There
is no arguing that within the past couple of centuries there has been drastic
changes in the United States. Even with these changes however, there are still
many ways that the United States is still resembles things in their past. War
has seen a makeover yet even though there have been many decades separating the
past American wars there are many similarities between each one of them. This
can be seen in the articles “War Communication Before Modern Technology” by
Kate Kelly and “American Soldiers Killed Freeing Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq” by
Michael R. Gordon, in relation to the book, Black
Hawk Down, written by Mark Bowden.
During war communication is vital in
ensuring that a mission gets completed with as little difficulties as possible.
Since the Americans fought the Civil War and the Battle of the Black Sea there
has been many changes but a flaw has remained, complex communication causing
causalities. In Kate Kelly’s paper she brings up a key communication strategy
during the Civil War called flag signals. While this may not be as
technologically advance as some of their other communication strategies it is
very complex, requiring the flag raiser to communicate by raising a flag in
different positions. During flag raising, the raiser would sometimes be put at
exposure for enemy fire while relaying a message to someone. This caused many
causalities according to Kelly and sometimes could prove ineffective.
Fast
forward over a century, the United States is using radio frequencies to direct
troops in Mogadishu, Somalia. During the operation communication was establish with
using multiple frequencies for different troops and command. This makes a game
of telephone of sorts, with troops and command on different frequencies and a middle
man that must transfer messages. This communication strategy can fail when
information is not relayed quickly enough or is not accurate. This can be seen
in Bowden’s book when helicopters are trying to relay information to the
Humvees below. The ground troops are trying to reach a down black hawk but the
information they receive is either inaccurate or too late. This causes the
troops to spend unwanted time taking heavy enemy fire which prove to be fatal.
Even
with causalities and wounded, the soldiers were still able to complete their
main mission, to capture enemy militants and return to base. Gordon has
recently written about a similar mission has taken place in Hawija, Iraq. Their
mission was to capture militants, and just like in Mogadishu, a soldier was
killed in action. This shows that operation missions are often similar to ones
that have taken place in the past. This mission has taken twenty years later
and shows that even though the United States has done similar missions over
years there is still a chance of death. While this operation is not as gruesome
as the battle in Mogadishu, it show shows that we still have room for
improvement.
It
is important when looking into the past to learn from previous mistakes and
advance. It is foolish to expect perfection, as there are always variables that
are uncontrollable, but it’s stupid to do nothing to improve. The United States
military has come a long way since the Civil War and may new factors have risen
with the evolution of war. There are many factors that remain the same, such as
communication and the types of operations that are carried out, and it’s
important that we improve on them. There is always room for improvement and
with new technology and tactics rising the nature of war will change over the
years, but key elements that remain must not be forgotten and expanded on. The
United States does not want to get left in the dust.
Sources:
Bowden, Mark. Black Hawk Down: A
Story Of Modern War. New York. Grove Press,1999. Print
Gordon, Michael. "American
Soldier Killed Freeing Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq". The New York Times. 22 October.
2015. Web. 27 October.2015
Kelly, Kate. "War Communication
Before Modern Technology." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28
Mar. 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
