An Interview with LTG Frederick (Ben) Hodges,
Commanding General, Allied Land Command, NATO
Ensuring That Land Forces
Remain Decisive for NATO
W
ith its activation in Novem-
ber 2012 in Izmir, Turkey,
U.S. Navy ADM James G. Stavridis (left), Supreme
Allied Commander Europe and combatant commander for European Command, passes the new
Allied Land Command colors to LTG Frederick
(Ben) Hodges (right) during the command activation ceremony in Izmir, Turkey, in November. Canadian Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Mark Saulnier looks on.
Allied Land Command
became the single land command
headquarters for NATO. It replaced two
force commands—in Madrid, Spain,
and Heidelberg, Germany—as part of
NATO’s transformation in the postCold War era. U.S. Army LTG Frederick (Ben) Hodges, a veteran of many
joint assignments, was tapped to lead
the new headquarters as its commanding general. A combat veteran of Iraq
and Afghanistan, Hodges says land
forces and land power are as relevant today as they have ever been for the 28member alliance, which dates to 1949.
LTG Hodges says the new command will reach initial operational capability (IOC) this August, with full
operational capability of about 350
people by December 2014.
LTC Angela Funaro, a public affairs
officer for the past 10 years. This interview took place the same day that Secretary of State John F. Kerry was in
Turkey meeting Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss the civil
war embroiling neighboring Syria.
Allied Land Command Public Affairs Izmir
LTG Hodges recently spoke with
May 2013 ■ ARMY
51
Soldiers from the
Wisconsin Army
National Guard and
Germany take a
defensive posture
as a crowd becomes violent during NATO-led maneuvers in Rudare,
Kosovo, in 2012.
The Kosovo Force
soldiers were trying
to remove a roadblock for local residents when two
German troops
were injured. The
roadblock was successfully removed.
52 ARMY ■ May 2013
LTG Hodges speaks during the activation
of Allied Land Command in Izmir, Turkey.
emy, West Point, N.Y., and was commissioned in the Infantry. He also has three master’s degrees: from Columbus
(Ga.) State University, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the National Defense University.
quired to hastily rebuild land forces to meet the threats the
nation consistently fails to accurately anticipate.
This wishful thinking about relying solely on air and sea
power coincides with public speculation that our strategic
focus is going to shift to the Pacific. My good friends in the
[U.S.] Navy point to the map of the Pacific and highlight
U.S. Army/SFC Jim Wagner
Question: Would you explain why we need land forces
and land power?
Answer: Our tradition after every war has been repeating
the mistake of reducing land forces to save money, believing that we can avoid casualties in future wars by relying
more on air and sea power ... and each time, we are re-
SFC John Laughter
L
TG Frederick (Ben) Hodges currently serves as the
commanding general of NATO’s Allied Land
Command, based in Izmir, Turkey. The command
was established in November 2012 and assumed the responsibilities of two geographically separated, previous
NATO land component commands under a reorganization. Allied Land Command is responsible for the readiness of NATO land forces, planning, and command and
control synchronization. LTG Hodges took over the command after heading its stand-up committee and serving
as the chief, Land Command, under the forerunning
command structure. Before that, he was the chief, Legislative Liaison, Office of the Secretary of the Army.
LTG Hodges previously served as director, Pakistan/
Afghanistan Coordination Cell, the Joint Staff, after serving as deputy commander (stability), Regional Command South, International Security Assistance Force,
NATO.
He commanded the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), during the initial phase of Operation
Iraqi Freedom and, in August 2004, returned to Iraq as
Assistant Chief of Staff (G-3), XVIII Airborne Corps/
Multinational Corps-Iraq.
LTG Hodges is a 1980 graduate of the U.S. Military Acad-
U.S. Army/SGT Brendan Mackie
A member of the
NATO-led International Security Assistance Force,
U.S. Army 1LT
Patrick Ryan
(right), talks with
Afghan border policemen in Kabul in
June 2012 during
Operation Southern Strike II near
Afghanistan’s
P’sha Pass. NATO
has pledged to
help transfer security operations in
the country entirely
to Afghan security
forces by the end
of 2014.
the vast amounts of blue, saying that the Pacific is clearly a
maritime domain. I then quickly point out that nobody
lives where it’s blue on the map. The people live where it’s
brown and green. You’re always going to need land forces
and land power. If you want to protect installations, protect
populations, protect infrastructure, or control or dominate
land mass, you must have land forces.
Q: What do you see as the role of the United States in
NATO?
A: I want to encourage leaders and those who think seriously about national security to understand why it matters
for the United States to continue to play a leadership role in
NATO—why it matters to be an active participant in the
most successful alliance in the history of the world. The
NATO transformation, agreed to by the 28 NATO-member
nations at Lisbon [Portugal] and Chicago [in 2010 and 2012,
respectively], realized that we still need effective, interoperable land forces in the future, post-ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] security environment. That’s why
they created Allied Land Command. It was the SACEUR
[Supreme Allied Commander Europe], a Navy admiral,
who told me that this was our primary task. He also told
me it was our responsibility to ensure that NATO retains
the interoperability and experience that NATO soldiers
have achieved over the last 10 years in Afghanistan and
other places. So what I would hope to convey is the value
of land forces and how this headquarters is going to work
to ensure land forces remain decisive for NATO.
I’ve always been a believer in NATO, despite the frustra-
tions and challenges that are inherent in any alliance or
coalition. Today, it’s even more important. Twenty-six
NATO nations, including the United States, are reducing
the size of their defense spending and capability. Only
Poland and Turkey are either maintaining or increasing the
amount of their defense spending. That means involvement
in coalitions and the alliance becomes even more important
for shared resources, shared capacity and cooperation. As
the size of the U.S. footprint in Europe continues to shrink,
putting U.S. personnel in [essential] positions in the various
headquarters of the NCS [NATO Command Structure] and
NFS [NATO Force Structure] becomes an important means
to ensure U.S. relevance and influence within the alliance. I
believe that land force development, training, employment
and concepts are greatly enhanced by our contribution to
Allied Land Command. There will be 48 U.S. officers and
NCOs (44 of whom are Army) here by the time we reach
IOC this summer. Of the 23 nations contributing to this
command, the largest contributors after the United States
are Germany (40), France (35), the U.K. (31), Turkey (29),
Spain (26) and Italy (23).
Q: In June 2011, then-Secretary of Defense Robert M.
Gates cautioned NATO that current trends in defense
spending cuts would endanger the alliance’s military capacity and capability to live up to its charter. Some foreign
policy analysts, as well as a growing number of Americans, conclude that NATO has really been an alliance
without a clear purpose since the end of the Cold War and
complain that the United States is carrying a disproporMay 2013 ■ ARMY
53
tionate share of the burden when it comes to keeping the
world safe. Why should the United States continue to assume so much responsibility for the collective defense?
A: What’s most important is that, within their capability,
the member nations of NATO continue to provide modern
military capabilities that are able to be part of either coalition or allied operations. This was evident in Kosovo,
Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. There are other ways in which
nations contribute that matter besides percentage of GDP
[gross domestic product] that also ought to count. [NATOmember countries have a defense spending target of 2 percent of their GDP.]
[For example,] the training centers that some countries
host like the JFTC [Joint Force Training Center] in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and the JWC [Joint Warfighting Center] in
Stavanger, Norway, are excellent. The Swiss, who are not
even in NATO, pay for and run courses for NATO officers
and NCOs that are as good as any course I’ve seen. … The
point is that there are other things that do matter, and what
I have learned since I’ve been here is how much other
countries are doing. The volume of activities and operations by these countries to ongoing NATO, European
Union, or other unilateral or multilateral operations is astounding.
There are nine multinational corps headquarters based in
several different countries around Europe declared for
NATO. That is a sizable force infrastructure that is unknown to most Americans. These include the ARRC [Allied
Rapid Reaction Corps] in the U.K., EuroCorps in France,
NRDC [NATO Rapid Deployable Corps]-Spain, NRDCItaly, NRDC-Turkey, and others … all agreeing by way of
54 ARMY ■ May 2013
Headquarters Allied Force Command Madrid
Multinational
troops stand in
formation for the
commencement
ceremony of
NATO-led multinational exercises
Cooperative Longbow and Lancer
2012 in Pepelishte, formerly the
Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia.
More than 2,200
soldiers from various NATO countries participated
in the exercises,
as did a dozen
Partnership for
Peace countries.
[memorandum of understanding] to be prepared to do the
missions that NATO asks them to do. There’s a capability out
there that I think the United States can’t provide by itself.
[Vital] to my mission is to enable and certify these headquarters to conduct operations in accordance with the
NATO level of ambition that all 28 nations agreed to: two
major joint operations, six small joint operations—all simultaneously. ... That’s a significant contribution of money, infrastructure and expertise. … The United States couldn’t do
that by itself.
Q: Are there U.S. troops in any of these headquarters?
A: Of course, which gives us the opportunity to have officers and NCOs gain invaluable international experience
with other NATO officers, which is getting more important
as fewer soldiers are assigned to Europe these days. There
are nearly 40 positions at the ARRC, including a brigadier
general, almost 20 positions in Istanbul, and similar numbers in Milan [Italy], Valencia [Spain] and so on. So that’s a
presence of colonels, lieutenant colonels, majors and senior
NCOs in all of these places, and that matters.
Q: What else do you hope to achieve before you leave
command in early 2015?
A: I want to make Allied Land Command in Izmir the assignment of choice for soldiers all over the alliance, including the U.S. Army. We are in the center of developing land
force capability across NATO, and the U.S. Army is the premier land force in the world. What soldier wouldn’t want
to be a part of ensuring that land power for NATO remains
decisive and relevant?
✭