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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION REVIVES AGGRESSOR PROGRAM
On Aug. 3, 1972, the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) G-2 section proposed a revived Aggressor program to provide the division’s soldiers with realistic, meaningful combat training. A year later, the program had proved so successful the commander of the newly established U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) cited it as a model for other units to follow.
The Army’s Aggressor program began in 1947 as a means of injecting realism into field training. A fictitious Aggressor army (Circle Trigon) with its own tactics, doctrine, and weapons was laid out in detail in FM 30-102 "Aggressor: The Maneuver Enemy" and FM 30-103 "Aggressor Order of Battle Book." The two field manuals were updated several times over the next twenty years, but implementation of the training met with varied success. Between the mid-1960s and early 1970s, as combat forces were deployed to Vietnam, the Aggressor program fell into disuse.
In May 1972, Army Chief of Staff General William Westmoreland called for “stimulating and rewarding” field exercises, maneuvers, and service school instruction using the realistic depiction of an enemy force. He wrote, “In the past, aggressor was employed to satisfy this requirement. With appropriate modification, it can again do so.” He demanded a complete revision of Aggressor field manuals and training literature. Furthermore, he stressed the need for “demonstrated command interest and imaginative employment of aggressor…[to] instill an awareness in exercise participants of basic differences between potential enemy forces and themselves.”
The 101st Airborne Division’s G-2, Lt. Col. Robert “R.T.” Smith, met this challenge head on. On Aug. 3, 1972, he sought and received the division commander’s approval for his Aggressor forces concept. In coordination with the G-3, which handled all requisite taskings for training exercises, the G-2 would provide the doctrine, technical training, and employment of Aggressor forces for each exercise. To do so, the project officer, Maj. John W. McGuinness, and the division’s 101st MI Company, commanded by Capt. Tyron E. Tisdale, Jr., developed the Aggressor Advisory Team (AAT), “an intelligence tool capable of bringing realism into unit readiness training.”
The AAT consisted of one officer and NCO from the 101st MI Company and two enlisted personnel from G-2 Operations. Relying on the 1966 versions of the Aggressor field manuals, the team formulated enemy scenarios specific to the exercises’ training objectives. They also simulated message play from higher headquarters and advised and instructed Aggressor units on enemy doctrine, tactics, and organization. To further enhance realism, they provided Aggressor uniforms and equipment requisitioned from the Training Aids office or crafted out of “scrounged” items from the Property Disposal Yard.
Additionally, the hand-picked, highly motivated AAT members—supplemented with trained interrogators, counterintelligence agents, and signal security personnel—served as actual participants on the Aggressor force staff during battalion and brigade field exercises. The team’s total immersion in their portrayal of Aggressor increased the enthusiasm and morale of other participants. The AAT members, in their standard Aggressor uniforms, wore a unique black beret with a Circle Trigon patch to indicate their role as advisors, facilitating on-the-spot instruction or reinforcement of basic differences between the two participating forces. The team also stressed the importance of intelligence collection and reporting to successful operations, what Captain Tisdale called, “real grass-roots intelligence training.”
The AAT proved the key to Aggressor training success in the 101st. In July 1973, the AAT was combined with the G-2 Training Section and established as a branch of its Tactical Intelligence Division to continue its successful efforts with Aggressor. In November, calling out the AAT for its “imagination and resourcefulness,” the FORSCOM commander, Gen. Walter T. Kerwin, Jr., recommended other units consider the 101st’s model in the planning and execution of their own training exercises. By 1976, Aggressor was replaced by the new Opposing Forces (OPFOR) program.
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| Date Taken: | 08.01.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.01.2025 15:21 |
| Story ID: | 544562 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 14 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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