The US Army and Climate Change (Part 3) - 256

Do you ever ask yourself what gets you worked up? At the top of my list are premature babies. When flying emergency medical flights to pick up preemies, I had to discipline myself not to look at the kids, or I would get choked up.

Next on my list is funding, or lack thereof, for public schools. We are shortchanging our kids, and it angers me.

I also have strong feelings formed from my time flying for the Army National Guard. Most Guard aviators are older than the Infantry they carry. The Aviation units spend most of the year practicing different aviation-specific tasks without troops. When we did practice an Air Assault with the “Grunts” on board, it was apparent they were a lot younger than we were.

The grunts are the infantry who shoulder the rucksacks, weapons, and ammunition and hump them to the objective. It is grueling hard work. Hence the colloquial term of admiration and respect, Grunt.

The soldier in the Infantry is the gauge used to judge if we are winning or losing. We are winning if the infantry soldier is alive and holds the objective. All forces in the Army support the grunt to that purpose.

My air assault platoon practiced loading and disembarking our young grunts. As we did, I could not help but feel both pride and sadness. These soldiers are the best of our youth, volunteering to defend our nation in the most challenging and dangerous situations. I was proud that we could field such dedicated men and women. But, at the same time, it did not seem fair; they were so young.

I thought that I was going soft. I admitted to my aviator buds my sense of sadness. I was surprised they all experienced similar feelings, especially the Vietnam Vets. Realizing that any war we must fight means putting our best in harm’s way is troubling.

This same sense of concern pervades my thoughts today. The Army and Marine Corps have unique challenges.

The Air Force knows that to protect its multi-billion-dollar force of aircraft, it must keep its airmen fed, watered, and rested to avoid catastrophic accidents. This means keeping them warm in cold climates and cool and hydrated in hot climates. The Air Force has gone to great lengths to understand what their airmen can tolerate and ensure their facilities meet their needs, which often means air conditioning. If work must be done outside, it will often be scheduled to be done at night. If that is not possible strict regimens are set to bring the maintenance teams inside to cool and hydrate.

Sailors spend most of their days and nights inside the shell of Navy vessels. While the inside of a Navy ship is not luxury by any stretch of the imagination, it is usually kept at a reasonable temperature. Desalinization devices make enough water for drinking, so hydrating is usually not an issue. Showering, I would like to note from personal experience, is sometimes rationed.

But the Army soldier and the Marine, whether he flies, rides, or marches to the battle, is at the mercy of the elements. While keeping plenty of ammunition available to the grunt is considered critical, historically the biggest challenge for any Army is keeping the wed fed, watered, and healthy. Because climate change threatens all aspects of Army operations, the US Army is ensuring it is up to the challenges of a changing climate by building strategies.

The first strategy for the Army is making their 130 installations resilient, efficient, and eventually self-sustaining. Facilities must be capable of withstanding the coming extreme weather. To meet this need, they need to examine energy, water, and other resources to see how these demands can be reduced and met under adverse conditions. The focus on efficiency will have the spin-off benefit of lowering costs to the Army and the taxpayer.

The Army spends 740 million dollars annually buying off-base electricity from regional electric utilities. To be independent of an outdated national grid and to free up some of this purchased power to meet the growing public need, the Army will be transitioning to on-base solar, wind, biomass, and even nuclear power. My Minnesota Guard training home at Camp Ripley is a prime example of executing strategy.  The Guard partnered with Minnesota Power to create a 60-acre solar field, bringing the camp close to net zero. 

The second strategy for the Army is to, where practical, move to hybrid and electric non-tactical vehicles. Some of these transitions are easy and practical to plan immediately. For example, where civilian gas and diesel cars and small trucks are used today when these vehicles reach their retirement, they should be replaced by electric vehicles or hybrids.

As the military knows, the fossil fuel supply chain has a long, expensive tail. Protecting the fossil fuel supply line removes from the battlefield forces that could be attacking the enemy. The fossil fuel supply line starts at the oil field, then moves through pipelines to a refinery, is transferred to sea-borne tankers at special loading ports and is off-loaded at special ports where oil tanker trucks then transport it to Army forward bases. NAZI submarine attacks on oil tankers nearly brought Britain to its knees during WWII.  It took destroyer escorts and air surveillance to finally secure the fossil fuel supply line. Any time we can practically reduce or eliminate fossil fuels, our forces will be more resilient.   

The Army is designing light tactical electric/hybrid vehicle prototypes to examine battlefield feasibility. As EV science improves, the Army will be positioned to take advantage of it.

Strategy three focuses on how to ensure the grunts survive and prevail. The soldier must learn to manage the heat and hydrate while achieving mission goals. The Army is writing “Climate 101” classes to educate the force at all levels.  

Surprisingly, the National Guard may be one of the best sources for “lessons learned.” The Guard is often called upon to fight forest fires and to react to emergencies caused by hurricanes and flooding. This first-hand experience, if assimilated into the greater force, will be invaluable in future operations.

If we can stay the course and elect science-wise politicians, our soldiers, the men and women who protect our freedoms, the grunts, will have the resources to prevail here and abroad.

References: The United States Army Climate Strategy FEB 2022

“Army Introduces Strategy to Combat Climate Change” the Army News Service. Feb 10, 2022

Army Climate Strategy Implementation Plan Fiscal Years 2023-2027

“Climate Change is a Threat to Military Security”, Council on Foreign Relations, January 23rd, 2019

For Camp Ripley information, search:   inforum.com/news/minnesota-power-dedicates-60-acre-solar-farm-at-camp-ripley

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