“Enemy tracer rounds were zipping overhead as I raced up the stairs to the third-story rooftop of our tactical operations center (TOC) building. Our camp was under attack. I had not even had time to fasten my body armor. When the shooting started, I grabbed my helmet and rifle, slung my load bearing equipment over my shoulders, and headed for the roof. SEALS were arriving by the dozen, some in flip flops with only shorts and t-shirts under their body armor, but helmets and weapons at the ready.
Just across the river, in the darkness, enemy fighters had unleashed heavy volleys of machine gun fire on two separate U.S. outposts and the American soldiers were returning fire with a vengeance. The bright glow of tracer fire was evident in both directions. Another group of enemy fighters had engaged our camp and were hammering our TOC building with gunfire from the far bank of the Euphrates River.
But they had not counted on a response. Within minutes, every Navy SEAL in Task Unit Bruiser and several of our non-SEAL support personnel were on the rooftop shooting back. Some SEALS had brought their M4 rifles, others M79 40MM grenade launchers, others Mk48 and Mk46 belt-fired machine guns. We unleased incredible volleys of fire back at the enemy fighter’s muzzle flashes. I directed an M79 gunner to put some 40MM illuminations rounds up so we could better identify our targets.”
Greetings,
The preceding excerpt is from the book “Extreme Ownership, How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win” written by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, Chapter 4 “Check the Ego.” The chapter goes on to tell how the SEALS, who are the elite fighting force, learned to check their ego when collaborating with Army and Marine units who were not as highly trained. The point is that no matter the level of training, their mission was the same. Save every life they could, defeat the enemy, the Sunni insurgency, and Al Qaeda, and bring about a resemblance of peace to the city of AR Ramadi, the capitol of the Anbar Province in Iraq.
In reading the preceding book chapter and story, I could not help but draw several similarities on the basics of that war and the battle faced by counties and local government to acquire adequate funding for proper maintenance of the rural infrastructure. Road funding is not an immediate life or death situation like that faced by the soldiers in the book, and I certainly do not mean it to be perceived as such, but the principles of operation are very much the same. In fact, the book was written to utilize what the authors learned during their tour of duty and sharing those experiences to help others with leadership development.
The local roads referred to here are gravel and paved town/township, county, DNR and county forestry department roads and seasonal roads which are all used for recreation and forest management. Multiple roads referenced also serve residences. Like the soldiers know, an enemy must be identified so they know who/what the target is and what they are shooting at to eliminate said enemy.
For transportation there could be more than one enemy or target. For instance, is there enough tax money collected to maintain or replace roads and bridges, is the collected money managed appropriately, is it going directly back to roads, are the dollars gobbled up by inflation or rising construction costs? Is more of the tax money collected by agencies spent for indirect costs as opposed to direct road costs? Did the vehicles using the roads get larger with a heavier footprint after the roads were built? Is the target all the above or is one thing more critical to address than the others? Obviously, the easy road, pun intended, is placing the target squarely on the back of funding. Regardless, I cannot verify that GLTPA has ever been engaged in a meeting or meetings to clearly identify and attack the enemies in a logical manner that gets the continued deterioration of the infrastructure back to an adequate state of being. As I think about it, the same scenario exists for forestry specific related issues.
The soldiers in this story were in a foreign country, operating on unfamiliar ground and a difficult climate, and as stated in the book, dealing with an enemy that was evil. And I quote, “Perhaps as evil as any the U.S. military had faced in its long history. These violent jihadis used torture, rape, and murder as weapons to ruthlessly terrorize, intimidate, and rule over civilian populace who lived in abject fear. The American public and much of the Western World lived in willful naïveté’ of the barbaric, unspeakable tactics these jihadis employed. It was subhuman savagery.”
The preceding quote sets the stage for two things. One is that citizens, Congress and state legislatures, can no longer be naïve to the fact that the time has come where protecting local roads by limiting use for commercial vehicles, is taking precedence over maintaining them to the standard required for efficient agricultural/forest product transportation. These are the industries that create billions of dollars and support manufacturing jobs generating the income tax keeping government in business. Reducing their respective efficiencies by causing them to haul additional smaller loads, drives the cost up for them and does little to nothing to protect the roads they are providing tax money to pay for.
The second thing is that the SEALS had to get over their ego and coordinate efforts between all the soldiers in that region. To be uncoordinated meant more opportunity for the enemy to kill American soldiers and a high possibility of fratricide within their own units. Fratricide, or the accidental shooting of members within your own unit, happens when there is confusion in the battlefield. Coordinating was the only way they would survive and get the mission accomplished. This is also true when agencies do not share with one another potential road funding opportunities.
As written last month, local roads are critical for efficient forest management to continue. If local roads continue to be restricted, costs will increase for loggers and manufacturers, and the value of raw material will drop for landowners. If it does not change, the few remaining mills in the Lake States Region will become uncompetitive in today’s global market.
The method the SEALS applied in battle are the same methods that can work for rebuilding the local infrastructure. As with the soldiers, our battle is not about individual life or death, but it may well be life or death for the industries like forestry that provide what Americans needs to survive. Food, shelter, social, ecological, and economic wellbeing.
To begin with, it is important for the timber industry to meet and coordinate with road commissions, county highway agencies, and towns/townships on a regular basis. (Wisconsin is towns, Michigan is Townships) Since we are all fighting the same enemy, deterioration of the infrastructure, coordination and communication are key. It is natural that everyone has an opinion of how everyone else should run their business or association, but it is rare that anyone takes the time to gather details on how and why things are implemented the way they are when under someone else’s command.
Most folks in the forest industry have never overseen roads and guaranteed, most folks who manage roads have never been loggers/truckers. That needs to improve. It’s the adage, first seek to understand, then be understood. If the soldiers had not coordinated, the number of American lives lost and the number of life changing wounds for the soldiers would have been much higher.
While many more are needed, there is one such coordination project in the works and it deals with the long overdue insufficient funding for what are known as Seasonal Roads in Michigan. GLTPA Michigan Team member Denny Olson and GLTPA President Mike Elenz are the leads on the project. Seasonal roads are extremely important for access and transportation of thousands of tons of wood for the forest products industry throughout Michigan and the region. Funding for seasonal roads began in 1985 at a level of $5 million and has never been increased or adjusted for inflation. Funding for those routes in 2025 should be at the $20 million level. The time has come to change that. In coordination with the County Road Association and others, perhaps enough attention can be brought to the issue to make sure the squeaky wheel gets some grease. The larger the group, the louder the voice, and hopefully the larger the win.
Wisconsin will see some more improvement on rural roads. In the 2023 budget the Agricultural Road Improvement Program (ARIP) was legislated and provided $150 million to upgrade qualified class “B” roads to a class “A” year-round statis aimed to help agriculture and forestry. The 2025 budget has provided another $150 million which will likely be used to fund projects in the very near future.
Until Next month,
Henry
“Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant.” ~Author unknown.