The Trainer

Zilmer quickly adopts lessons and tactics from Iraq and Afghanistan to prepare Marines for combat

Brig. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer commands the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command at Twentynine Palms, Calif., overseeing the complex large-scale combined-arms live fire exercises used to prepare Marines for war. Zilmer reinforces basic Marine Corps doctrine and incorporates new tactics successfully used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As commander, Zilmer has instituted a program of instantaneous turnaround for “lessons learned” on the battlefield. His own lessons learned came early in life. He attended the acclaimed Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pa., and was elected its Alumnus of the Year in 2004. He cites the academics, teamwork and discipline of the school as a defining experience in his life, which prepared him for his 31-year career in the Corps.

“We were all orphans coming from different parts of the country, and it was all about teamwork, much like boot camp,” Zilmer said.

As a newly commissioned second lieutenant, Zilmer joined a raid company to assist in the evacuations in Saigon, Vietnam, and subsequently participated in peacekeeping operations in Lebanon. He served as operations officer for Task Force Ripper, the lead ground combat element in Desert Storm.

Zilmer assumed command of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit-Special Operations Command in 1997, and served as director of strategy and plans at Headquarters Marine Corps prior to his present assignment. Zilmer has been awarded the Bronze Star with Combat V, and has been selected for promotion to major general. He spoke with Associate Editor Sue A. Lackey about the future of Marine Corps training.

How fast can you incorporate lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan into the training programs?

Zilmer: If the [trainers] are back here on Sunday, the changes are in on Monday. It’s that fast. We’re not so regimented that we can’t do that. We do it in two ways: we send the [trainers] over there as frequently as we can and link up with the ground units. They watch what [the units are] doing, they talk to the Marines that have trained here and we try to stay current that way. The second way is we access the databases that the Army and the Marine Corps have, and we look at immediate lessons learned coming out of debriefs from patrols and convoys. It’s a very dynamic process. Getting the right lessons learned is key to that. Looking at our old manuals, everything that is in those manuals is written in blood.

As Distributed Operations [the Marine Corps’ concept of dispersed small unit maneuver warfare] doctrine progresses, do you plan to conduct live fire combined arms exercises utilizing the concept?

Zilmer: Taking a very basic understanding of distributed operations, it’s warfighting over an extended battlespace. Twentynine Palms, because it is the biggest training base in the Marine Corps (932 square miles), is custom-made to support that. We also look at it as part of a larger southwest United States regional string of bases that are tied not only to Camp Pendleton and Yuma, but perhaps in a larger fabric that would include bases like Fort Irwin, the National Training Center, the Mountain Warfare Training Center at Bridgeport, Calif., and Nellis Air Force Base. We have this large complex of ranges and training bases in the region for all the services, not just the Marine Corps. As the Army looks at its future operations, we’re going to need these larger battlefields to operate. Twentynine Palms becomes a key location for support and development of those concepts.

Do you envision virtual training becoming more prominent in the future?

Zilmer: The virtual training is part of a larger fabric. We would never do it at the expense of live training. In many cases, we are the last stop before Marines deploy downrange to the theater of operations, whether that’s Iraq or Afghanistan. We have a very important, but a very limited, amount of time to do as much training with these Marines as we possibly can before they deploy.

We, as Marines, still believe that in the final analysis our ability to work on the ground, particularly in a live fire environment, is still the graduation exercise. When we look at the extended battlefield that we will be operating on in the future, that becomes even more critical. That’s not to say that modeling and simulation doesn’t play an important part in this. Between constructive virtual and live exercises, we’re going to come away with the best product.

Are there any plans to use Twentynine Palms as a facility for joint training exercises with the Marine Corps and Army components operating under a common joint task force headquarters?

Zilmer: Yes. If we’re going to play in the future, we’ve got to be part of the Joint National Training Capability, and this is all tied to that. If we’re not talking joint, we’re going to be obsolete here.

Ideally, Marines undergo Combined Arms Training prior to joint exercises. If you conduct combined joint training at Twentynine Palms, how does that affect Marine training programs?

Zilmer: There’s a balance there, and we are very mindful of that. In a perfect world we would tie a CAX (combined arms exercise) to a larger joint exercise, or make it part of that joint exercise. Historically, we’ve brought 10 battalions a year through Twentynine Palms to do a CAX. That still remains the capstone training event for any battalion and any squadron that comes up here to support that battalion. Not every one of those is going to be tied to a joint scenario, although everything we do here should be complementary to operating in a joint environment.

The challenge we are going to have is scheduling. When does the higher headquarters schedule an exercise that can be supported by all the services? It may be a single, scenario-driven exercise that percolates all the way down to the units on the ground here and at [Army] Fort Irwin and perhaps at Nellis Air Force Base. Or it could be simply an exercise for the command and control modes that are essential.

If you bring in the virtual and live pieces, there are a lot of different ways that we can still be part of a larger effort. I would guess maybe once or twice a year we’ll see a joint-driven exercise in a joint community, and our level of participation could change from exercise to exercise.

Looking far into the future, you have been instrumental in promoting the Small Unit Space Transport Insertion program. How feasible is it?

Zilmer: We briefed that throughout the entire Pentagon, Congress, [Special Operations Command], the [National Security Council], and we were never, ever thrown out of one office. The idea was in the future, 25-30 years from now, to move a squad-sized unit of Marines any place on the Earth in less than two hours time. Speed and security are important, and what space provides us is the medium to do fast travel.

If you look at the projects currently ongoing in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and NASA — the X-43 Hyper X system (an air-breathing hypersonic flight craft operating at Mach 10) and the Force Application and Launch from CONUS (FALCON) Technology Demonstration (a B-52-sized hypersonic bomber/recon aircraft designed to travel at Mach 10 and operate under a 38-mile ceiling) programs — this isn’t technology that’s just on the drawing board. This is stuff that’s being experimented on as we speak. Is it futuristic? Yes. Is it visionary? Yes. Is it a concept? Yes. But it’s going to get here eventually, and we want to be in on the ground floor.

Is space transport adding a vertical element to maneuver warfare?

Zilmer: This is the next phase of maneuver warfare, having the capacity and the speed. That’s what maneuver is all about — having the speed to displace your enemy. Also, everything we do as Marines — shoot, move and communicate — is supported by space. We don’t fight a war without space capabilities now. You’re never going to go down to Cherry Point and see a line of these FALCON spacecraft with “USMC” stenciled on the side. This is a much more expensive program than the Marine Corps, or any service, would probably ever advance by itself. But not everything is going to be a kinetic answer — a missile coming over the horizon. There are going to be times when you are going to want to put boots on the ground, thinking Marines, who have the ability to get someplace fast. It is a future that we have to be part of now.