Doctrine in the Field

During a video teleconference this morning, a colleague pointed to a figure on the screen and told me a little about him.  The person about whom he spoke was COL (P) Wayne Grigsby whose current assignment is at the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth.  My colleague had knowledge of then LTC Grigsby's experiences in Baghdad during the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  While researching Grigsby's exploits, I came across an interview of COL Grigsby conducted in 2008 when he was a brigade combat team commander in Iraq.  As a doctrine writer, I appreciated his allusion to sound doctrine near the bottom of this excerpt:


DoD News Briefing with Col. Grigsby from Iraq

(Note: Col. Grigsby appears live via teleconference from Baghdad.)

COLONEL GARY KECK (press officer, Department of Defense): Okay. Good morning, everyone. I'm Colonel Gary Keck. You all pretty much know me here.

And it's my privilege to introduce to you today again Colonel Wayne Grigsby, commander of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. Colonel Grigsby, as you know, has been serving with his brigade in Multinational Division Center for over a year. And they are due to depart pretty soon. He was last with us in February and he's coming to us from Camp Victory today.

Fortunately we're glad to actually see him and hear him today. He's been making quite an effort to talk to us this past week or so. And we're glad we have him. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Colonel Grigsby for his opening comments. And then we'll go to Q&A.

With that, to you, Wayne.

COL. GRIGSBY: Okay. Thanks, Gary.

Good morning, and thanks for joining us today. As already introduced, I am Hammer Six, Colonel Wayne W. Grigsby, Jr., the commander of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, the Sledgehammer Brigade, out of Fort Benning, Georgia.

As you probably already know, we are the most deployed brigade in the United States Army, with 41 months deployed since '02. And now nearing the end, of a 15-month deployment here in Iraq, as part of Multinational Division Center, the 3rd Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Rick Lynch.

We deployed in March of '07 to the Madain qadha just east of Baghdad as the third of five surge brigades. Like much of the Multinational Division Center, we were tasked with interdicting accelerants as they moved or were moved towards Baghdad.

By stopping bad guys and bombs at the main pathways, into Baghdad from the east, we intended on contributing to the reduction in violence, in Baghdad but also in the communities of the qadha that we came to secure. We were basically checking ID cards at the eastern door of Baghdad.

And you can both see and feel the transformation of the Madain qadha just east of Baghdad. I think if you look back on the past 15 months, you can see that we most definitely accomplished our purpose of contributing to a reduction in violence, in Baghdad, and stabilizing the communities of the Madain qadha.

When we arrived, violent crime was out of control. Shop owners were extorted by criminal elements, and we were getting attacked about four to five times a day.

In our time here, murders have declined by greater than 50 percent, from 631 in '06 to 253 in '07. Shop owners are selling their goods in revitalized markets and we are now down to maybe one attack every other day.

We accomplished this by conducting doctrinally correct, sound, full-spectrum counterinsurgency operations on the fundamental base of conducting aggressive, intel-driven combat offensive operations. We wanted to bloody the nose of the enemy and make them fear us. We did bloody the nose of the enemy and the enemy does fear us, both coalition forces and Iraqi security forces.

We never forgot what a U.S. Army heavy brigade combat team is built to do: to close with and destroy the enemy. We killed 160 enemy combatants, detained more than 500 suspected criminals, 47 of which were division and brigade high-level individuals, or "most wanted." And we cleared every enemy sanctuary that existed prior to our arrival.