Jerry Smith’s War: 2025

Every one in his chain of command realized that Jerry had earned his spurs as a small unit leader during his four months as the Coach’s replacement. During the week-long end of tour AAR his leadership made the decision to send Jerry to Leader School. Normally two rotations were required for such an assignment, but Jerry was far above average. They could afford to tailor the requirements to meet someone of his qualifications. Jerry was elated by the news: successful completion of the sixteen weeks course would guarantee another significant close combat bonus and the privilege of commanding his old squad as a newly minted sergeant first class. And he was particularly gratified when the squad let him know they too welcomed the news and looked forward to his returning to lead them.

Jerry knew that being nominated for Leader School didn’t mean that being accepted was automatic. This was like a draft of truly “blue chip” players and no one would make the cut without a painfully detailed process far more discriminating than Battle School. The committee carefully replayed every aspect of Jerry’s team performance both in battle school and in his team’s combat experiences. They conducted a series of 360 degree evaluations of his performance and paid particular attention to the observations of his virtual network colleagues. Behavioralists both in field and on the network were asked to attest to Jerry’s demonstrated leadership qualities and his ability to make intuitive tactical decisions in extremis. On campus the white coat crew appeared again to put Jerry through an exhaustive set of personality and emotional fitness instruments intended to reinforce the observations of leaders, peers, subordinates, and disinterested observers from the virtual community.

Final selection included a return to Movie Town facility, this time to evaluate the ability of the candidates to make life or death decisions based on virtual replays of some of the team’s most stressful previous engagements. To Jerry this was Movie Town on steroids. For one thing there was real risk involved in each turn through the simulator. Live fire situations were much closer in time and space. Scenarios grew increasingly complex and chaotic with false commands, disinformation, and enemy trick plays thrown in constantly. The committee turned up the rheostat steadily so that each leader candidate had only minutes to plan and split seconds to make complex decisions. Scenes inside the set were horribly bloody and ambiguity was the norm. Although every candidate was a successful combat infantryman, each agreed at the end of the course that these tours through this version of Movie Town were far more frightening and intimidating than their worst day in actual combat.

Jerry made the cut. Leader School was a soldier’s ultimate reward for excellence, essentially a sixteen week’s sabbatical intended as a post graduate immersion in the tactical arts. The school was a national Institution established to proliferate knowledge gained by the Army and Marine Corps in two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jerry’s class consisted not just of his infantry peers but men and women from the Secret Service, Customs, Border Patrol, DEA, FBI and a multitude of civilian SWAT-like entities. Thus Jerry came to understand that the “band of brothers” effect applied to many institutions outside the military. All shared the common bond of having been tested, vetted and proven worthy to be there.

There was nothing primitive or harsh about Leader School. Accommodations were first class. Jerry lived in what the students called the “Taj Mahal”, a five star resort-like edifice compartmentalized into dozens of eleven man “pods”, each clustered about a central great room that housed flat screens and study carrels customized for each student.

Just like the Battle School every eleven person team was under the charge of a coach and seminar leader. These coaches were an eclectic lot collectively representing the small unit triad; Infantrymen, Marines and Special Operators augmented by a scattering of coaches from other federal agencies with extensive experience in close combat.

Jerry discovered that this group was far more collegial and intimate. His leader spoke with authority and empathy:

“Your first two years of service made you an apprentice. Battle School and combat made you journeymen in your trade. This place will make you a master of the tactical art of war. During your time here you will meet professional and college coaches, world class athletes, certified war heroes, and intellectuals who are the world’s leading authorities in leadership, fitness, culture, and small unit and individual behavior. Your evenings will be free to enjoy the company of these folks as well as your new ‘band of brothers.’ While your battle skills will surely improve, you’re here mainly to learn to be like us, to be coaches and mentors to the infantrymen you will soon lead in battle.”

Jerry had a tough time initially in Leader School. He was a tactical leader and an action junkie. But the requirement to become proficient in the very strange language and culture of the combat theater taxed him greatly. Equally challenging were the human science courses and coaching and therapy sessions. He had to learn an entirely new way of looking at warfare. He could no longer just think and react in the situation, a skill at which he had become adept. Now he had to be above the situation, seeing all the factors coming into it and how to mold them and his charges to the best advantage. It took awhile but he got it in time. His experience in Leader School served to lift the perceptual veil and opened to him the innate wisdom of the small unit learning philosophy. Now he understood the purpose of the white coat crowd and why the service took such great pains to understand the human, cultural and behavioral dimensions of close combat. In time Jerry would become a reasonably skilled psychologist, a gifted expert on human behavior as well as a world class leader and coach.

After duty each team dined together in the “Pod.” The Committee treated each evening session as a special communion with leaders and experts from an enormous variety of professions. Evenings with human and behavioral scientists made Jerry understand the method and logic of the white coat crowd. The Team conversed with native speakers in their language about the culture and geography of their home countries, learning to work effectively and seamlessly through translators to get the real message. Members of the Legion of Honor, recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor, recounted their experiences in past wars. Jerry appreciated the time taken by coaches and staff from NCAA and professional sports teams to explain the connection between his world and theirs.

Most of all Jerry and his teammates appreciated the time and resources his government was willing to devote to make him a better small unit leader and coach. The truth of this sentiment became startlingly apparent at graduation when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff awarded the class their diploma and new stripes and spoke to them with sincerity and humility:

“For most of my service our nation has asked too much of you and given too little back. We were a military too focused on winning big wars with big technology. We waited too long to discover the truth that the wars we were fighting then and are fighting now could only be won at your level, by high performing squads and platoons.

“I hope you understand that this school is a living testimony to the fact that we get it, that your leaders will devote resources in proportion to your sacrifices. Remember and guard well the lesson my generation was forced to learn at great expense: ‘Wars are won by people not machines’. We must have the right technology available to the combat soldier or marine to allow him to do his job, but to help him, not replace him. We as a nation can never again let our fascination with technology overshadow the need to win in close combat. Men willing to close with the enemy and destroy him with intelligence and courage ultimately make the difference between victory and defeat. Good luck, good hunting and God bless you all…”