The Soul’s Fortress

During my deployment with CFLCC, I was tasked with providing ground analysis for a U.S. Marine unit bound for Baghdad. They were departing Basrah and planned to push north, then west, using Highway 6. At the time, intelligence reported six Iraqi divisions entrenched along that route. Highway 6 was a tactical nightmare: a two-lane, hard-surface road elevated nearly 10 feet above the surrounding terrain. While it looked like a straightforward "Sunday drive" on a map, for a combat unit, it was a corridor of death. If they stayed on that road, they would be "sitting ducks" with zero room to maneuver. Despite my warnings, the Marine G2 planner was fixated on this approach. I made no secret of my assessment: they were on a road to disaster. Eventually, I was called to brief the Marine G2 directly. I brought my imagery, my slides, and a hard truth: Highway 6 was a trap. My recommendation was to utilize the unfinished Highway 1. It offered the element of surprise and a more direct route, but it came with a massive engineering hurdle: the road was interrupted by numerous canals and rivers with no bridges or culverts in place. Typical field-expedient crossings would be too slow; AVLBs (Armored Vehicle Launched Bridges) would be too few and too resource-heavy. Drawing on my expertise as a Combat Heavy Engineer, I proposed an unconventional solution: specialized piping that could be rapidly installed to create secure crossings without damming the water flow. The G2 listened. They abandoned the "obvious" route and took the path I proposed. They made it to Baghdad safely. The moral here is more than just "staying flexible." It’s about the devastating impact of the wrong decision. If that planner had succeeded in his original intent, I believe that entire brigade would have gone "black"—wiped out before they ever saw Sadr City. In leadership, being "determined" is a virtue, but being "fixated" is a death sentence. You must have the humility to step back and reevaluate before the cost becomes too high to pay.