 |
National Guardsman taps 9-11, Iraq and Afghan experience to support infantry brigades
by Lt. Col. Paul Fanning
NY NG State PAO
A New York National Guard Soldier with homeland security experience and service in both Iraq and Afghanistan is now performing a critical role in the Army’s latest effort to support and improve its infantry forces.
Maj. John-Michael Insetta helped organize and lead the New York National Guard’s airport security mission at Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports in New York City following the 2001 terrorist attacks, went on to command an infantry company in Iraq in 2004 and then served as the brigade Plans Officer for the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix VII in Afghanistan in 2007-8.
Now he is the deputy director and National Guard liaison officer for the Infantry Brigade Combat Team Warfighters’ Forum based at Fort Bragg — a new approach to sharing vital information “at the speed of battle” throughout the Army’s infantry community. The mission — support combat leaders, improve training and facilitate lessons learned by identifying issues, analyzing and researching causes and potential solutions then rapidly moving information among the players force-wide.
“What a great way this is for me to assist the Guard and the Army of the future,” Insetta said.
“We knew right off the bat we had the right guy for this job and since joining us he has proved it,” said retired Col. Red Scott A. Harris, who served as the IBCT Warfighters’ Forum director until September, 2009 and now serves as an advisor.
“We fought to get a National Guard guy for this office and John-Michael’s pedigree is perfect,” said Harris who spent 22 years as an infantry officer with assignments in the Ranger Regiment and 82nd Airborne Division. “He’s got credibility, especially with the Guard and also with the active component,” he said.
“We know that this forum has to be as relevant to the National Guard as it needs to be to the active component because the Guard is now deploying as much as we are,” Harris explained. “When I retired, he easily filled in as interim director and was superb,” he added.
The roots of the various warfighter forums for stryker, heavy and infantry brigade combat teams go back to 2006 as the Army began fielding these formations as evolutionary developments in force structure. The Army’s I Corps, III Corps and XVIII Airborne Corps would serve as the senior mentors for their respective formations. The IBCT formations fell under the XVIII Airborne Corps.
The forums were an important ingredient to a larger plan for a program of record to staff, fund, provide authority and connectivity as these formations were trained and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal is to provide a conduit of information on operational experience that can be shared amid the commands and formations as fast as possible in the information age. The challenge was to do this outside the normal Army bureaucracy, which can slow progress whats staying connected with the institutional Army to effect sustainable change and improvement.
“Traditionally our processes are just not fast enough,” said Harris who emphasized that an Army at war can’t waste time. He described how the Stryker infantry fighting vehicle community had a shell of the forum program working in order to rapidly affect changes in formations being built around what is essentially a new weapon system for the Army. “We have got to be early adapters and get inside the enemy’s decision cycle. That means we have to beat our own bureaucracy,” he added.
The Warfighters’ forum uses unit visits, surveys, newsletters and the Internet to develop and build interpersonal relationships, train, gather important information and share lessons learned. It serves as a coordinating agency between the various participants from divisions and brigades to training assistance groups and more. The forum staff includes analysts and advisors with considerable experience to tap into the Army’s functional areas for answers. The objective is to foster evolutionary change from within as quickly as possible.
“I had gone back to work after I got home from Afghanistan in the January time frame,” said Insetta. “But I wasn’t re-integrating well back in the civilian world,” he explained noting that he had spent years in various forms of state and federal duty as a Guard Soldier culminating in his assignment as the 27th Brigade Plans officer for its deployment to Afghanistan. The Department of Defense presented his command a Joint Meritorious Unit Award in September for its accomplishments in 2008 to train and mentor the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police. It was a mission that he had devoted nearly two years of his life to through the pre-mobilization and post mobilization period and nearly 10 months in theater.
“With a fourth child on the way, my wife and I decided I needed to pursue my military career further. It’s what I know best. Then I got an email that came from Colonel Harris that basically said that he was looking for a Guard officer with deployment experience in both Iraq and Afghanistan for a very special assignment,” he said. “I started on May 4th, 2009.”
“So far, I have visited three division headquarters, two IBCTs and conducted a post combat survey with an active — duty infantry brigade,” said Insetta, who is just hitting the middle of his first year of a three — year assignment at Fort Bragg.
“I absolutely believe that this is one of the greatest programs the Army has come up with,” said Insetta. “We flatten out the bureaucracy to bring about change. My customers are the IBCTs and I am the voice of the Guard at the IWfF.”
“This is where I need to be,” he added.
|
|
|
