In a conversation today with Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, the head of the Army’s Combined Arms Center in Leavenworth, Kans., we learned that the Army is getting all Wiki on us.
Basically Caldwell is embracing the Web 2.0 phenomenon of making reference material available online in an easily updatable fashion by creating so-called Wiki pages based on the popular Wikipedia online reference source.
Caldwell told a group of military bloggers on a conference call today that he’s trying to neck down the number of doctrine manuals from nearly 550 to just below 100 and to include some of the TTPs derived from them on Wiki pages. The way it works is that you can examine the tactical doctrine pages after logging in with your AKO account and you can update the pages with your own experiences and practices. Each area is moderated by a subject matter expert who edits entries and can chat with a Soldier updating the post to have him clarify his addition.
To Caldwell, this is the most efficient way to reach experts and get their feedback — the actual Joes in the fight.
“We want to take the expertise of the Soldiers who are out there and get the experts input,” Caldwell said.
So far the Army has posted seven TTPs in the last 10 days and received 5,000 page views. The goal is to have 230 manuals available by Wiki so Soldiers can have better access to the most updated information on how to win their fight.
– Christian
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a great idea. I work for a defense contractor, and we have our own internal wiki page that software developers can edit and add stuff too so that people down the road can easily find it. It’s a great tool that costs us nothing, and should be extremely useful to troops.
I hope some use will come from this. Techniques and procedures are usually obsolete by the time they’re committed to paper manuals.
I just finished reading “The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier’s Education”
Oh, boy. I have never been in the army (I was a dirty squid)but the tactics employed in Afghanistan in this book were just plain bad…..The author was over there at the beginning of the conflict. I hope they are getting better leadership now….
The basic scenario goes like this; They go on patrol and wait to be ambushed; or someone fires mortars into the camp and they go out and try to get them.
Either way, the enemy is calling the shots.
In one engagement, they are confronting the enemy on the Pakistani boarder and defeat them with quick reaction time and overwhelming air support from helicopters and an A10.
They lose one man. It is only after the engagement that they realize all their Hummvees are parked on antitank shells rigged to a hand held control.
They got lucky, they should have all been dead. The first insurgent to die that day was the guy holding the switch.
This explains why “regular army” people are being fired left and right and special forces guys are being put in charge. They know how to fight.
This long rant has a purpose. I do not think this website work is going to have large impact without better training. The author of the book went through Ranger school and it seemed more about sleep deprivation than tactical training.
Great idea. Finally, the xKO sites will be of some use.
100% bitchin’. I imagine everything from exercise plans to plumbing procedures to language lessons. will check this out on the regular, IN THE EVENT that civilians are allowed to read any of it.
Im enlisting in the army soon and i think this is the kinda stuff that the new Gen X kids are going to be able to use in order to be the next best group of soldiers. BUT i dont think this should be open to the public at all, maybe recruits who are on their way in but deff not the rest of civilization. remember that we are not the only people reading this, the taliban and other terrorist are readin it too.
I like this idea a lot. I think if the Army integrates a system akin to Wikipedia it would be beneficial for them in the long run. First, most recruits new to the Army are familiar with Wikipedia’s layout and the learning curve would be slim to none. Secondly, integrating the tactical appraisal of front line troops means that new soldiers going into a theater of operations, won’t have to totally adhere to traditional Army doctrine and they can adopt the new tactics other units have adopted.