So we’re monitoring your condition very closely. Good luck and we’re with you all the way.”

En route to their first objective the team sensed that the enemy was setting them up for another of the ubiquitous ambushes they had come to expect on the main road. Road movement was slow as the convoy stopped periodically to examine every roadside anomaly. The enemy exploited the Team’s caution by skittering across the hillsides on foot and by motorbike determined to set an ambush in front of them.

Their trained eyes augmented by the other sensors began picking up the danger signs. As they approached the first village on their route the online supervisor and Tim cut in: “OK, Jerry, from the UAV video cam we can see some disturbed terrain over the next two culverts. Your video cams should pick them up as you crest that hill in front of you. This disturbed ground fits the profile for IEDs. Look along the trees paralleling the road. Do you see any motorcycles or young men watching you?”

Jerry had sensed an anomaly in that direction and now focused on what Tim had seen on his screen. He halted the convoy which immediately took up protective positions as they had rehearsed so often. Jerry knew this without looking or giving an order and was able to continue to focus on the danger ahead.

“OK, this isn’t good,” Jerry muttered into the microphone. “What other options do you see?”

Tim conferred quickly with Martha, George and the rest of the team. “You can’t avoid going through the village in front of you but that doesn’t mean you have to stay on the road. Can you go around the culverts and still get to the village by another route?”

Jerry saw a narrow goat track to the left that crossed the ravines and then meandered through a row of houses. A brief glance at the UAV feed told him that the path eventually led to the village center. “Sure, turning left.” Jerry led his team the new route, concentrating hard on avoiding any other IEDs and listening very carefully to the play by play conversation from his virtual teammates. His actual teammates were all in the loop as well, monitoring the situation and automatically adjusting to the new plan and emerging dangers. The convoy snaked through the narrow streets. They emerged on the narrow pathway leading through the string of villages and farmsteads to the target village.

They entered the next village, a place no one from his team had visited before. In a rapid staccato voice Jerry described the scene to his human terrain team listening on the line, amplifying the view they had from the video stream. Sam, the wounded warrior, cut in to ask questions about how the villagers were dressed and where they were positioned inside the village. Everything looked normal to them all when suddenly Jerry detected a young man on a motorcycle, apparently dressed in typical insurgent garb, who seemed out of place and was watching them intently. Jerry focused his attention on him and slowly raised his weapon.

On his bio dashboard Tim read the tension in Jerry’s galvanic skin response, heart and breathing rate and ocular movement. “Hold on. He may not be a bad guy. Approach him carefully.”

Martha interceded: “Let me talk to him, Jerry.” The sergeant lowered his weapon slightly and passed a small palm sized microphone to the young man. By now the man looked a lot less threatening and a great deal more frightened. He also knew the deal and talked rapidly into the mike.

After a brief conversation in Pashto Martha conferred with the Human Terrain Team, then got back to the Team Leader:

“He’s OK, Jerry. He’s from a village in the next valley. Just visiting his fiancée. It’s the usual Pashtun dating ritual. No big deal.”

The village elders had been watching this mini drama play out in front of them and after tensions dissipated they apologized for the impetuous conduct of the loved-starved young suitor and thanked the team for not capturing or killing him. Jerry decided to build on this initial rapport and with the approval of his leadership and the virtual team conducted a mini-Medcap before moving on.

Over the next few days the Team moved comfortably if cautiously through a series of villages towards their objective. Relying on their own senses and excellent training, augmented always by their virtual teammates the Team managed to detect and avoid IEDs and ambushes. In some cases they were able to make the insurgents pay for their aggressiveness by well aimed missiles from their loitering UAV. But they did not allow themselves to be drawn into major engagements and continued with the mission. Showing they could get all the way to the objective and back would be more important to the regional security than just killing a few insurgents.

They traveled through two cultural zones yet maintained cultural awareness by switching team mentors, translators and human terrain teams to fit each environment. When they finally arrived at the target village Jerry’s team first established security per SOP and then scattered out to distribute medical supplies and conduct a Medcap. Slowly villagers appeared, a few at first, mostly elderly men, intent on understanding what these foreigners were all about. The team breathed easier when the children started popping out of the dwellings surrounding the village center. Martha reinforced what Jerry already knew: “As long as the kids are around the enemy isn’t.”

Periodically individual team members conferred by helmet phone about any condition that seemed out of the ordinary. Frequently they used Martha the interpreter for brief conversations with the villagers, gaining their confidence and gathering intelligence. The medic found a woman with an unfamiliar condition and the Team mentor connected him to an on call physician specialist in the States who offered advice on how to treat it.

In this region of the world devoid of ambient light and surrounded by high peaks night follows day abruptly. As the day waned the situation gradually changed. The running conversation between the team and their online mentors created a picture that was unsettling to those listening in. Off line Tim and George observed that too many villagers seemed to be making themselves scarce. No more children were around. Martha overheard a few strange and unfamiliar dialects that would normally not be present in the village. Young men appeared, sputtering by on motorbikes, circling the team casually. Tim the terrain guru observed that the village sat deeply embedded in a defile, the surrounding heights close enough to be within small arms range, a perfect opportunity for an insurgent attack. Tim accessed his database to confirm that two years ago several infantrymen from the 1^st Regiment were killed in an ambush in this same place.

Uncharacteristically the Team was so intent on finishing the day’s medical business that these anomalies appeared without causing alarm. Even Jerry’s normally hypersensitive antennae were down. Martha quickly alerted Jerry to the online team’s concerns and antennae came back up immediately. He recognized that something was changing for the worst. He immediately started pulling in his unit and conferred again with his mentors. “Look, I don’t know much about this area but something just doesn’t look right.” He outlined the anomalies the mentors were independently picking up and adding some of his own observations.

“We agree, Jerry. Think it’s time to make a polite and cautious exit.”

Jerry and his team were already shaking hands with the a few village elders still standing around. It was important to reinforce the positive impressions of the day and not show they were being run out of Dodge. The village elders faced an unfamiliar conundrum and conferred among themselves. These foreigners had given their tribesmen more medical treatment in a day than the enemy had offered in a decade. Martha overheard one grateful whisper in carefully nuanced language giving an indirect warning that the village may be a different place after midnight, and the foreigner’s generosity might be poorly repaid on their trip home.

Jerry knew it was time to leave. To stay would mean a certain firefight before dawn. He was confident his men, even though heavily outnumbered, could win that fight with the fire support they could call on. But to stay and fight would mean taking casualties, both of their own and among the villagers. A fight would probably destroy the village and any rapport they had created. All agreed it was better to leave now, but in an orderly manner – no panic or confusion. Tim online suggested a possible return route far away from the route by which they entered.

The new course was little more than a goat track, difficult and certainly hazardous, but equally unexpected. Both the Team and its online colleagues agreed that the harder route would throw off the enemy and minimize the chance of ambush or IEDs. Jerry led his team out in darkness, guided along the way by a new group of concerned and engaged professionals. This new route would take them into a completely different sub-culture and the virtual mentors half a world away were familiar with the culture, dialect, terrain and enemy in the region they are about to traverse.

During the tense trip home Jerry maintained a constant dialog with his online handlers. New voices came on board periodically to provide precise guidance as Jerry and his team moved through at least three distinct micro regions. They used speed as their ally now, bypassing villages in the dark and avoiding suspicious areas. At daybreak the Team arrived home drained from the constant tension but intensely appreciative of the expert counsel offered by their online friends.

Once safely inside the wire the Team automatically cleared and secured all weapons and then moved directly to the platoon trailer for their end of mission AAR. Years of close combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan had caused a shift in the conduct and purpose of the AARs. The Team would still go through the Darwinian dialectical exercise of self critique that had proven so valuable in years past. But by now the AAR was used as a platform for analyzing the emotional climate of the Team members as well. Each AAR took the form of a seminar. The partner unit in the states watched the proceedings at the other end of their soldier networking system and occasionally chimed in with suggestions and observations. The network “concierge” located in the States was an experienced small unit leader who provided the continuity between rotating units and acted as the facilitator for the AAR. Virtually present was the ubiquitous white coat crowd of psychologists, physiologists, and human terrain specialists from Battle School days. They mostly watched and took notes for a later confidential assessment with the company and battalion leadership.

The facilitator’s image and carefully modulated voice filled the platoon AAR trailer as he led them through the mission. He was a skilled psychologist and the bio data overwhelmingly suggested to him that the Team may have reached an emotional limit after so many back-to-back forays into the countryside, especially one as long and intense as this one. After consulting with his emotional and behavioral colleagues the facilitator offered a brief report to Jerry’s battalion commander expressing his concerns about the emotional health of his charges. The battalion commander, while detached from Jerry’s team by hundreds of kilometers, was able to stay in touch using his “dashboard” device, an instrument that monitored, stored and displayed over a hundred biological, physiological, psychological and emotional indicators on each individual team member and leader. This information was enough to convince him that a two day stand-down was in order for the team. For now the war could wait. The emotional health of his soldiers was more important than another foray into hostile country.