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thedrifter
12-11-02, 10:33 PM
recalls life as a private; it helps him make decisions

By Chris Tomlinson Associated Press
December 11, 2002

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar - When Gen. Tommy Franks heard a newly assigned Navy petty officer was a bit nervous about sitting next to him at breakfast, he took matters into his own hands.

He gave her a playful hug when he walked up and pulled out her chair as she sat down.

Franks, the four-star general who would run the war against Iraq if the White House orders military action, knows what it's like to be uneasy in the presence of high rank: He entered the Army in 1967 as a private.

With that background, Franks says he likes to frame every decision, evaluate every piece of equipment and judge the success of every operation in terms of the individual soldier, sailor, Marine or airman.

"I remember when I was a private soldier. I remember how I felt, I remember where I went. I remember days when I was well taken care of and days when I was not well taken care of," Franks said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. He agreed to meet AP only if some of his troops were included.

Franks, 57, and the men and women who make up the battle planners for the U.S. Central Command have been the focus of attention since they deployed to Qatar this month for a command


exercise widely seen as a rehearsal for a war against Iraq.

High-tech practice

Speaking in a drawl that betrays his roots in Midland, Texas, Franks said the exercise is important not just because of Iraq, but because it allows his troops to practice using the $58 million portable headquarters set up on the edge of the Qatari desert.

Franks chuckled when asked how the technology was different from that used in the 1991 Gulf War, when he was an assistant commander of the 1st Calvary Division: "A lot."

The equipment at Camp As Sayliyah, a 260-acre compound of air-conditioned warehouses outside Doha, allows Franks to have parallel, simultaneous teleconferences with several points at once.

Between 100 and 200 teleconferences are conducted from the base each day, using some technologies that are less than six months old.

What's next

He said his main concern is that the technology helps the troops do their jobs.

"You want the most powerful technology you can get and combine it with the battle rhythm," Franks said, denying criticism that he has been too hesitant to embrace technology.

"If you take a youngster and you give that youngster the right kind of gear, and an opportunity to practice with that gear, the outcomes are really, really good."

The command center is designed to operate under extreme conditions, but it has been set up here inside the warehouses.

White tents and tan modular structures fill the buildings, which are guarded by military police.

Inside, soldiers sit in rows behind laptop computers looking at high-definition television screens displaying maps and other data.

Outside, sandbagged bomb shelters are a reminder Qatar is only 300 miles south of Iraq.

'Where it goes'

Petty Officer 1st Class Chris Kincaid of Cincinnati, said the military has come a long way since he served on a destroyer during the Gulf War.

"The technology is better, the way we approach our training to prepare for whatever the military is going to do is better," Kincaid said.

One question that has surrounded the current exercise, codenamed Internal Look, is whether Franks and his staff will return to their headquarters in Tampa, Fla., when it ends.

Franks said the decision is not up to him.

"Those are questions that our president and the international community will answer," Franks said.

"We will see where it goes."

Sempers,

Roger