This Mattis-Directed Task Force Wants To Overhaul The Infantry. Here’s How It Might Do That.
This Mattis-Directed Task Force Wants To Overhaul The Infantry. Here’s How It Might Do That. By Todd South – Military Times
If a new task force has its way, time-honored extra duties such as handing out towels at the gym, raking sand, standing gate guard duty and picking up litter will no longer consume the time and energy of infantry soldiers and Marines.
Instead, they will be better selected, equipped, trained and prepared for their mission — intimate killing in close combat.
A close combat lethality task force operating at the highest levels of the Pentagon is likely shaping not only the future of the infantry but also who serves in ground combat forces, when and for how long, and what they do while they’re serving.
Robert Wilkie, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales on Wednesday unveiled some of the early work being done on a task force that was years in the making but only under Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has received the heft of funding and resolve to get moving...