Warfighter Wednesday: Simple Suggestions for Effective Advising

Lt. Col. Joshua J. Potter, chief, Iraqi Army Division Stability-Transition Team

Lt. Col. Joshua J. Potter, chief, Iraqi Army Division Stability-Transition Team

Lt. Col. Joshua J. Potter is an Iraqi Army Division Stability-Transition Team (S-TT) chief with the 1st Advise and Assist Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, currently serving in Baghdad, Iraq. This is his fourth tour in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This is his sixth overall deployment and he previously was the Civil Affairs officer for the 1st Infantry Division G9 (Civil-Military officer) and course developer / chief instructor with the Directorate of Cultural Influence and Counterinsurgency training over 8,000 Transition Team members who are inbound in support of the Global War on Terrorism, in Cultural Influence, Counterinsurgency, and the role of the advisor.

We have served for eight months as an Advise and Assist Brigade (AAB). Our Foreign Security Force (FSF) counterparts include the Army, federal police, police services and other security units. As FSF have dramatically increased their capacity over the past few months, we have altered the way we engage with them. Of course, the AAB must remain agile at its core and we believe that dedicated in-progress reviews are important.

In that spirit, this is a short compilation or a “down-and-dirty” guide for incoming S-TT advisors to support their overall mission.
(more…)

Recent Comments

DoDLive on Tumblr

  • photo from Tumblr

    An United States Air Force C-130J Hercules cargo aircraft from the 146th Airlift Wing, California Air National Guard, conducts flare training off the Ventura County coast. The flares are used as tactical infrared countermeasures to confuse and redirect heat-seeking missiles.

    (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Dave Buttner)


  • photo from Tumblr

    Famed Yankees pitcher “Lefty Gomez” once remarked “I’d rather be lucky than good,” but for one Tuskegee Airman, luck and good combined to make him one of the most successful combat pilots of World War II.

    During the summer of 1944, 2nd Lt. Clarence D. “Lucky” Lester was flying the P-51 Mustang over the skies of Italy’s Po Valley providing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers with cover support on their way to attack airfields in southern Germany.

    Lester was assigned to the 100th Fighter Squadron, a part of the 332nd Fighter Group, and had earned the nickname “Lucky” “because of all the tight situations from which I had escaped without a scratch or even a bullet hole in my aircraft.”

    Read the story of a flight that helped Lester earn his nickname here.


  • photo from Tumblr

    The only African-American ace of World War II, and a former Tuskegee Airman, went on to have a career in the Air Force, as well as success in the business world.

    Lee A. Archer joined the Army in 1941 with high hopes of becoming a pilot, but was initially denied because of his race. When the Army’s policy changed about a year later, Archer was accepted to the training program for black aviators at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama.

    Archer is best known for a day in late 1944 when he was involved in a series of dogfights over German-occupied Hungary. Flying a P-51 Mustang fighter, Archer shot down three German fighters. He would go on to add two more German fighters to his credit to become the first and only African-American ace of the war.

    As a civilian, Archer enjoyed even greater success, serving as vice president for urban affairs with General Foods, as CEO of North Street Capital Corp. and chairman of Hudson Commercial Corp. He also served on the board of directors of Beatrice International Foods and the Institute for American Business.

    Read the rest of his story here.