The Trip

Imagine being selected to take a trip back in time to meet with General George Washington at Valley Forge. While fighting off sleep in a marathon staff meeting, you are handed a note – call the chief of staff immediately. The chief informs you that because General Washington’s aide-de-camp is your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand father (G⁸), you have been selected for an extraordinary opportunity, a fact you cannot reveal in this upcoming providential encounter. The Joint Chiefs have determined that taking back present-day doctrine to Washington’s besieged and beleaguered Army can help set a better military foundation for our nation and that you are the one to do it.

Ironically, this once-in-a-lifetime occasion to traverse back in time for a critical meeting with Washington and his aide has been made possible by the recently established Army Futures Command (AFC). Army Futures Command’s harnessing of the Army’s capability development, as well as research and development (R&D) activities, fused by cross-functional teaming with Doc Brown’s previously proven flux capacitor have all coalesced to bring about your “chance contact” with your distant, and long deceased, relative. Equally as exciting as meeting with your G⁸ is the prospect of bringing useful doctrinal insights from the future back to the Father of Our Country.

Being a military professional, you want to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to promulgate some principles and processes that could potentially make Washington’s army more effective. The insights you intend to share are the byproduct of nearly two-and-a-half centuries of that same Army’s continuous operations, many of which are captured in a doctrinal document from the distant future, Field Manual (FM) 3-0, simply titled, “Operations.” Knowing from history the tenuous nature of the existential struggle that the Continentals were facing in the ongoing war for independence, particularly during that tough winter of 1777 at Valley Forge, makes the impending meeting to prevent suffering and senseless loss of life seem especially urgent.

Two Topics

The two interrelated ideas from doctrine you are most eager to convey to your G⁸, and more importantly his boss, are the Army’s newly established operational concept of multi-domain operations (MDO) and the warfighting functions. Their significance is readily apparent in the recently published FM 3-0 which was rolled-out in early October of 2022 with much fanfare.

This version of FM 3-0 establishes multidomain operations as the Army’s operational concept. Conceptually, multidomain operations reflect an evolutionary inflection point, building on the incremental changes in doctrine as the operational environment has changed over the last forty years. In practice, however, these conceptual changes will have revolutionary impacts on how the Army conducts operations in the coming decades. ¹

The purpose of the warfighting functions is to provide an intellectual organization for common critical capabilities available to commanders and staffs at all echelons and levels of war. A central idea is the importance placed on the effective integration of these six battlefield operating systems or, as they are now known, warfighting functions (command and control, movement and maneuver, intelligence, fires, sustainment, and protection) and how they contribute to generating and applying combat power. ²

Army Futures Command

The trek back in time starts with a TDY trip to Austin, Texas. Unfortunately, the Defense Travel System (DTS) could not be used for the travel authorizations as the dates of travel were prior to current date. Austin is best known as the place where many would argue the Army, or at least its Futures Command (AFC), became weird. Once at AFC, you link-up with their mad scientists to fulfill your futuristic deployment back in time. Given the tumultuous transformation brought about by the establishment of AFC, it is hard to determine exactly what organization, system, or process brought this new time-travel capability for a radical retrograde through time to fruition, but, at this point, it is immateriel.

What most animates all of those present in the AFC conference room for your pre-deployment meeting is the debate about what you need to wear for the trip. Is it necessary to be in period garb, or can the same machine that sends you back nearly two-and-a-half centuries cover the clothing conundrum too? A well-meaning Sergeant Major suggests you wear “pinks and greens.” A passionate but inconsequential debate ensues with everyone present vociferously voicing their views (except of course, the U.S. Taxpayer). After a raucous and rapid three-hour meeting, the decision is finally obvious to all: a coin flip should determine whether you don Levis or some historically “appropriate” period garb. A colonel pulls out a quarter. Heads you go as is, tails it is a tattered hunting shirt, blue jacket and brown pants.

The Toss and the Trip

As providence would have it, the quarter lands Washington side up. You are rapidly ushered into what looks like a portable elevator. The mad science guys, who actually all seem to be very happy, make some frenzied entries on a Windows® powered laptop. The next thing you know, you are in the frigid hills of Pennsylvania. Instinctively reaching into your blue jeans pocket for your iPhone (to simply check the local time), you realize that the revolutionary apparatus that brought you back to “FOB Forge” also issued and clothed you in appropriate attire (thank God you are not allergic to wool) and confiscated your smart phone, all in one fell swoop.

Upon arriving in the clear but frosty Pennsylvania valley, back in time nearly 250 years, after having just traveled roughly 1,420 miles (as the eagle flies) from Austin, Texas, by inexplicable (to the 18^th Century mind) means, you try to gain your bearings. Thankfully, you are reasonably familiar with the terrain since you visited the Valley Forge National Historical Park on a family vacation two-and-a-half centuries later. You recognize that tell-tale bend in the Schuylkill River that is just north of Washington’s headquarters, also known as the Isaac Potts house. ³

Gaining Credibility

As you head to the Potts’ house, now serving as the Continental Army’s main command post, you notice two Soldiers outside talking, one of whom is seated on some stone steps. As you begin walking closer to the men, you are hoping that one of the two is your formerly distant relative, Lieutenant Colonel Tench Tilghman⁴, the future president’s current aide-de-camp. Suddenly you realize that it is quite possible that the toughest challenge in going back from the future in order to convey this modern-day doctrine is going to be gaining the trust

and confidence of LTC Tilghman and his boss. What can you say to avoid being summarily dismissed as a lunatic? (An all too common fate for many modern-day ORSAs in those lengthy campaign plan assessment sessions).

Now face-to-face with LTC Tilghman, you realize both the gravity of your imminent interaction and the relative incongruity of your presence. As you contemplate exactly what to say to your distant relative to gain an audience with the over-taxed commander, you become completely certain of one thing: simply relying on self-declared nepotism is not a suitable strategy. As your mind is calculating the context of this auspicious occasion, you become haunted by a recent article in Military Review; “Every time an officer speaks, he or she is being judged….Precisely delivered technical language sets the basis for displaying strong technical and tactical competence, and this creates an intellectual opportunity for the field grade officer.”⁵ You recognize that this is not going to be easy even in spite of the fact that you religiously read the latest doctrine and military publications.

You begin introducing yourself to LTC Tilghman by employing a greeting utilizing knowledge you have gained from Wikipedia and Ancestry.com® that instantly captures Tench’s attention. “Bonjour monsieur Tilghman. How are things back in Kent County and at the Hermitage with your father James and your eleven siblings?” Before he can even ask how you know he speaks French, let alone his Dad’s name and the number of siblings he has, you wish him a happy birthday. (Although it is Christmas Eve, you know his birthday is tomorrow.) Somewhat stunned, he asks quite seriously, “Are you a prophet?” Before you can formulate an apt reply, you accidentally but accurately blurt out, “No sir, I am an avid student of history.”

As the much-admired aide ponders the seeming absurdity of your answer, you quickly shift to the reason for the journey back in time explaining, “Sir, it is very important that I meet with the General.” Tilghman replies, “Young man, it is obvious you have great insights into my life, but how can I be sure of your commitment to our cause?” Again, relying on your vast knowledge of Wikipedia, you reply, “I assure you, sir, I could not be more motivated to this cause for freedom than if the British burned down my saddle business.”⁶ Somewhat bemused, the aide shakes his head and says, “Follow me.” Recognizing that you have won the confidence of General Washington’s trusted aide is rewarding. Realizing that the next hurdle, that of convincing the Continental’s Commander is even higher, is absolutely terrifying.

You know you must develop a course of action that can hastily gain the Commander’s trust by demonstrating a degree of clairvoyance and wisdom that transcends time. Understanding Washington’s penchant for surveying, his predilection for farming, and his fondness for his mother Mary, you decide to employ something that no one at that time could have known, except George and his mother.

Being thoroughly acquainted with both doctrine and William J. Federer's book, America’s God and Country,⁷ you resolve to use the farewell words of the General’s mom, as spoken to him in November of 1753, some twenty-three years earlier. The exact occasion was when, at the youthful age of twenty-one, Washington “was commissioned by Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia to bear the official dispatches to the French commander St. Pierre.”⁸ You are extremely confident that Washington will clearly recall his dear mother’s privately uttered parting words, primarily because they are profound but also because it was his first deployment, and after all, it was his mama.

The charge young George received from his mother before leaving home to begin what would become a lifetime of service to his country was memorialized by him as, “Remember that God only is our sure trust. To Him, I commend you...My son, neglect not the duty of secret prayer.⁹ Just how to exactly introduce these parting thoughts to promptly gain mutual trust remained unclear.

The Meeting

As you are following the aide, you begin war-gaming the dilemma as to how (and when) to disclose his mother’s advice in a manner that convinces him that you are not just another guy from HQDA pedaling the latest lean-six-sigma or organizational effectiveness drivel; or perhaps even worse, a politician from the Continental Congress telling him, and his fledgling Army, they simply need to learn to do more with less. Suddenly it is too late – you are in front of the future president. Strangely, your overwhelming desire is to tell him he looks nothing like the guy on the one-dollar bill,¹⁰ but you know that will only undermine your ultimate objective.

While still shaking the General’s hand, but before even providing your name or the purpose for your appearance, you tell him, “Sir, I must proclaim to you, ‘Remember that God only is our sure trust. To Him, I commend you.”¹¹ Then, deviating slightly from his beloved mother’s admonition you add, “My General, neglect not the duty of secret prayer.” He instantly becomes ashen. Before Washington can even ask you why you say that you hastily add a paraphrased version of his response to a letter, he wrote to her shortly after her previous admonition. “The God to whom you commended me, madam, when I set out upon a more perilous errand, defended me from all harm, and I trust He will do so now. Do not you?”¹²

Your paraphrase, although a bit clumsy, is incisive enough to illicit the exact same response from the General as that of Tench Tilghman’s mere minutes earlier: “Are you a prophet?” This time you are more careful than to claim history as your inspiration, electing instead to use a well-known (to the well-read) verse of scripture. You quickly respond, “No sir, not a prophet. But I do firmly believe that the God to whom you have been commended is our best hope. After all, ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’”¹³ This little exchange, no more than two minutes tops, did more than any “challenge and password” procedure could to establish credentials, create mutual trust, and earn credibility sufficient for an audience with the commander.

Following these formalities in the foyer of the Potts’ place, the General points towards the parlor and says, “Follow me.” He directs you to sit in a brand-new antique Queen Anne chair. Settling into the finely crafted piece of furniture, you formulate the doctrinal dissertation you are primed to present. You begin by quoting FM 3-0, Operations, specifically, “The Army’s operational concept is multidomain operations.” You elaborate, “Multidomain operations are the combined arms employment of all joint and Army capabilities to create and exploit relative advantages that achieve objectives, defeat enemy forces, and consolidate gains on behalf of joint force commanders.”¹⁴

Your explanation goes on to explain how “Enemies typically initiate their aggression under conditions optimal for their success, requiring U.S. forces to respond at a disadvantage.”¹⁵ For the first time, the General interrupts you to ask the meaning of “U.S.” It means “American,” you respond, avoiding any mention of the eventual 50 states, and particularly dreading the idea of explaining the District of Columbia (DC), let alone the American “Civil War” that would take place just over a century and a half later that solidified the U.S. moniker.

Sensing that the General was satisfied with this simple clarification, you continue by quoting from Army Doctrinal Publication (ADP) 3-0, “Their activities in the information environment, space, and cyberspace attempt to influence U.S. decision makers and disrupt friendly deployment of forces. Land-based threats will attempt to impede joint force freedom of action across the air, land, maritime, space, and cyberspace domains. They will disrupt the electromagnetic spectrum, sow confusion in the information environment, and challenge the legitimacy of U.S. actions. Understanding how threats can present multiple dilemmas to Army forces in all domains helps Army commanders identify (or create), seize, and exploit their own opportunities.”¹⁶

With Washington listening closely, but seemingly unfazed by your doctrinal competence, you continue, “Army forces integrate capabilities and synchronize warfighting functions to generate combat power and apply it against enemy forces. Successful application of combat power requires leaders to understand the enemy and understand friendly capabilities... They must also understand how the joint force enables the Army to integrate capabilities through all domains to generate more effective landpower”¹⁷

After sharing these truly revolutionary insights about future warfare, General Washington seems both impressed and perplexed. Is it that he distrusts the authenticity and reliability of the topics disclosed in your information from the future? Is it that he simply does not trust you and your discussion of the doctrine and these modern domains? Unfortunately, it is impossible to discern the profundity of his doubt. Without warning, Washington gets up, heads over to his desk, retrieving a thick book and his spectacles, and then returns to his seat.

The General Speaks

After what seems like an eternity, in almost photographic memory fashion (another phrase from the future), General Washington precisely recounts your recitation of the doctrine espoused in those manuals from the future. He expounds on how they are currently using the land and maritime domains for the positioning of forces and provisioning of materiel. He talks about the periodic employment of the space domain when sailors, and sporadically surveyors, use the stars for positioning, navigation, and timing. He acknowledges the advent of flying objects, both in the air and space domains, both for commercial and military applications. Washington recognizes the idea of remotely piloted aircraft, autonomous vehicles, and even artificial intelligence. Washington intellectually understands the somewhat recent (from a 21^st century perspective) realm of a cyber domain, but he still seems dubious that it is as big a deal as you have described.

Following your complete recitation, General Washington, a hardened combat veteran, skilled leader, statesman, and lover of liberty, seems to become impatient and indignant with both your very presence and your verbose presentation. In a stern and fatherly tone, he begins to admonish you:

“Young man, it is evident much thought has been employed in your development of discrete domains and the integrating of operations by way of manifold functions. So much so that you have even developed a specific area entitled ‘command and control.’ But my bigger concern is that unless a man can exercise ethical leadership by first commanding and controlling himself in order to operate in the all-important and only all-encompassing domain, specifically the Spiritual domain, all your lofty deliberations and doctrines are destined to fail.”¹⁸

As you struggle to formulate an appropriate response to this rebuke, you realize, with almost humorous relief, that you are at least somewhat fortunate that the most recent ADP 3-0 changed the mission command warfighting function back to command and control (C2) by jettisoning the murky model of mission command as both a warfighting function and a philosophy. You manage to hold back a smile but cannot generate an apt reply to the General’s reprimand. At this point, he begins again with a markedly different tone. “Son, I appreciate you taking the time to make this arduous trip to help our Army, but I am greatly dismayed at your failure to learn from our recent history. It is also completely clear and decidedly disappointing that you failed to grasp both the intent and desired end state for my General Order”¹⁹ (issued on 9 July 1776), to wit:

The Honorable Continental Congress having been pleased to allow a Chaplain to each Regiment, with the pay of Thirty-three Dollars and one third [per] month—The Colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure Chaplains accordingly; persons of good Characters and exemplary lives—To see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect and attend carefully upon religious exercises: The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger…²⁰

After reciting his order, his fervor seems to increase exponentially. Whether it is his belief that you failed to heed the need for the blessing and protection of Heaven, or your doctrine’s seeming disdain for the one true domain in this time of distress and danger, you can’t be sure. Before you can even fully process his fathomable frustration, you see that he has opened the book he had retrieved earlier. Looking directly into your eyes he chastens you by reminding you that his fledgling Army is the discernable declaration to the most potent military power on the planet that “It is self-evident that the Creator has endowed each man with a right to liberty and asserting that they will achieve victory with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.”

After donning his spectacles, the General seems to calm down and begins reading aloud from Psalm 44:

It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.²¹

After reading the words of the psalmist, the General firmly rebukes you, “The Spiritual Domain is the only domain from which liberty and love descend. It is the only domain wherein the moral and ethical high ground exists. It is the domain where wisdom and freedom reside and the only true place a position of relative advantage exists. My fear is that your failure to acknowledge and account for the key terrain that resides only in the Spiritual Domain will cause your efforts to prevail in competition, crisis, and armed conflict to fail. By not recognizing the Spiritual Domain you will never consolidate gains, no matter how long you labor at your endless wars.” Removing his spectacles, the General looks directly at you and pointedly asks, “How is it that you think your man-made, so called, multidomain operational concept can succeed without recognizing the only Domain that is eternal and transcends every other?”²²

Before you can even formulate an appropriate answer to the General’s final question, your buddy bangs you on the shoulder. You abruptly wake-up, rapidly realizing there was no note, there was no trip, and this was all just a dream. You are amazed at all that has happened -- surely you should try and record and report all of the interactions that have just transpired. Nope, no one would believe it.

Nevertheless, you know that you will never look at multidomain operations in the same way again.

Notes:

[1]. Field Manual 3-0, Operations, Headquarters, Department of the Army, Washington, DC, dated 1 October 2022, p. ix.

2. ibid, p. 2-3.

3. Map Courtesy of http://npmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/valley-forge-historical-map.jpg Retrieved 26 April 2019.

4. Tilghman joined Washington’s staff August 1776 as a volunteer. As a volunteer aide-de-camp, however, Tench would not be paid or receive the rank of lieutenant colonel until 1780. National Park Service, Valley Forge, Retrieved 26 April 2019 from https://www.nps.gov/vafo/learn/historyculture/tenchtilghman.htm .

5. Where Field Grade Officers Get Their Power, Military Review, March-April 2019, Col. Robert T. Ault, U.S. Army and Jack D. Kem, PhD.

6. Retrieved 20 July 2019 from https://upclosed.com/people/tench-tilghman/

7. William J. Federer's AMERICAN QUOTATIONS Version 2013.02.27

A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Quotations Influencing Early and Modern American History Referenced according to their Sources in Literature, Memoirs, Letters, Governmental Documents, Speeches, Charters, Court Decisions & Constitutions. Copyright William J. Federer 1998, 02/27/2013. All rights reserved.

8. ibid.

9. George Washington. November 1753, in his parting words from his mother, Mrs. Mary Washington. John N. Norton, Life of General Washington (1870), p. 34.

Marion Harland, The Story of Mary Washington (1892), p. 87.

William J. Johnson, George Washington-The Christian (St. Paul, MN: William J. Johnson, Merriam Park, February 23, 1919; Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1919; reprinted Milford, MI: Mott Media, 1976; reprinted Arlington Heights, IL: Christian Liberty Press, 502 West Euclid Avenue, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004, 1992), p. 36.

Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company,1977), p. 285.

[1]0. The one dollar United States Note was redesigned in 1869 with a portrait of George Washington in the center. The obverse of the note also featured overprinting of the word ONE numerous times in very small green type and blue tinting of the paper. Source: A Guide Book of United States Paper Money (Whitman) p 61.

1[1]. George Washington. November 1753, in his parting words from his mother, Mrs. Mary Washington. John N. Norton, Life of General Washington (1870), p. 34.

Marion Harland, The Story of Mary Washington (1892), p. 87.

Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1977), p. 285.

[1]2. ibid.

[1]4. FM 3-0, p. 3-1.

[1]5. ibid, pg. 1-2.

[1]6. Army Doctrinal Publication (ADP) 3-0, Operations, Headquarters, Department of the Army, Washington, DC, dated July 2019 p. 1-1

[1]7. FM 3-0, p. 2-1

[1]8. Notional dialogue.

[1]9. Notional dialogue.

20. “General Orders, 9 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0176. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 5, 16 June 1776 – 12 August 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993, pp. 245–247.]

22. Notional dialogue

The Colonel of Truth - Robert Young, COL, US Army (Retired)

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Monday, January 22, 2024

George Washington, Multiple Domain Operations, & The Missing Domain

Army Futures Command

The Toss and the Trip

Gaining Credibility

The Meeting

The General Speaks

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