Photo By Sgt. Maj. Kimberly Cooper | I Corps’ Deputy Commanding General, Maj. Gen. Matthew McFarlane led a panel...... read more read more
Washington D.C. -- In a rapidly evolving global landscape, America's First Corps is pivotal in ensuring the U.S. Army's readiness in the Indo-Pacific region. At the annual Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) symposium, 14-16 October 2024, leaders from the U.S. Army's Pacific Command (USARPAC), First Corps and Eighth Army took the stage to share how they, through Operation Pathways, are actively generating strategic, operational, and tactical readiness in the theatre. As a campaigning initiative, Operation Pathways reflects the U.S. Army’s broader objective of ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific. As part of this effort, America's First Corps is at the forefront of driving readiness in this complex region.
A Critical Mission in a Strategic Theater
Addressing attendees in AUSA’s sprawling exhibit hall, Maj. Gen. Matthew W. McFarlane, the Deputy Commanding General for First Corps, highlighted that Operation Pathways is the cornerstone of I Corps' approach to building and sustaining combat-credible forces in the Indo-Pacific.
Echoing remarks made by senior U.S. Army leaders throughout the symposium, Maj. Gen. McFarlane reiterated that the next war won’t be like the last.
“The character of war is evolving,” said McFarlane, “and we’re going to be deliberate about the lessons we pull out of history and apply to today’s fight. We need to make deliberate decisions about how we’re transforming our Army as we move to ensure we win in the next fight.”
Drawing on lessons from the Battle of Buna-Gona in World War II, a battle where Soldiers learned the realities of the theater’s unique terrain, climate, and natural diseases in real time in 1942, McFarlane highlighted how victory was hard won against not just a determined adversary, but also against the unique challenges inherent of conducting combat operations in the archipelagos of the Indo-Pacific.
McFarlane’s message was clear, in that, to be ready in a theater as dynamic and unique as the Indo-Pacific, First Corps needs to understand the region and it needs to train alongside the partners and allies who operate in the region every day. Operation Pathways is how First Corps achieves combat readiness.
Operation Pathways “is over 40 different exercises with 12 countries where we apply the readiness that we built at home stations, and where we continue to build operational and tactical readiness as we learn from our partners and as they learn from us,” said McFarlane.
Stressing how the Soldiers who fought in the Indo-Pacific during World War II learned the realities of the theater in real time, McFarlane highlighted how First Corps experienced similar realities when training alongside the Philippine Army for exercises Balikatan and Salaknib over 80-years later. Describing challenges of weather, density of jungles impacting signal and sustainment, and geography, “we learned again, as I mentioned with Buna-Gona, that the terrain is steep. But we learned,” through training alongside the Philippine Army, that “water buffaloes are a great way to move supplies across steep jungle terrain and through gulches. The Philippine Army were using water buffaloes, and we started to do the same.”
“We are learning from our partners on the different ways not just to survive in the environment, but to thrive in the environment.”
Operation Pathways, said McFarlane, “is a great opportunity for us, our Soldiers and leaders, to exercise operational maneuver where we can, and then continue to build the tactical proficiencies we need to deter the next fight, and be ready to dominate if the first battle comes.”
Strengthening Alliances Through Interoperability
One of the central aspects of Operation Pathways is enhancing interoperability and understanding with Indo-Pacific partners and allies. By participating in regular exercises like the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) and trilateral exercises like Yama Sakura, I Corps ensures that U.S. forces and their regional counterparts are routinely postured in the region and prepared to operate as part of a combined and joint force. This readiness is achieved through joint readiness initiatives, ranging from simulated exercises, humanitarian drills, weapons ranges, live fire exercises, multinational airborne jumps, and emergency deployment readiness exercises (EDREs), which all test the Corps' ability to rapidly project, sustain, and coordinate combat power in times of crisis.
Highlighting how Operation Pathways builds readiness by training alongside allies and partners, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hilbert, Commanding General for the 11th Airborne Division, shared that, “Just like JPMRC in Hawaii, which is focused on the jungle environment for the 25th Infantry Division, we’re focused on the Arctic environment at JPMRC Alaska.”
Like Pathways exercises west of the International Dateline, JPMRCs Alaska, Hawaii, and a rotating exportable campus provide the opportunity to invite joint and multinational partners and allies to train in the diverse environments of both the tropics and the Arctic.
Speaking on JPRMC Alaska, Hilbert said, “We have our allies and partners that will be with us. We’ll have Canada, we have Nepal and Mongolia. They will all be participating with us, as well as our observers from our allies in the Nordic regions, as well as across the Pacific.”
“So, we generate that combat power at JPMRC Alaska as a collective training event, and then we’re going to apply it on Operation Pathways.”
Describing JPMRC Hawaii, Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, Commanding General for the 25th Infantry Division, spoke via a pre-recorded message from the Hawaii training center about the lessons that the joint and multinational troops of the current rotation were learning.
“They’re focused on warfighting readiness, they’re focused on partnerships with multinational partners, and we’re evaluating them on how well they can see the enemy, sense the environment they’re operating in, how well they can strike with the increased lethality, how well they can sustain themselves, protect themselves, and execute mission command.”
“It’s a tremendous time to be able to train this in the archipelago environment with joint and multinational partners,” said Evans.
Speaking on training and readiness opportunities west of the International Dateline, Brig. Gen. Joseph Ewers, Deputy Commanding General (Support), 7th Infantry Division, shared that the division’s support to the Korea Rotational Force (KRF) mission provides the chance to build interoperability and enhance human and procedural understanding while generating readiness on the Korean Peninsula.
“We found a real gold mine in the KRF mission set. Our teammates at Eighth Army and Second Infantry Division and our ROK partners are excellent gold-standard partners who have world-class training environments,” said Ewers.
“Our Stryker Brigade Combat Teams are building readiness in order to sustain readiness overall, to not only deliver a ready formation there, but to return back to home station with excellent experiences from that time.”
Sustaining the Force in the Indo-Pacific
Another critical component of Operation Pathways is enhancing the logistical capabilities required to support sustained operations in the Indo-Pacific. Describing logistics support during Operation Pathways and the unique challenges of providing sustainment in such a dispersed theater, Brig. Gen. Kevin Cotman, Commanding General for the 593rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, shared that it all begins with the reps from home station.
“It comes to understanding the requirements that the units need when they’re going to operate west of the International Date Line, and also building the Unit Deployment List (UDL), that load plan for the fort to port mission, making sure that we’re loading that vessel right, and making sure it can support the operational plan,” said Cotman.
“The other part is Joint Reception Staging Onward Movement and Integration (JRSOI) on the other end, and making sure that we understand the capability and capacity that our allies and partners can help us with when it comes to downloading that equipment and moving it to a tactical assembly area…us working with our partners gives us that understanding of the capability that we need when we are executing our mission when it comes to our partner’s territory.”
“That is a good thing that we do when it comes to Operation Pathways. We build sustainment tasks into the operation, whether through Joint Logistics over the Shore (JLOTS), whether Joint Petroleum Logistics over the Shore (JPOTS), we’re making sure we’re exercising in that environment, and understanding the restrictions and constraints of executing sustained operations.”
Validated sustainment operations are critical to the Corps' ability to operate in a geographically dispersed and resource-intensive environment like the Indo-Pacific. Operation Pathways ensures that First Corps' sustainment capabilities are continually tested and validated through repeated rehearsals and experimentation of joint logistics operations throughout the region.
Ensuring Future Readiness
As America's First Corps focuses on readiness in the Indo-Pacific, the Army's larger mission of transforming for a complex world is evident in every aspect of Operation Pathways. From building interoperability with allies to enhancing logistical support, First Corps ensures that the U.S. Army is prepared for future conflicts in this critical region.
Throughout this symposium, I Corps underpinned that Operation Pathways demonstrates the Army's commitment to strengthening alliances and ensuring that U.S. forces are ready to compete and prevail in a region that is increasingly central to global security. America's First Corps is building a force prepared to meet tomorrow's challenges by focusing on readiness, innovation, and joint partnerships.
| Date Taken: | 10.16.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.16.2024 18:42 |
| Story ID: | 483274 |
| Location: | WASHINGTON D.C., US |
| Web Views: | 89 |
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This work, Generating Readiness, Interoperability in Indo-Pacific through Operation Pathways, by MAJ Matthew Pargett, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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