Words Have Meaning: What it is to be a Combat Adviser
Written By MAJ Andy Neighbors
As 70Hs, we are the synchronizers of battlefield medicine. Like a Swiss army knife, we must be able to execute almost all jobs within the Medical Service Corps’ (MSC) arsenal. My name is MAJ Andy Neighbors and I am the Medical plans officer for Third Infantry Division, deployed in support of Operation Resolute Support, Afghanistan. Being a combat adviser is one of the top priorities of the Army, as demonstrated by the activation of the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) at Ft. Benning, GA with plans for two more to be built before the end of the year. Although this Brigade is new and the title of “combat adviser” is new, the mission is not. The US Army has fielded Military Training Teams, Stabilization Transition Teams (STT), Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha teams, Security Force Assistance Teams, and BCTs converted to SFABs. Each of these groups were established out of a recognition that advising foreign militaries is a key task in the exit strategy for the US military. All of these units have had the distinction of serving as combat advisers to the Iraqi defense forces or the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) throughout the past 14 years of war. I have had the honor to serve on an STT as the medical adviser to the 4th Iraqi Army Division Surgeon and currently as the medical adviser to the 202nd Zone Surgeon of the Afghan National Police.
As an adviser, you are the subject matter expert in all aspects of your field. Your counterpart expects you to help solve problems and provide guidance on a range of topics, spanning all ten medical functional areas. 70Hs are uniquely suited to the task of advising, as we coordinate every medical functional area through the operations process. This gives us a working knowledge of each area. You may not know everything about the functional area you are asked to assist with, but as any 70H worth their salt can attest, you should be able to find the answer. Luckily, the ANDSF and Iraqi Army we have advised over the past 14 years have been based on the construct of the US military, with some modifications. This allows a direct correlation of our working
systems and processes to their hindered ones.
As military officers, we are paid to solve problems, and this is the number one task for an Adviser.
First and foremost, to be a good adviser, you must know and understand your own doctrine. This provides advisers a foundation of how a working system operates and gives insight into viable solutions for challenges you encounter with the partner force. As an adviser to the Iraqi military, I had to focus on establishing training plans, instituting Preventive Medicine (PM) practices, planning medical operations, conducting MEDLOG support, and patient tracking to name a few. I knew to do this partially because of my experience operating within US Army units, but primarily because of the model our doctrine provides. Afghanistan shares many of the same challenges, and since transitioning to work with the ANDSF, I have focused on similar problems.
Second, you have to be able to talk to people. Your main job is to be the car salesman, Doctrine Man, R. Lee Ermey Drill Sergeant, Sherlock Holmes, and Dr Phil for your principal advisee, all in one package. The relationship you build with your principal is the linchpin to your success or failure. You can ask the same question on day one, day 30, and day 100 and get different answers each time. Each one getting closer to the truth until trust is established. You must also be patient, as sometimes you have to ask questions in the right phrasing, at the right time, and in the right way. Humility also goes a long way. On occasions, I admit that the US military has problems doing the same thing we ask our foreign counterparts to do. Just last week, I had to admit that like my ANDSF partners, I too was having issues being paid! Just as coordination and interoperability are essential tools for the combat adviser, they are integral to the success of the foreign staffs. Consequently, the combat adviser invests significant time in training foreign staffs to remove information silos and coordinate across sections within their own organization, and vertically to their higher headquarters or supporting agencies.
Relationships are the key to success.
Finally, as a combat adviser, you have to be a tailor. Every approach must be uniquely tailored to the affected system. One problem may have a materiel solution while another may just require the right amount of top pressure at a higher headquarters. As military officers, we are paid to solve problems, and this is the number one task for an Adviser. You should not expect your principal to tell you what problems they have. You also should not expect the answer to their problems to have one answer or for that answer to be simple. A lot of the time, it is rooted in cultural differences that create an obstacle to progress. Basic psychology tells us that humans are reluctant to change because change is hard. You have to figure out how to motivate your principal to overcome this. Your job is to figure out what is the most sustainable and
palatable solution to that problem. Once again, relationships are the key to success.
Sometimes, our own Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP) work against us. We generally try to advise our counterparts to use the same practices we do, which are largely digital, but we must remember they are not us. I likened the Iraqi Army in 2009, to that of the US Army in the 1980s — all analog. Even though we may be a more efficient digital Army with high tech solutions, that does not mean our digital techniques are more effective in their analog world. This same tempered approach has served me well in Afghanistan. Expectations must be left when you board the airplane at your home-station. Although our partner force is modeling their military after ours, they will never be us. We just have to make their systems work for them. As T.E. Lawrence wrote in Twenty Seven Articles (1917), a guide he wrote for British Officers, “Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them. Actually, also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be as good as, perhaps, you think it is”. Although Lawrence wrote this over 100 years ago, it still rings true today and should be at the heart of every advisers motives and plan of attack.
You are the poster child for the greatest army in the world.
At the end of the day, I have had the privilege to advise Lieutenant Colonels, Colonels, and General Officers. I have provided guidance to senior foreign ministry officials, Surgeon Generals, and Department of State personnel. I have seen landmarks across Iraq and Afghanistan. I have walked through palaces, both bombed out and intact in their grandiose splendor. I have even been able to travel unnoticed with my counterparts as the sole American into Iraqi cities, and seen the daily life of its citizens without the world halting presence of a US military patrol. I have had the distinction of being the face of the United States to a foreign military. That is what it is to be a military adviser; you are the poster child for the greatest military in the world. Your words have meaning and they have weight. In short, being a combat adviser has been one of the most rewarding and enlightening jobs I have ever had.
MAJ Neighbors was commissioned through ROTC into the Medical Service Corps in 2006. He has served in every MTOE position as a MS officer at the Division level and below. He currently serves as the 3rd Infantry Division Medical Planner. The views expressed in this article are the author’s alone and do not reflect the official position of the Medical Service Corps, the Department of Defense, or the US Government.
