Military Review English Edition November December 2016 | Page 111

PACIFIC PATHWAYS

quantified in a unit status report or a Government
Accountability Office audit. The same can be said of
the deterrence effort Pathways simultaneously supports; Pathways is a whole greater than the sum of its
parts. From an operating tempo perspective, Pacific
Pathways is sustainable, since the associated deployments are roughly ninety days. Our soldiers and leaders
regard a Pathways deployment as a mission with a
clearly defined and tangible purpose, and not just
another tasking. As I interact more and more with our
younger deployed soldiers, NCOs, and officers, this
observation becomes unquestionable. It is exactly what
they thought they would be doing in the Army: forward deployed, operating continually, mission-focused,
and ready. This type of readiness contributes directly
to Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Mark A. Milley’s
number one priority.4
Observation #2: Flexible response options for
the USPACOM and the theater land force commanders. The capabilities forward deployed and resident in the BCT, aviation TF, and logistics TF, coupled with their associated mission-command nodes
and enabling expeditionary communication access,
provide several credible options for the USARPAC
and USPACOM commanders. This unique mix
and forward positioning of capabilities, experience,
technical skills, and environmental understanding has
created the initial framework necessary to seize and
maintain the initiative. Examples range from battalion
TFs training and partnering with host-nation forces
during combined-arms live-fire exercises (CALFEXs),
to aviation TFs supporting operations and fighting
wild fires that threatened U.S. and partner-nation
people and property, to our BCT and division command posts forming the nucleus of a mission-command node for any emerging situation. The division
early-entry command post is structured to rapidly
grow into a joint-task-force-capable node with few
modifications and additional assets. This flexibility
offers a myriad of options for our joint and Army
commanders, and the partner nations we support.
Observation #3: Readiness is job one—building readiness at echelon. Participation in Pacific
Pathways builds soldier, leader, and unit readiness.
This statement can be summarily addressed by relating
a conversation I had with a BCT commander and
two of his battalion commanders. I as ked them, “Are
MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2016

you more ready today then before you deployed and
why?” The BCT commander responded emphatically,
“Absolutely.” He explained further by saying that at the
combat training centers, commanders have an opportunity to stress their units, and the units truly begin
to see themselves. But, during a Pathways exercise,
they not only get to see themselves, they also get to see
and understand their force, their soldiers and leaders,
in the actual environment where they would have to
operate and potentially fight.
Not only are our soldiers conducting live-fire
exercises more frequently during a Pathway than they
would typically conduct at home station, but they
are executing this training in a foreign country, on
nonstandard ranges, and under a plethora of adverse
conditions. I have observed several battalion operation
officers and company commanders build remarkable
squad and platoon live-fire lanes in host-nation training areas. I have seen young platoon leaders explain to
their partner platoons, sometimes through an interpreter and sometimes through a drawing in the dirt,
the fundamentals and importance of surface danger
zones. Our young soldiers are focused, motivated, and
diligently working to master their craft, regardless of
the environmental factors.
At the corps, division, and BCT levels, we are in a
continual state of mission command, executing countless repetitions, jumping command posts from country
to country, and learning valuable lessons. After seven
Pathways, our forces have entered and exited foreign
ports in excess of forty times—an example of how
we learn to overcome enemy anti-access/area denial
capabilities with speed. These repetitions are critical to
building readiness in real time.
An unintended outcome of Pathways was the spiral
development of materiel solutions. Problems such
as communications in triple-canopy jungle, ground
mobility across host-nation road networks, and the
requirement for region-specific soldier equipment
would not have surfaced were it not for our presence
in the theater. By discovering these shortcomings now
and rapidly sourcing and providing solutions, we are
saving time and money while also contributing to Gen.
Milley’s priority number two, the “Future Army.”5
Observation #4: The three Rs—relationship
building, rehearsals, and reconnaissance. Because of
Pacific Pathways deployments, the leaders of our BCTs
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