Photo By Maj. William Carraway | Flanked by artillery pieces on the Chalmette Battlefield, Capt. Byron Coley, Master...... read more read more
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Soldiers of the Georgia National Guard’s Logistics Directorate conducted a staff ride of the New Orleans Battlefield October 24-27, 2024. The purpose of the staff ride was to consider lessons of logistics that confronted battlefield commanders of the past and how those lessons echo into the modern era of warfare.
For months prior to the staff ride, the Soldiers reviewed the War of 1812 from a strategic and tactical perspective. These months of study and preparation were synthesized during a walk on the original ground of the Battle of New Orleans fought January 8, 1815.
Each Soldier brought recent combat experience from previous deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan to the 130-year-old battlefield . Fresh in the Soldier’s memories were Hurricane Helene response operations, in which more than 2,000 Georgia National Guard Soldiers and Airmen conducted more than 100 missions in 35 impacted counties including debris clearance and relief supply staging, transportation, and distribution.
Soldiers took turns briefing subjects such as the strategic overview, challenges of supply and communications, and presented the plans of the commanders of both sides. Discussions, facilitated by the Georgia National Guard’s command historian, challenged the Soldiers on how problems of planning, coordination, and military intelligence contributed to the outcome of the battle with Soldiers considering the Principles of War in their answers.
On the day following their New Orleans staff ride, the Soldiers converged on the National World War II Museum where additional discussions focused on battles involving Georgia National Guard units. Soldiers reviewed the Battle of Mortain where the Georgia National Guard’s 118th and 230th Field Artillery Battalions were key to the stubborn defense of the 30th Infantry Division against a determined German counterattack. An exhibit dedicated to Staff Sgt. John Minick, Medal of Honor recipient from the Georgia National Guard’s 121st Infantry Regiment, provided an opportunity to review the actions of the 121st from Normandy to the Hurtgen Forest where Minick’s actions resulted in his posthumous award of the Medal of Honor 80 years ago.
The discussions at the National World War II Museum were particularly poignant as the 121st and 118th are currently overseas as part of their fourth combat deployment since September 11, 2001. Soldiers present for the staff ride and museum visit had previously served in these and other units of the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The command historian related how these units had been affected by mobilization in 1940 in which more than 5,000 Soldiers of the Georgia National Guard were activated, and how the division realignment that followed altered the trajectory of unit mobilization. Ultimately, more than 50 units from seven Georgia National Guard battalions served in the European Theater while more than 20 units served in the Pacific. Georgia National Guard units that participated in the division realignment of 1942 are part of the current division realignment, Thus the lessons of the past are immediately relevant to the Army of the future.
| Date Taken: | 10.28.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.28.2024 15:46 |
| Story ID: | 484080 |
| Location: | NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US |
| Hometown: | MARIETTA, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 47 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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