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FACES OF FREAKLEY
By S. Thorne Harper
The Ledger-Enquirer, Columbus, GA
Friday, November 7, 2003
www.ledger-enquirer.com
Last August, addressing 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division troops at anawards ceremony following their return from Iraq, new Fort Benning commander Brig.Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley nearly broke into tears.
"We live in a country that sometimes misplaces loyalty and who it looks up to," he said. "Our heroes are rock stars, athletes, rich people and WWF wrestlers. But today's true heroes are the soldiers sitting right here."
Freakley is a passionate man. Faced daily with accounts of U.S. casualties, Freakley -- also a veteran of the Iraq war -- doesn't think the real story is being told about Operation Iraqi Freedom, and his eyes light with a dark fire when he talks about it.
He has mixed feelings about "embedding" journalists with U.S. troops, saying
it complicates the battlefield, but says media and the military should "engage" each other and "tell a more balanced story" in Iraq.Closer to home, he supports the constitutional right of SOA Watch to conduct
annual protests at Fort Benning, but warns that he will take protesters to civil court to recoup costs for any property damage at this year's protest.In an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer, Freakley talks about these and other issues, including his fascination with military history, how Fort Benning will fare in the 2005 round of Base Realignment and Closure hearings, and what it will take to prevail in Iraq.
What do you do for relaxation and hobbies? I like history. I particularly like Civil War history. I like to read about anything that has to do with military or history. I'm reading Rick Atkinson's book, "An Army at Dawn," talking about the Second World War experience in North Africa.
The boys' sports activities. I find myself on Saturdays watching one of them play soccer, watching the other on Sundays. I go to church on Sundays. Pretty
routine. My wife and I are antique collectors.Watching sports. Anything NFL right now. Certainly enjoy college basketball in the wintertime and baseball in the summertime. Cottonmouths when they're playing in town.
As a younger man, I relaxed by playing rugby for 10 years. I played for 3 1/2 years for West Point... . I played for the Fort Benning Flyers (now the "Cruise-a-Matics") twice, once as a lieutenant and then as a captain.
Is there a particular Civil War battle that interests you?
When you're reading history, you're thinking about "what decisions are those sergeants and lieutenants and captains making?"... So you might read a story about Gettysburg, or something about Normandy, as a captain or a lieutenant, and your thinking is about what decisions were being made then. As you go along, as a colonel or a general, you're reading that same story but you're looking at "what were the strategic implications of the decisions being made?" "What if the battle would've turned a different way?" "What were the logistics shortfalls?" "If at the (Civil War) battle of Chancellorsville, what if (Union Gen. Joseph) Hooker was prepared that day? What should Hooker have done to have prevented (Confederate Gen. Thomas 'Stonewall') Jackson from turning his flank and rolling his flank up? And what did Jackson and (Confederate Gen. Robert E.) Lee fail to do to make it a complete victory?"
I think when you read history, especially being a military man, you reconsider the history as you learn more about your profession. How is Fort Benning looking with the next round of Base Realignment and Closure coming in 2005? Should the Columbus community be concerned? We're not involved in that at all right now. That is outside my purview... .
Fort Benning is a strong, premiere deployment platform for the military... . We are growing. We're going to put in a digital, multipurpose range complex next year that will allow the 3rd Infantry Division and other units to train at even higher standards and give them better feedback... . We have such a large training base here, it'd be difficult to have that infrastructure recreated somewhere else. I think we're well-positioned where we are.
How did your combat experience in Iraq prepare you for your current position as commander of the infantry school? What can be applied from that experience to what you're doing at Fort Benning?
At one level, we need to get the newest equipment that soldiers are being fielded, like the Interceptor body armor and the completely configured M-4 rifle, with all the optics, aiming and laser and lighting devices that go with that. The term I use is "field new equipment to the training base first." So that when a soldier being trained here goes to his next unit he is familiar with the equipment.
Also teaching them what's on the contemporary, operating battlefield: if there are civilians on the battlefield; if there is media on the battlefield; if there's an enemy on the battlefield; if there are "improvised explosive devices" on the battlefield. That's all important and is being fused into training right now.
The battlefield is not black and white. It is not the enemy and the friendlies. It is a complicated battlefield, with mixed forces -- coalition forces -- with enemy using civilians to help them get to their military end, as humans shields, to complicate the battlefield, or just to gather information. I think the "embedded media" was a grand idea but, at the same time, it complicates the environment because the unit is now not only fighting but is also protecting the members of media that are moving inside their organization. At that level, you want to make sure the soldiers understand the complexity of the battlefield.
Additionally, more emphasis on fighting in urban operations and having the mental flexibility to transition rapidly from a combat operation to a stability and support operation. And thinking your way through that you're going to have to do that transition before you begin the fight, not while or after you conduct the fight.
In November, SOA Watch will conduct its annual protest at Fort Benning, targeting the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (the successor to the U.S. Army's School of the Americas). You've known soldiers killed in Iraq. How do you process your own personal feelings and those that involve your responsibilities as post commander?
My number one requirement as the post commander of Fort Benning is to protect the civilians, the families, the military members, the retirees who use Fort Benning as an installation. It is also my job as a military officer, who is sworn to defend the
Constitution, to make sure that American citizens get to exercise their right of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.There are laws that limit what they can or cannot do... if they violate the law, I will enforce the law. That is, if they come on to the post they will be arrested. And they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If they damage government property, and if they cost us to spend thousands of dollars to clean up after what they've done, then I will seek economic compensation for their damages to a government installation. There has to be responsibility tied to privileges. It is a privilege -- and it is a right in America to assemble and demonstrate -- but it isn't a
privilege or a right to damage government property.Who would you target for economic compensation? How will you know who to
target?Well I'm sure the press and others will take pictures of acts that go on. The other thing is that the organization (SOA Watch) petitioned Columbus for a license or a permit to demonstrate, so we will go back through that route and ask Columbus to get up economic restoration of what we spend to clean up. My recommendation to the mayor would be that, if we have a historical understanding of how much it has cost -- at least Fort Benning to clean up every year, and we're looking into that -- then, if you're going to issue them a permit, they ought to have to pay or perhaps put up an escrow... . If nothing's damaged, the money comes back. If things are damaged, then that escrow account is used to pay for the damage and the cleanup.
What will it take to prevail in Iraq?
My opinion is that, first of all, we need the national resolve of the American people to see it through... . And we need the national patience to understand that this is not going to be like a fast-food restaurant. What has been in place for over 35 years cannot be turned in 35 days. We want a quick win. Well, you know what? Tactically we won. Saddam Hussein's army and his armed forces have been destroyed by the coalition forces. They are no more. The regime has been removed. It is no more.
We were in Germany and Japan for generations, more than 50 years. And now they are strong, economic allies... . And we need the support of other nations, because this is bigger than the United States, and have Iraq emerged democratically free, religiously moderate and economically strong.
What do you think it's going to take to maintain national interest and patience to support the war in Iraq?
Engagements where the media and the military together talk about Iraq and the future of America's involvement in Iraq... . We need more of the media to travel to Iraq and tell a balanced story. And make sure the American people are getting the facts on both sides of the issue, and not slanted on one side or the other for some agenda.
You don't think that balanced story is being told right now?
In my opinion, what we've done, to a degree, is gone into a sensationalist mode. We're repeating history with telling the stories of casualties every day without telling the stories of the positive effects that we are having. Where are the stories about the numbers of schools that have been rebuilt, the computers that have been delivered to those schools and the children that are getting a great education, a balanced education without the front of the textbook being a picture of Saddam Hussein? Where is that story being told? Where is the story of the hospitals that have opened, and the elderly people getting good, solid care, of pharmaceuticals that are arriving at hospitals and being distributed fairly? Where is the story of over a million metric tons of wheat and barley that were brought in and harvested in northern Iraq around Mosul?... It's a travesty that one American soldier, or civilian, is being killed there. Yet, at the same time, there's an awful lot of freedom that's being exercised by the people of Iraq for the first time in generations.
Sent by SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS WATCH WEST ~ SOAWW
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