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The Spear

Operation Blowfish

The Spear

John Amble

Government, News

4.8642 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2017

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2010, Col. Jonathan Neumann commanded 1/17 Infantry Battalion, deployed in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Near the end of the deployment, the battalion received intelligence that Taliban forces were massing nearby, intending to try to overrun an American position. Col. Neumann talks through the four-day battle that followed.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi and welcome to another episode of the Modern War Institute podcast. I'm John Amble,

0:15.0

editorial director at MWI. On this episode, Captain Jake Moraldi is back and sits down for a

0:20.3

discussion with Colonel Jonathan Newman.

0:22.6

Colonel Newman has served for the past three years as the director of West Point's Department of Military Instruction.

0:27.7

Prior to that, he commanded the 198th Infantry Brigade, the unit responsible for training nearly 20,000 new infantrymen and mortarmen per year.

0:35.6

In both of these jobs, he's played a central role in guiding the way

0:39.0

the Army trains its soldiers and leaders to operate and thrive in the current operating

0:42.6

environment. In this episode of the podcast, Colonel Newman shares his thoughts on what principles

0:48.1

should guide the Army's training, particularly as our nation's missions have required a balance

0:52.1

between training on traditional core competencies

0:54.3

and preparing to conduct other missions like stability operations and counterinsurgency.

0:59.8

Before we turn to Captain Moraldi's conversation with Colonel Newman, a couple notes.

1:04.0

Remember to follow MWI on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay connected and hear about new podcast episodes,

1:09.8

articles, research, and events.

1:12.4

And as always, what you hear in this podcast are the reviews of the participants and don't

1:16.9

represent the position of any agency of the U.S. government.

1:20.5

All right, enjoy the podcast.

1:26.6

Colonel Newman, sir, I appreciate you taking the time to sit down and talk to us.

1:30.3

I think it'll be really interesting conversation about how you bring soldiers in the Army,

1:34.3

and how you sort of prioritize the things that they're learning and what they're training as they enter their service.

1:41.3

To start out with, we'll kind of go with a big picture question and then kind of neck down from there.

1:47.0

I'm curious what it means to you as someone who's been in the Army for quite some time,

...

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