Infantry Company Research Articles

Effectiveness of an Expendable Unmanned Ground Vehicle Stalling a Mechanized Infantry Company's Primary Combat Units—A Virtual Simulation Experiment

ABSTRACTTechnological advancements have spurred the development of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and their innovative military applications and strategies. Such applications include expendable UGVs. However, public research concerning expendable military UGVs remains sparse. Particularly, the unclassified literature does not contain studies regarding their capabilities and effectiveness in combat. This study introduces a new low‐cost expendable UGV called Laykka. Moreover, the study presents a virtual simulation experiment to evaluate Laykkas' operational capabilities and their impact on advancing mechanized infantry units. The experiment involved armored reserve officer students assuming the roles of infantry troops forming an attacking opposing force while staff officers controlled simulated infantry troops operating the UGVs. A total of 16 battle simulations were fought. The simulated UGVs operated by a single soldier were able to stall the advancement of the mechanized infantry company's primary combat units three times out of four and a smaller force 11 out of 12 times. The best stalling effect was observed using a mix of UGVs with different module types. These modules allowed reconnaissance, loitering mine, and anti‐tank operations. The simulation experiment revealed that the UGV was an effective defensive tool due to its self‐destructive capability, causing marked battle damage, disruption, and confusion to the opposing forces.

An Officer of the Old Guard: Lewis Stephenson Craig, 1807–1852 by William Harris Bragg

Reviewed by: An Officer of the Old Guard: Lewis Stephenson Craig, 1807–1852 by William Harris Bragg Robert Wettemann An Officer of the Old Guard: Lewis Stephenson Craig, 1807–1852. By William Harris Bragg. ( Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2020. Pp. lvi, 295. $35.00, ISBN 978-0-88146-764-2.) Prominent antebellum U.S. Army leaders and commanders often left paper collections or memoirs readily digested and reexamined by historians and scholars, making new material on the antebellum U.S. Army fruitful for further exploration. Such is the case with William Harris Bragg's study of Lewis Stephenson Craig, which brings Craig's letters, journals, and a heretofore untouched family archive to the forefront. The result is a rich personal portrait of a Virginia gentleman and military officer, who had been denied his plantation by unscrupulous older siblings and guardians and was given an officer's commission when lengthy court battles cost him his inheritance. Abandoning hopes of a place among the Virginia gentry, Craig sought martial glory, gaining a commission as an officer in the Second Dragoons, which he led into the fray in the battle of the Loxahatchee River during the Second Seminole War. Having demonstrated his martial abilities at a time when non–West Point graduates faced prospects of resignation, Craig received a transfer to the Third Infantry regiment. While serving on the southwestern frontier, he not only met and [End Page 158] married Elizabeth Church but also continued to distinguish himself before being ordered to accompany the Third Infantry to the U.S.-Mexican border in anticipation of war. At this point, Bragg's narrative assumes a new form, a deft balance of historical contextualization with excerpts from Craig's journal of his service in the Mexican War. Bragg's efforts are workmanlike as he lets the officer speak: the reader follows Craig in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, shares in his promotion to captain, and marches into the battle of Monterrey, where the Third Infantry distinguished itself in seizing the city. Craig continues as the dominant narrator, describing his path into the enemy works at the battle of Cerro Gordo and thence down the National Road into central Mexico. Craig's wartime journal concluded with General Winfield Scott's capture of Mexico City and Craig's brevet promotions to major for gallantry in the battle of Monterrey and to lieutenant colonel for his efforts at Contreras and Churubusco. After the war, Craig received an appointment to the Joint United States and Mexico Boundary Commission, functioning as the military escort to those charting the boundary between the two nations. The author's narrative continues to balance Craig's extant journal (it is missing the October 26–November 16, 1851, period) with additional historical context tracing the surveying team's progress. Departing from San Antonio and proceeding to El Paso, Craig chronicled the challenges faced by the infantry company under his command, such as Native attacks and actions by U.S. Army deserters. This latter threat brought an ignominious end to Craig's career, as he was murdered while attempting to apprehend a deserter on June 5, 1852. Bragg is at his best when discussing Craig's experience, effectively describing the social and cultural context of life in the Old South and how a young man looked to military service as an alternative to plantation life. Bragg's deeper understanding of the antebellum U.S. Army is less nuanced. While he repeatedly speaks of military professionalism and national service, Bragg's treatment of those notions with respect to officers' possessing a recognized body of military expertise, their shared responsibilities regarding commitment and national service, and the larger corporate nature of officership is cursory at best, particularly considering Craig's uniqueness in receiving a commission direct from civilian life and otherwise lacking the shared West Point traditions that defined the army officer corps before the Mexican War. These shortcomings notwithstanding, Bragg is to be credited for making the life of Lewis Stephenson Craig available to future scholars of the antebellum U.S. Army. Robert Wettemann United States Air Force Academy Copyright © 2022 The Southern Historical Association

Transnational Soldiers vs Resistance National Accounts: The Legend of la Nueve and the “Spanish” Liberation of Paris

The reconstruction of the History of the Resistance in France, the memories of former combatants and their relatives, and an important culture industry have all been developed within a national context, thereby hiding the transnational character of this resistance over the years. This paper shows first how the French State came to “Frenchify” this Resistance and, decades later, civil society and that culture industry tried to “Spanishise” the Liberation of Paris through the construction of the legend of “la Nueve”. With this in mind, the current paper focuses mainly on a historical and memorial analysis of the French infantry company la Nueve, through the recollections and experiences of numerous transnational soldiers, in order to stress the “a la carte” reconstruction of its history, and highlighting the particular role played by the French-Spanish collective memory over the last twenty years.

Layered Behavior Modeling via Combining Descriptive and Prescriptive Approaches: A Case Study of Infantry Company Engagement

Defense modeling and simulation (DMS and prescriptive modeling to discover best individual actions in the reduced space. For the generalization, the proposed method adapts both modeling methods being modularized, and then the proposed method suggested an interface between them that is based on their semantic analogies. Both modeling methods are modularized, so they are interacted through an interface defined in the proposed method. This paper presents a realization of the proposed method through a case study of infantry company-level operations. In the case study, the proposed method is implemented with discrete event system specification formalism as the descriptive part and Markov decision process as the prescriptive part. The experimental results illustrated that the combat effectiveness resulted from the proposed method is statistically better than that from the descriptive-only modeling, and the difference would be guided by the objective of the combat behavior. Through the presented experimental results and the discussion, this paper argues that future DM&S should consider a broad spectrum from the battlefield incorporating the rational behavior of military individuals.

Collecting Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) Badges and Medals Related to the Yukon During the First World War

The Northern Review 44 (2017): 163–208 [We will also post a version of this paper with some figures in colour. Please check back.] I have been collecting Canadian militaria since the early 1970s. I now believe I have collected every known military badge associated with Yukon Territory military units. These include the Yukon Field Force (1898); the Dawson Rifles of Canada (1900); Boyle’s Yukon Machine Gun Detachment (1914)—whose regimental badge was created by Jacoby Brothers in Vancouver; the Yukon Motor Machine Gun Battery (1915)—whose badges were created in England by Gaunt and Sons of London; the Yukon Infantry Company (1916)—whose unique badges were created by Jacoby and included a miniature miner’s gold pan complete with a gold nugget at the base of the pan; the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers (1942); and the Yukon Regiment (1962). In my collection I also have examples of all medals that were awarded to Yukon residents. This paper presents an overview of the badges that were worn on the uniforms worn by the military units that were raised in the Yukon for service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. These badges are considered very rare to military CEF collectors, and seldom offered through an auction. The second part of the papers covers the medals awarded to Yukon men who served in these units and, in particular, the many awards bestowed on Lt. Col. Joe Boyle. Military memorabilia is very important in the remembrance of the soldiers who represented the Yukon Territory during the First World War. Along with a military file, the badges and medals worn by soldiers are a true connection with the past. This article is part of a special collection of papers originally presented at a conference on “The North and the First World War,” held May 2016 in Whitehorse, Yukon. https://doi.org/10.22584/nr44.2017.009

Agent-Based Simulation of Time to Decide: Military Commands and Time Delays

Modelling command and control (C2) is regarded as a difficult task because of the complexity of the decision-making required by individuals in combat. Despite the difficulties, C2 modelling is frequently used for high echelon units, i.e. battalion, division and above. This paper extends these models to the lowest army unit: the infantry company. Previous studies have modelled this particular unit as either an abstract entity or a detailed behaviour model without C2. Our model includes C2 in the models to determine the most critical tasks at company level C2 because this information could direct company commanders to engage in more important operational tasks. Our analysis is based on agent-based modelling and the virtual experiment framework. The overall model includes operational details as discrete event models and soldier behaviour as behavioural models. Our analytical results enable us to identify the key C2 tasks of company commanders and the changes in the importance of various operational environments.

Reception, organization and movement of an infantry company in UNIFIL

The process of gaining experiences in operations is an integral part of the concept of lessons learned. The acquired knowledge and analyses of the experiences make it possible to take proper measures to eliminate the causes of observed failings and weaknesses. The main aim of this paper is to make the knowledge and experiences gained during the preparation and implementation of the reception, organization and movement of an infantry company in UNIFIL available both for further analysis and for the development of military theory and practice in general. Apart from the overview and explanation of the activities carried out in UNIFIL, the paper presents also pertinent comparisons with views and solutions which can be found in the military professional literature regarding the preparation and implementation of the reception, organization and movement of forces. In such a way, more relevant conceptual definitions are provided; the factors that influence the process of reception, organization and movement of forces deployed to a multinational operation are identified; and the role of the National Support Element in its preparation and implementation is presented.

Body Composition and Cardiorespiratory Response of Male and Female Soldiers during a Simulated Attack Maneuver

The study of organic response during combat is poorly reported in specific literature, despite being essential to improve soldiers training. The aim of the present research was to study the body composition and organic response during a treadmill test simulating the attack maneuver of a light infantry company, studying the differences between soldiers gender. Body composition and organic response in the treadmill test were analyzed in 27 healthy professional soldiers. Body weight was lower and fat mass was higher in female soldiers, and height and muscle mass were higher in male soldiers. In treadmill test, values of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2), oxygen uptake at anaerobic threshold and maximal heart rate (HR) and HR at anaerobic threshold, were higher in male soldiers (male vs. female: 51.9±1.2 vs. 50.4±1.3 ml/kg/min; 3278.9±93.9 vs. 2721.8 ml/min; 194.2±1.9 vs. 184.0±6.6 bpm; 181.3±1.8 vs. 171.4±1.7 bpm respectively). During simulated attack maneuver female soldiers presented lower VO2 and higher HR than male soldiers, showing a worse physical fitness level. These data could be used by military coach to improve specific combat training. It is also recommended a decrease in the weigh carried by soldiers and to improve their aerobic performance to maximize the efficiency in last phases of combat maneuvers.

Recognition of Initiative in an Infantry Company’s Battle Exercise to Support Tactical Overall Analysis

The scientific goal of this paper is to demonstrate, from the viewpoint of tactical overall analysis, how different quantitative (e.g. distribution analysis) and qualita- tive research (e.g. text analysis) methods could be used to support the traditional ways (tactical maps and event catalogues) of analyzing tactical phenomena ― in this case the initiative in a battle ― and how different types of instruments could be utilized and developed (e.g. NASA-TLX) for analyzing subjective human factors during the battle ― in this case especially the feeling of having initiative. In this paper, as an example, numerical values are calculated to determine whether there is a correlation between the casualty ratio and initiative. The results are verified based on battle space situation pictures. In addition, the analyses of distributions describing the variation of the feeling of one’s own force and of the adversary of having the initiative are used to support the results showing which fighting side has the initiative.

Relations between vitamin D status, muscle tone and body composition in soldiers: association with long-term mission

Vitamin D level is known to play an important role in the regulation of different human functions, including the functions of the cardio-vascular and musculoskeletal systems. The aim of the study was to find relations between vitamin D level, skeletal muscles tone and body composition in conditions of prolonged physical load. Sixty-five well-trained male soldiers from the Estonian ESTCOY-8 infantry company were examined before and after a six-month military mission to assess the soldiers’ vitamin D level, skeletal muscles tone and body composition. The results of the study showed that, during the long-term military mission, muscle tone of lower extremities decreased in conditions where vitamin D status was significantly increased (from average 40 to 104 nmol/L; p<0.001). We also found that the upper and middle part m. trapezius tone increased significantly during long-term strenuous military mission. Our study showed that the long-time military mission influenced the skeletal muscles functional state. Decrease in muscle tone of lower extremities was related to increase in serum vitamin 25(OH)D level (in average by 64nmol/L). At the same time muscle tone of m. trapezius increased in our group of subjects, and this increase was linked to WHR.

Relationship between soldiers' body height-weight category and changes in their spinal column kyphotic curvature during a long-term military mission

Prolonged physical load can unfavourably influence the human vertebral column. Thirty-six well-trained male soldiers from the Estonian ESTCOY-8 infantry company were examined before and after a 6-month military mission to assess the effect of long-term physical load on soldiers’ spinal column kyphotic curvature in relation to their body build (height-weight category). Body height and weight of the men under study were measured before and after the 6-month-long military mission. BMI was calculated as the body weight (kg) divided by the square of the standing body height (m). Body height-weight category was assessed according to Kaarma et al. 2008. Spine kyphotic curvature in the sagittal plane was recorded using pantography. The results of the study showed that significant kyphotic curvature appeared in half of the well-trained soldiers. Changes in kyphotic curvature were related to the person’s body build (height-weight category). Subjects with a larger body seemed to have greater stability of kyphotic curvature.

Edward L. Posey, The U.S. Army's First, Last, and Only All-Black Rangers: The 2d Ranger Infantry Company (Airborne) in the Korean War, 1950–1951. New York: Savas Beatie, 2009. Pp. 232. Cloth $32.95.

Previous articleNext article No AccessEdward L. Posey, The U.S. Army's First, Last, and Only All-Black Rangers: The 2d Ranger Infantry Company (Airborne) in the Korean War, 1950–1951. New York: Savas Beatie, 2009. Pp. 232. Cloth $32.95.Fenobia I. DallasFenobia I. DallasSaginaw Valley State University Search for more articles by this author Saginaw Valley State UniversityPDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of African American History Volume 97, Number 4Fall 2012 A journal of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5323/jafriamerhist.97.4.0489 Views: 6Total views on this site Copyright 2012 The Association for the Study of African American Life and HistoryPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

La infantería fija de la costa del reino de Granada y la revista de Inspección de 1789

En 1789 se lleva a cabo la visita o revista de inspección de las compañías de infantería fija que prestaban servicio en la Costa del Reino de Granada, constituyendo una fuerza especial dedicada a la persecución de contrabandistas y malhechores y a la prevención de ataques norteafricanos. La documentación generada por esa inspección nos descubre las facetas internas y la dependencia de estas compañías.

Book Review: Pipping, K. (1947/2008). Infantry Company as a Society (Publication Series 1, No. 3/2008), edited and translated by P. Kekäle. Helsinki, Finland: Department of Behavioural Sciences, National Defence University

Book Review: Pipping, K. (1947/2008). Infantry Company as a Society (Publication Series 1, No. 3/2008), edited and translated by P. Kekäle. Helsinki, Finland: Department of Behavioural Sciences, National Defence University

EDMUND J. RAUS, JR. Banners South: A Northern Community at War. (Civil War in the North.) Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. 2005. Pp. xiv, 333. $39.00

The American Civil War has been looked at from almost every conceivable angle, and more of late from the perspectives of the home front and the men in the ranks. Because so many people in mid-nineteenth-century America were literate, and because so much of what they wrote about the war has been preserved, the Civil War is the first major armed conflict in human history in which we can know and understand a considerable amount about the ordinary people involved. In this book, Edmund J. Raus, Jr., adds to that understanding. The object of his attention is the community of Cortland, New York, a small, not so prosperous, upstate town west of the Appalachians, located within a county of the same name inhabited in 1860 by 26,000 people. They were a highly homogeneous lot—white, mostly Methodists and Baptists, overwhelmingly Republicans. Only five percent of residents had been born outside the United States. Furthermore, they shared most of the same myths and opinions about their country and the reasons for trouble with the South. When war came they vociferously responded with bombastic speeches, mass meetings, and torchlight parades, and almost spontaneously out of the commotion arose the “Cortland Volunteers,” an infantry company that soon became part of the Twenty-third Regiment of New York Volunteers. The average age of its members was twenty-two. Most were unmarried farm boys who had attended school and church together; they were more like a hometown athletic team than a military force. The town made a great fuss over them, and before they departed for Elmira in late May, local women made them a distinctive flag to carry southward into battle.

Field-User Acceptability of New Camouflage Face Paint Formulations in the Republic of Korea

New formulations of camouflage face paint (CFP), one with 30% N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET) and the other without DEET, were evaluated for soldier-user acceptability during a military field-training exercise in the Republic of Korea. Soldiers testing the CFP formulations were members of one of four U.S. Army infantry companies (A, B, C, or D). The formulations were evaluated while soldiers participated in simulated combat exercises for 5 days during hot, humid summer weather in Korea. Results showed that soldiers found both of the new formulations easier to apply (91.3% of respondents who used CFP without DEET and 87.9% of respondents who used CFP with DEET) and remove (82.6% without DEET and 81.2% with DEET) than the previous standard military-issue CFP. Soldier acceptability was higher for the new CFP formulation with 30% DEET (70.5%) than for the formulation without 30% DEET (52.9%). Soldiers recommended it more frequently (70.5%) than the formulation without 30% DEET (50.0%). The new CFP formulation with 30% DEET was rated more often (79.5%) as either good or excellent than the new formulation without 30% DEET (67.4%). Soldiers reported that the CFP formulation with 30% DEET more successfully camouflaged the face (92.7%) than the formulation without 30% DEET (80.0%).

The Japanese Colonial State and the Dissolution of the Late Imperial Frontier Economy in Taiwan, 1886–1909

In the first few days of July 1902, camphor workers in the mountains around the town of Nanzhuang (Nansh?) abandoned their stills and joined a growing exodus of settlers and townspeople who, fearing rumors of an impending indigene attack, had packed up their belongings and were fleeing the town. Japanese colonial officials on the spot requested a dispatch of troops from the Xinzhu garrison to restore order and project the state's authority in this thriving center of camphor production on the edge of Japan's colonial empire (1895-1945). The company arrived on July 6, just in time to thwart a direct strike on the town. The so-called savage insurgents?in reality a motley crew of over eight hundred disgruntled frontiersmen, displaced camphor workers, and indigenes led by the Hakka settler-cum-indigene chief Ri Aguai? nevertheless surrounded and destroyed several frontier guard stations and camphor stills in the mountains. Faced with a disturbance reaching critical proportions and threatening to spill into neighboring mountain districts and paralyze the thriving camphor industry, colonial officials called for more reinforcements. Three days later, the army deployed Xinzhu's second infantry company and first artillery platoon to the scene for action.

Swedish peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A quantitative analysis

This article describes the prototypical peacekeeping soldier and his experiences, based on a sample of all male soldiers serving in mechanized infantry companies in the first four Swedish UN battalions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (N = 1,238). A questionnaire was administered as a part of the demobilization programme. The prototypical peacekeeper is male, 20–25 years old, single, serves in a mechanized infantry company, and is on his first UN mission. Four different types of motives for joining the service were identified. The degree of perceived family support co‐varied strongly with service experiences. Favourable evaluations of the service period were associated with good relations with commanders and peers, perceiving few tasks as boring, but also with a high exposure to stressful events. The positive association with stress exposure may be related to the fact that no Swedish peacekeepers were killed during this period, which in turn probably contributed to experiences of invulnerability among the exposed soldiers while also increasing their social status among peers.

An Autobiographical Note

In 1946 I frequently published essays in various periodicals and journals. Among these, two brought me great satisfaction. One, in New Masses, February 12, 1946, was entitled Integration among Combat Troops in World War II. This detailed employment of black-white mixed combat infantry companies during closing weeks of war. This was not of major military consequence; it demonstrated also how quickly racism could be overcome if reality of joint black-white struggle came into existence. The second essay, Literacy, Afro-American, and World War II, appeared in Journal of Negro Education, Fall 1946. It described tests in learning and comprehension administered by army to scores of thousands of black and white troops. This resulted in slightly better achievements by black men than white-a smashing blow to ideas of black inferiority that then were dominant and still are not overcome. Major-General Edward Witsell, of War Department, asked me, in a letter dated August 17, 1948, for permission to reprint that article for distribution among officers in his command. Permission was granted; general thanked me for this in a letter dated September 3; he added that editor of Journal of Negro Education also had granted permission. Enclosed were two copies of this offprint. Two years later I received a three-page single-spaced letter from another army officer, C. A. Beall Jr. This communication, dated November 6, 1950, was marked Confidential. I received it on Armistice Day. It was addressed to Major Herbert Aptheker, A.U.S. Here it is reproduced, in full. Its imbecility is startling. Note, as examples, charge s, where allegedly I state that Communist party is only champion of Negro race which is fighting for their emancipation from tentacles of masses. This lunacy is matched by charge t, where I am alleged to have said-and this is put with quotation marks-the way defects in our government could be remedied was by an armed conspiracy. Noteworthy is emphasis upon my connection with the Negro-this reflects, I think, racism then openly expounded by Washington and especially by fanatical J. Edgar Hoover.

Differences in Company Leadership Between Infantry and Armor Units in the Israel Defense Forces

In view of differences between the historical origins of infantry and armor units in the Israel Defense Forces and the more technology-dependent and mechanistic nature of armor units in comparison with infantry units, we hypothesized certain differences in the leadership style of company leaders in the 2 types of units. We compared leader behaviors and some of their correlates in 24 infantry companies and 21 tank companies on the basis of surveys answered by company staff members (n = 166 and n = 146, respectively) and soldiers (n = 310 and n = 235, respectively). We complemented the quantitative analysis with an interview-based qualitative comparison of high-performing company leaders in the 2 types of units. The findings provide partial support for the hypotheses and suggest that more attention should be given to interunit differences in leadership patterns.