News

Trust vital to efficient military operations

  • Published
  • By Col. T. Eugene Willett
  • 14th Mission Support Group commander
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  I spent more than seven months as an advisor to an Iraqi army base commander, and I would like to share an observation with you.

As you can imagine I learned a lot about the Iraqi army, but my observation is not about the Iraqi military -- it is about our military. I witnessed first hand how important trust is to our position as the most powerful military in history.

First, I want to state that I do not claim to be an expert on the Iraqi army or on Iraq in general.

My experience is limited to a place about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad where I spent my seven-month tour.

My contact with Iraqis was limited to the Iraqi soldiers, interpreters and civilians I had day-to-day contact with on and around the base.

I traveled throughout Iraq, but it was mostly in an armored vehicle; I did not have much of an opportunity to chat with the local populace. I saw most of Iraq through the windshield of my vehicle.

But, I had a very close and personal view of my piece of Iraq -- Kirkush Military Training Base. Kirkush is an Iraqi Army basic training base not far from the Iranian border. Built in the early 1980s, it is one-third the size of Columbus AFB and has about 10,000 people living on it. Kirkush is the home of an army training brigade tasked to produce soldiers for the new Iraqi army.

In addition, there are several tenant units on base, to include an infantry division headquarters with one of its brigades and three battalions. The base is run by a base commander -- the brigadier general I advised.

The base commander's job is very much like mine here at Columbus -- mission support group commander. He is responsible for everything involving the operation and maintenance of the base. He executes his duties with the help of his staff and base support units -- about 800 troops in all. However, he has one big handicap: he does not trust his troops. This distrust is not unique to him; it is part of the Iraqi culture. The Iraqi hierarchy of trust appeared to be family first, tribe next, then long time friends. Strangers are not to be trusted. The result is that delegation of authority in the military is very limited.

This lack of delegation significantly reduced the base commander's effectiveness. To his credit, he ran the base fairly well; not as efficiently as he could have if he trusted his troops, but as good as it could be run under the circumstances.

As you can imagine I spent a lot of time thinking about trust in our own military. Trust is the cornerstone of everything we do in our military. I do not need to personally know a troop to trust them.

If he is in my military, I assume he is competent and trustworthy. He has my trust right from the start, because I trust in our system. I trust that our system recruits, trains and promotes the right people.

I have deployed many times in my career, and upon arriving at a location I immediately began delegating authority to troops that were total strangers to me. But I must admit, I never thought much about it until I went to Iraq. There are many things that make us the most powerful military in the world, but one of the most significant things is trust.