In Command:: Q&A with Lt. Col. Robert D. Burke, Squadron Commander of 1-152 CAV (RSTA)

Courtesy Photo | Robert Burke pictured in his Indiana State Police uniform. Burke is also the Battalion Commander for the 1-152 CAV from the Indiana National Guard.  

TAJI, IRAQ

09.02.2008

Courtesy Story

1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade

By Sgt 1st Class Jason Thornbury
1st Sustainment Brigade

CAMP TAJI – Few are given the opportunity to command a battalion in a combat zone. And to be a commander is, arguably, the highlight of an officer's career. To command is to serve, as Andre Malraux states. For Lt. Col. Robert Burke, a Connersville, Ind., native, and the squadron commander of 1st Squadron, 152nd Cavalry Recon, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition, service and commanding have been a part of his life since birth. Burke was born on a military post and witnessed his father, (Christopher Burke, a Vietnam veteran and Army Reservist), retire at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and complete some of the hardest schools the Army had to offer.

The standard was set by his father and Lt. Col. Burke chose to meet those same challenges. A graduate of Norwich University with a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice, he commissioned through the Army Senior ROTC program as a 2nd Lieutenant and branched as an armor officer. He went on to complete the Armor Officer Basic course, Ranger school, and Airborne school prior to arriving at Fort Carson for his first duty assignment. Upon completion of his active duty tour, he chose to join the Indiana Army National Guard and sought a career in civilian law enforcement.

Hired by the Indiana State Police in the summer of 1993, Burke attended the Indiana State Police Recruit Academy. Choosing not to settle for the bare minimum, he went on to be selected for the Emergency Response Team as a sniper and eventually the Sniper Team Chief for his ERT in the Central Indiana zone. He has also been promoted to the rank of sergeant with the ISP.

Burke continued his military education while pursuing his career with the state police. Through the Indiana Army National Guard, he attended the Command and General Staff College just prior to a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan with the 76th Separate Infantry Brigade (Enhanced) as the Brigade's J3 (Operations / Training officer).

Burke's knowledge of Armor, Cavalry, and Infantry became very useful as he became the battalion commander of the 1st Battalion, 151st Infantry in 2007.

As with many units in today's Army, the Indiana National Guard was experiencing a re-organization. With this information, the 1-151 Infantry battalion would be reorganized into the 1-152 Cavalry Squadron (RSTA), based out of New Albany, Ind. The transition was a learning experience for commanders, NCOs and enlisted Soldiers, alike. And, then word came that the unit would deploy again. But this time to Iraq, not Afghanistan - like the unit had done in 2004-2005.

With this deployment to Iraq, Burke commands an Area Defense Operations Center and provides force protection for a portion of Camp Taji with two units from the Arkansas Army National Guard (1123rd Transportation Company and 1038th Horizontal Construction Company), and his own headquarters company, of 1-152 Cavalry.

The following is a question / answer session conducted with LTC Burke concerning his thoughts on command, the deployment, and tough issues relating to commanders.

We hear a lot about command philosophy?

Command philosophy is exactly what it says.....what does the commander of a unit expect from his Soldiers in the unit, what can the Soldiers expect from him as the commander, and what does the future look like for the entire team. It allows for everyone to be focused on the same objectives, goals, and expectations. It allows a commander to tell his Soldiers who he is, what he stands for, and what he believes in to be a successful unit.

What is your command philosophy?

I believe that a commander's philosophy should be short, concise, and
simple. If I had to stick to that belief, then I would say these few things are what my philosophy is all about: First, Be honest in word and deed. Having integrity is what it is all about with both yourself and your subordinates. If they know you are fair, honest, and personable, then they will trust you and your decisions to do the right thing.

Secondly, the one thing that we never have enough of is time. So use your time wisely, stick to the time that you put out...don't be late and hold your subordinates to the time as well. Time is a valuable resource, so have a good battle rhythm. Good units do things on time, meet suspense's, and don't waste time.

Third, Discipline. Have the discipline to do the right thing at the right time, all the time. Soldiers should do things right without leaders present; leaders should trust their subordinates to do that right thing. But keep in mind no one is perfect, including myself, and mistakes will be made. That is okay as long as it doesn't violate the first two points. Expectations should be reasonable as well.

Lastly, be a Warfighter! Train to be a Warfighter in everything we do. Train to standard, maximize your capabilities, and be focused on your job, your Soldiers, and your mission. Family Readiness and FRGs are all part of this as well.

What is your advice to future battalion commanders?

Be your own leader. You will see good things from leaders throughout your career and bad things as well. Develop yourself around the good and implement those positive aspects that apply to your leadership style. But most of all, be open and honest with your Soldiers, but also don't be afraid to be hard on them as they expect that from their commander. They expect to work hard, train hard, and fight hard. They know the standards, know what right looks like, and expect their leaders to enforce and follow the same standards they are held too. Don't ask your Soldiers to do something that you would not be willing to do as well.

What has been your most difficult decision as the squadron commander?

Telling a great NCO, leader, and human being that he cannot deploy with us. We had a Vietnam veteran, Bosnia veteran, Afghanistan veteran, and soon to be Iraq veteran that could not deploy because of a medical situation. His dream was to deploy with "his boys" one last time. His whole life was the military. Here was a 60 year old man that was in better shape than most of his 20 year old Soldiers. He could still run the two-mile run in 12 minutes, and because he had a life threatening illness, he could not go with us. Telling him that news, sharing his grief, and helping him come to the realization that he cannot go with us was the hardest thing I had to do during this deployment as the Squadron Commander.

Now with that said, this NCO has had his life saving surgery, is recovering well, and is determined to still join us in country. How can you say NO to that? What an admirable person, leader, and human being who has dedicated his whole life to serving his country like he has. I admire this guy more than I can say and he is one of my true heroes in life.

What, in your opinion, is the number one error made by Battalion Commanders?

Second guessing their decisions made at the time, whether it was a poor one or not, and then questioning themselves about the decision they made. You have to be willing to accept that you may have made a poor decision, but the question becomes what are you going to do to fix it if need be. Be willing to admit that you made a mistake, be honest about it, correct your situation and move on. I have seen leaders in general make a poor decision, not be willing to accept input or advice, and then blame or point the finger at someone else for their failure. Be willing to accept full responsibility for your decisions: right, wrong, or indifferent and move forward, fix the issue, and learn from what you did. That is what your subordinates will respect the most, not if you look the other way or blame someone else for something that you actually did yourself.

What do you bring to the table from your civilian occupation? Do you believe your position with the Indiana State Police contributes to your ability to do this job?

Well it would be easy for me to say that I can bring a lot of police experience that I could use with the Iraqi police forces on how to police communities, deal with crime, and work for the "Citizens" of the community that you serve. However, probably the most that I can attribute to my civilian work is being able to talk to people in general, be open to questions, approachable, and have the confidence to deal with problems and situations that require a decision. I have to make many decisions on a daily basis that can positively or negatively impact a person's life as a police officer, and most of those decisions have to be made very quickly and on the spot. I would say that after 14 years as a Trooper, I can take that experience and put that to use as a Squadron Commander to deal with similar situations that effect our unit on a regular basis and believe that I can almost always resolve any situation put before me.

What do you enjoy the most about being a squadron commander?

The most rewarding thing about being a commander in general is seeing Soldiers perform their missions to success and thus knowing that you are successful, because your Soldiers are successful. Having the gratitude to know that you have trained them well, provided them the opportunity to excel, resourced them well, and overall taken care of them so that they can succeed. I have always been amazed at how Soldiers perform their missions, maintain overall positive attitudes, continue to serve their country, and in the end do this on a daily basis. They never cease to amaze me on their performance, which is the most rewarding thing about being a commander.

I understand your squadron reorganized from an infantry battalion to a cavalry squadron. How difficult was that for you as a commander and for your troops?

At the beginning it appeared to be a daunting task that just didn't seem possible to meet all of the challenges that were ahead of us to transform, conduct NET training on our new equipment, and prepare the unit to go to war all in about eight months. But looking back on it now, even though there were many long, hard days we had to deal with, it was accomplished because of the hard work of everyone within the unit. We had good plans, positive attitudes that were focused on the mission before us, and we utilized all of our resources and time to make it happen. Once again, I am amazed at our unit's performance over the past year to accomplish what we did in such a short period of time and proud of what we did, because I did not expect anything less.

And then you rolled into a mobilization? What was it like to do a reorganization and a mobilization piece in such a short time frame?

Again, it is the same that I said before. Everyone worked extremely hard to identify the requirements, put the resources against the requirements, attempted to maximize good use of the limited time that we had to accomplish the missions before us, and even stayed focused on maximizing the family life for the Soldiers as best possible prior to our mobilization. It was not easy to do all of this, but we did it with hard work, professionalism, and teamwork.

And how did the squadron's mobilization go at Fort Stewart?

The mobilization at Ft. Stewart started out extremely rough for the Squadron due to the short timeline that we had to operate on as we rolled into collective training within 72 hours of hitting the ground. And on top of that the training started with gunnery, which was the most demanding task for our Soldiers to do well on with very little time to prepare. But as I expected, they performed magnificently and we made it through a tough, realistic, demanding war fighting training exercise that prepared us well for our deployment to Iraq.

There were daily obstacles to contend with, but junior leaders at all levels made great decisions, and were able to execute the training very well. I was extremely proud of how the training went, and grateful that we did not have to contend with the extreme weather of Indiana during the months of January and February. We were fortunate to be able to train in a more mild environment like Georgia and grateful that we had that opportunity, which allowed us to get more out of the training, that overall, was excellent and well supported by the 1st Army trainers.

How do you deal with time away from your family and how does your civilian job handle you being gone?

I stay in constant contact with the family through the mail, phone, and internet. I have a great support channel back home that keeps me up on everything and that makes it easier being so far away from the ones you love the most. A daily picture of the kids, an email from a friend, and a phone call to the love of my life makes each day bearable. It is just so important to have a stable life back home, and support of the family and work makes it much easier to stay focused on the mission at hand and be able to accomplish our daily requirements here in Iraq. My employer has always been a huge supporter of the military and it is comforting to know that my fellow troopers and employer are my number one fan club. There are many state police officers from Indiana that have deployed over the past five years and our department has always been there for both us and our families and I could not be more grateful for their support. I have the best of both worlds with two great employers: the Indiana State police and the United States Army.

• Date Taken: 09.02.2008
• Date Posted: 09.02.2008 02:46
• Story ID: 23106
• Location: TAJI, IQ