Lieutenant Colonel Christian Palmer, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve
During the 2009 Afghanistan troop surge, a group of Marines at Camp Bastion passed the time waiting for a flight by playing spades with a “most wanted” deck from a previous deployment to Iraq. This was a deck of cards produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency labeled with high-value enemy targets ranked by their importance. Saddam Hussein was the ace of spades, for example. The Marines began discussing what a deck might look like for their own regiment.
They concluded that the most senior personnel, such as the regimental commander, battalion commanders, and primary staff, might not be the aces. These positions were so critical that the table of organization is designed to make them instantly replaceable by executive officers and deputies. They debated who might be the real aces—the critical losses from which the regiment could not easily recover. They soon found themselves talking about low-density subject-matter experts in support functions—in short, logisticians and key maintenance personnel.
This realization points to the concepts of counter-logistics targeting and assured-logistics analysis: The examination of enemy and friendly support, respectively, to find subtle but critical vulnerabilities to either exploit or protect. Counter-logistics also includes predatory logistics—the seizure and use of enemy assets.
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