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<span style=”color: #333333; font-family: ‘Georgia’,serif;”>HAMMER: Korea was the first war where the US Army rotated Soldiers in and out of theatre in significant numbers, a practice that has continued ever since. In doing practical and instructional knowledge is lost and lessons have to be re-learned, sometimes at great cost. How would you change the manner in which we now rotate Soldiers into different conflicts across the globe? Are the benefits worth the cost, when our enemies remain in place and continue to learn? What are the pros and cons of each system?</span>

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<p style=”margin: 0in 0in 8pt;”><span style=”color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;”>My personal belief in the rotation of soldiers in and out of combat tours or peacekeeping missions is that it is a positive and rehabilitating to the soldiers. It is only within in the manner in which units are rotated is where the biggest problems lay. We constantly as units find ourselves falling in on non-mission capable equipment and without the full working knowledge of operating in specific environments. <span style=”mso-spacerun: yes;”> </span>There are so many questions on how and why that instead of training we are constantly deciphering the operational tempo of how we will work and complete missions. Many present the ideas of rip’s with the partner unit “left seat, right seat” or continuity books. Somewhere in-between the rotations these keys to success fall short and disappear in the physical rotation. Could it have really been that the last unit positively did nothing? Where they really short of manpower and unable to properly complete their mission. I believe by having a place to publish a continuity book online that will be universal to all and able to update by soldiers in the rotation could be key to future success. An insurance plan of making it a priority that the leadership of units is in place before the main body comes in is imperative. Not just certain leaders but one from every section so that all branches that participate in the fight are able to know what exactly they are getting into and all the right questions can be asked. Too often excuses are made for the short falls that can and may possibly cost lives in the future from these hand offs. Therefore, I believe that we must take them more seriously. A unit forced to stay in place and continue to learn we may not actually learn everything we can. There is only so much talent you can exploit from one person and therefore it is necessary to rotate new talent in and out. Enemies cannot learn from new soldiers how will fight in a different way every time there is a new rotation. This in fact only benefits us. </span></p>
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