COVER STORY

Combat decision-making learned in cyberspace

By Phillip Thompson

Times staff writer

QUANTICO, Va.

Decisions, decisions.

LCpl. Marcus Treiber, 22, had to make a bunch of them. One about every two minutes, in fact, and each had life or death consequences.

Treiber, an infantryman in The Basic School's Enlisted Instructor Co., participated April 23 in a multimedia tactical decision-making exercise designed to put an infantry squad leader into a variety of combat situations and make him think on his feet.

The computerized system is loaded with still photos and video footage from actual combat, war movies and news reports. As the visuals are projected onto a screen, the would-be squad leader must make decisions -- about 30 in an hourlong scenario - to respond to what's happening in front of him, said Frank Jordan, head of the Commandant's Warfighting Lab's Wargaming Division.

Jordan has worked since January to develop the system.

'We got the idea from New York City firefighters who used a similar system, and theirs was based on a real fire," Jordan said.

Besides the urban scenario that Treiber saw, Jordan's division is busy expanding the role-play to include battalion and regimental staffs in different types of environments.

The idea, Jordan said, is to put each scenario on a separate CD-ROM that can be easily loaded and run on a personal computer.

Squad leaders can use pull-down, on-screen menus to select his equipment, weapons and ammunition -- a step that Treiber was unaccustomed to in his former days as a squad leader in Okinawa.

"I was really surprised that I was allowed to pick my own weapons and ammo," he said. "But that's the way it should be. The gear for the squad leader ought to be picked by the squad leader.

The exercise is run by a "facilitator" who controls from a keyboard and acts as higher headquarters and the supporting arms. The squad leader receives a mission brief from an on-screen infantry officer, then sets off on patrol.

 

Intellectual stimulation

For Treiber, the training is exactly the kind of intellectual stimulation needed for squad leaders.

"This starts a whole process of learning," he said. "I've seen officers talking tactics at Shoney's, and they'll do it for hours. And when they're talking they're learning."

And that's exactly what Jordan and Capt. Brendan McBreen hope all squad leaders take from the training.

"We're trying to give these guys situations that make them say, 'OK, I've seen this before,"' said McBreen, project officer for the prospective Combat Squad Leader's Course, which will include a heavy emphasis on tactical decision-making.

That kind of familiarity makes squad leaders better able to make automatic decisions when it counts, said Cpl. Jamie Aitken, another former Okinawa squad leader who has been through the TDG -- tactical decision-making game.

"Supporting arms, the call for fire, [those topics] should be rammed down their throats so they know what to do," he said.

So far the system has been greeted with rave reviews, even though it's still being developed, Jordan said. A recent demonstration at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was so successful that the 2nd Marine Division wants to see it again, and even put platoon commanders through the scenarios.