Military Review English Edition January-February 2014 | Page 76

Harmony in Battle
Training the Brigade Combat Team
for Combined Arms Maneuver
Col. Michael R. Fenzel and Lt. Col. Shane Morgan, U.S. Army

I

N JULY 1941, Gen. George S. Patton Jr. addressed the soldiers of his 2nd Armored
Division and advised them that “to get harmony in batt le, each weapon must support
the other. Team play wins.” This fundamental concept is substantially easier to talk about
than to carry off on the ground under pressure. The team play that Patton refers to must be
drilled well on the practice field. On the battlefield, there is no opportunity to stop and then
retrain to standard. You will be only as effective in combat as you have trained to that point.
Ordering and integrating all weapons platforms to “support the other” at the decisive point
was no doubt a challenge for Patton on the battlefields of North Africa and Europe. Doing so
on a modern battlefield will be an even greater challenge. Advancements in technology and
modernization of platforms have added layers of complexity that render a grasp of battlefield
geometry elusive to young leaders who do not prepare for it. One constant in warfighting at
the tactical level is that team play still wins. Training our junior leaders to play like a team
with these weapons platforms will always be an essential component of any brigade combat
team’s (BCT’s) training progression.
Col. Michael R. Fenzel, U.S. Army, is the commander of 3rd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 82nd Airborne Division,
Fort Bragg, N.C. He holds a B.A from Johns Hopkins University, an M.P.A. from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in
national security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Lt. Col. Shane P. Morgan is the commander of the 1st Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd BCT, 82nd
Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. He holds a B.S. from Norwich University and an M.A. from Webster University.