because the one is critical, and the other useful, for counterinsurgency. The rest is fairly self explanatory except for the size and shape of the aviation ala.'
' Ala?' Parilla asked.
'Latin for 'wing,' as in 'cavalry wing.' But all the real cavalry is in the air now, so…'
'Bring up the aviation slide, would you, Mitch?' Carrera asked.
When the slide was shown, Carrera frowned. 'General, this one makes only limited sense except in terms of its being a training vehicle for a cadre for a much larger air organization. It's the largest group after the service support cohort. It has fifty aircraft including remotely piloted vehicles. That doesn't include medical evacuation aircraft. Of those fifty, it has sixteen helicopters, twelve medium and four heavy. We don't know yet which medium and heavy lift helicopter we will choose or what we can afford. I am inclined towards Volgan and there are a sufficient number for sale, usually used and rebuilt, at an acceptable price. We are probably going to use modified crop-dusters built in the FSC for the close air support role.' Carrera saw Parilla's smile and hastily added, 'No, sir, don't laugh. They have impressive capabilities-over two tons of ordnance, thirteen hardpoints and can turn on a dime-and have already been combat tested in the close support role in Santander.'
'In any case, in designing the air ala, our twin goals were: every asset that would be in divisional level air support wing must be there, and it must be able to lift the combat elements of one infantry cohort plus the Cazador cohort in not more than two lifts with eighty-five percent of the helicopters operationally ready. This does that but the personnel inefficiency when dealing with numbers of aircraft this low is just appalling.
'Naval slide, Mitch.'
Parilla looked that over and saw a few light warships plus a number of merchant ships. He shrugged. Soldiers were soldiers and didn't care about ships. One thing did catch his eye, though.
'What's this intelligence collection ship?'
Omar Fernandez, sitting next to Triste in the left rear of the room piped in, 'That one's for me, General.'
'We need to have a long talk about that, Fernandez,' Carrera said, his eyes narrowing to slits. 'And soon. Like, say, after this meeting is over.'
'Anyway, General, that's it. You have detailed diagrams of the tables of organization in your packet. Pending your questions…'
Carrera stopped to sip at a cup of coffee. Parilla sat digesting the rest of the chart of the Headquarters. Parilla asked about the unusual staff set up.
'A good question, General. There are basically four staff arrangements in use in the civilized world. The FSC's system of four equal sections, which is what you are used to, and which they inherited from the Gauls in the Great Global War, is designed to be something of a committee. I believe it has a number of defects, chief among them being that these staffs inject an equality into the planning and conduct of military operations that has no place in battle. The Anglian system is needlessly complex and badly over officered; we don't have enough trained officers to hope to emulate it anyway. The Volgans could be said not to really have much of a staff structure below division level.
'Instead, the model we have chosen is the same staff form that the Sachsen used with great success in the Great Global War and before. Historical experience says that this is much the best form for a highly mobile force. To some extent I expect this to make up, partially, for the fact that our organization is not really geared to highly mobile warfare. This staff form also does not suffer the defect of permitting the rear echelon to act as a dead weight upon the fighting line. Instead, everything goes to support the front. Lastly, this form for the staff does not permit the personnel managers to have much of a say in operations. It locates the clerks so that they cannot harass the line with constant demands for timely information that no personnel management system can do anything useful with in a timely manner.'
Parilla chewed his lower lip for a few moments before saying, 'I don't think I like that, Patricio. Armies are composed of people; hence personnel management is a critical component of the force. It's as important as, maybe more important than, logistics.'
Carrera jerked his chin slightly sideways, then chewed his own lip for a bit. 'I am put in mind of a story I read once,' he said, 'a true story, about a day in August, 1944, Old Earth Year, when the American Army in France had a total infantry replacement pool of one rifleman for perhaps twenty or so divisions. Imagine, if you will, General, a situation where thousands of personnel managers are in a position to manage one poor rifleman. How privileged that man must have felt! I have always thought that if those personnel managers had been mostly infantry themselves they wouldn't have been managed quite so thoroughly, but there would have been more than one man to replace the hundreds killed and wounded that August day. Computers, by the way, do not seem to help this problem much once the shooting starts.'
Parilla thought about that for a minute and decided Carrera was probably right. His face said as much. He thumbed through his handout packet and said, 'I note you have General Abogado in charge of our foreign trainers. How is old Ken doing?' He remembered Abogado rather fondly from his days as commander of FS Army troops in Balboa.
Carrera smiled. 'He's fine and raring to go last I saw him, Raul, which was here, two days ago. He asked about you. In any case, he says he'll be ready within six weeks to begin the first course he is going to be running for our senior officers, a sort of truncated CGSC, a command and general staff course. He'll also be running a number of other courses to train and select lower leaders and technicians.'
'Good, good,' said Parilla. 'I remember-with envy, too, I admit-the way he used to train the FSC troops here. A fine old soldier.'
'He was that,' Carrera agreed. Pity about having feet of clay. Still, Abogado is superb at what he does provided you keep him away from women.
'Where are we going to train the troops, by the way, Patricio? Most of the old FS facilities have been sold off. The Civil Force lacks facilities, generally.'
'Mitch, bring up the Fort Cameron slide, please.'
The previous slide disappeared to be replaced by a map of a small area well known to Parilla from his days as commander of the Guardia Nacional.
'Sometime, someday when we can afford it, Raul, I hope to buy the Isla Real outright and turn it into a base for us,' Carrera explained. The Isla Real, or Royal Island, was about eighty kilometers north of Ciudad Balboa and was about two hundred and seventy square kilometers in area. 'But that alone will cost twice our total budget now to buy and build up. It will have to wait. In the interim…'
He pointed at the slide. 'This is a map of the old Centro de Instruccion Militar at Fuerte Cameron. As you can see, it is sufficient to our current purposes, with enough range space and well-drained, open, flat areas for tentage. Most of the buildings will go for housing cadre, offices, and school rooms.'
Again, Parilla accepted that. He asked, 'What about rank structure? I see lots of old Roman military titles, few modern. Is there a reason?'
Carrera nodded. 'We'll be working mostly with the Army of the Federated States and the Anglians. They are extremely rank conscious. I simply do not want them, initially, to have the slightest clue as to the ranks of our people they are dealing with. Thus, signifers are roughly second lieutenants, but could be considered first lieutenants or captains. Tribunes I through III are, for our purposes, 1st lieutenants through majors, but could be considered majors through colonels. Legates 3rd through 1st are lieutenants colonel through brigadiers. On the other hand, in Latin 'legate' means lieutenant general, three stars, or ambassador, which is a four star equivalent. The sole dux, or duce, is yourself. The centurionate runs from optio, basically a platoon sergeant, through 1st centurion, the senior noncom of a cohort, and on to sergeant major, of which this expeditionary force needs only one at this time, Sergeant Major McNamara.'
'Seems silly to me, Patricio.'
'Give it time, Raul. Are you ready for dinner?'
Adjourning to the mess, Parilla asked about a set of thirteen carved and silvered or gilded eagles perched atop poles.
Carrera gestured toward the table and chairs, mahogany and intricately hand carved. 'There is a furniture factory in Valle de las Lunas, Fabrica Hertzog, that does fine wood carving and makes some really superb furniture. They made this table, the chairs, the sideboard and the china cabinet. Good work, very good. When you gave me this mission, I gave some thought to what the units' symbols should be. I had Fabrica Hertzog make these up.
