War Strategy

Oh what a day June the Eighth was, although not as exciting as some other days it had its own twists and turns. Led by our fearless leaders (see photos attached) we evoked our glorious plan to develop a game so incredibly elaborate yet effortless that any raw recruit could have a tremendously excellent time whilst spending quality time with friends. The game we came up with was…. “Bello Infernum!” or War is Hell! In a classic combination of strategy and luck, this game seeks to bring the thrill of combat to your own home! Throughout the game making process many unsuspecting people stepped up to leadership roles and helped lead us to our final project. One person I am especially proud of is Atticus Salls. Through intricate and decisive strategic planning, Atticus showed excellent leadership qualities that none of us knew he possessed. A favorite quote of his that I really took to heart was “Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration.” -Lil Dirk. He showed inconceivable mental toughness and resilience under adversity. As the end of our day approached increasingly rapidly we began to “feel the heat,” for we had not finished our game yet. However, we finished our game and all left school to our respective houses. We all left something at school though, an unbreakable bond of friendship, that will last a lifetime. The End

This morning a speaker came in and talked to us about the logistics of war in the US military and how it relates to strategy. Lt. Col. Retired Michael Caccuitto from the Air Force presented his experiences in war strategy. Although he wasn’t active on the front lines, his contribution to his service came from research and development that was key to the logistical success of the country.

He focused on research for certain projects to make the Air Force operate more efficiently and effectively. His experiences in war strategy were mainly based off of technology, and finding “tactical offsets” to give the US an advantage over other countries. He was a valuable asset to our understanding in the modern day strategies used in warfare. During lunch, we ate MREs (Meals Ready-to-Eat). These MREs are the same used by soldiers during war, so it expanded our understanding of the mentality and daily life of a soldier during war. In the last half of the day, after lunch, we had a cook off with the Health and Fitness DT. We quickly got competitive and made Guacamole and Salsa; in the end, we beat the Health and Fitness club at their own game! The distribution of people performing different tasks on our team definitely expanded our critical thinking regarding strategy.

On Tuesday June the 6th we traveled to Xtreme Kombat in Durham. We played paintball in numerous maps showing different scenarios of war. We played inner city, Junk yard, and forest and different game styles including Team Death Match and Capture the Flag. We split up into two teams freshman vs. Juniors. We used many different strategies we learned throughout the DT to complete each objectives and overcome the other team. We learned which strategies worked really well and some that did not do as well, and we learned an important lesson; That some plans fail at the first bullet. In capture the flag we learned to take one for the team and sometime you must use yourself for the betterment of the team and in Team death match we learned that sneakiness and camouflage was the best policy as we saw through the first game when AJ got the whole team out while hiding in the bushes. As a whole paint ball showed us how war plays out and its most of the time it doesn’t go how you expect it to.”

We arrived to school on day 5, and began to set out for the USS North Carolina in Wilmington. The battleship was commissioned on 9 April 1941, and served during World War II. Later, in 1962, it was converted into a museum ship. Once we got checked in at the ship, we walked through a small entrance museum that talked about the history of the ship, mentioning other ships that had the same namesake and various engagements the ship was in. Once we got on the ship, we entered one of the large 16-inch gun turrets. We then walked around on deck, and saw fire control towers, anti-aircraft guns, and the 5-inch guns. Once we made our way below deck, we explored the crew quarters and other rooms inside the ship. We saw the enlisted berthing, where enlisted sailors in the ship live, the galley, where food is served, officer’s quarters, and powder storage, among other things. We also noticed how heavily defended some positions were in the ship, with fire control being one of the most defended rooms. It had 16-inch-thick walls, because the fire control room is full of the people and equipment who are telling the guns where to shoot. Without the fire control room, the guns are almost blind. The powder magazine was also heavily defended. It holds all the black powder for firing the guns, which is very explosive. To keep the powder safe, it was at the bottom of the ship surrounded by thick armor. After we made our way through the bowels of the ship, we made our way back up on deck. We saw a small motorized boat that the crew of the North Carolina would have used to make their way back to shore, and we also saw a small plane that would have been launched off the back of the ship for spotting. After that, we made our way off the ship and wrapped up a fun and educational trip to the USS North Carolina.

We started the day by splitting into two teas and playing campus-wide capture the flag. Both teams formed strategies to give their teams the best chance to win. But, after only two rounds it was obvious that one team, led by Alex, was superior to the other, capturing their flag before the other team even knew where their flag was. We then played a game of Risk, which helped us learn about some strategies in a more war related context. Although the game was rather simple it still was fun to play and went along with what we are learning in the course. Finally, when we came back from lunch we played some rounds of dodgeball, once again working on strategy. When we played medic dodgeball we learned about how, just like on a real battlefield, you have to protect your medic because without them, you get out a lot easier.

          Today, we went to the Special Operation Museum in Fayetteville. This exhibited the history of Special Operations, dating back to its origins in WWII with the Airborne Infantry. The history continued all the way through contemporary conflicts where special operations are used to combat terrorist and insurgencies. We also toured a memorial site outside the Special Operations complex that had contemporary art memorials to historic conflicts and value that the military has.

Today we discussed a couple of essential questions: What is War? and What is ethical in War? The group created a list of many different styles of war, and then we discussed the ethics of each style. After this discussion, there was a follow-up discussion on how different methods within war were just or not.

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