Military

2. Ensures the staff provides the commander updated estimates and plans for future operations.

3. Coordinates efforts among the staff to anticipate requirements and develop recommendations to the commander for correcting shortfalls, actual or forecasted, in resources or mission accomplishment.

4. Supervises the staff's synchronization of the operations vertically, horizontally, chronologically, and geographically.

5. Supervises the integration of risk management during the operation, identifies hazards, and recommends control measures to reduce risk.

6. Supervises information flow in and out of the staff, including the analysis and assessment of all information and submission of recommendations to the commander.

7. Supervises time management by setting and adjusting time lines.

8. Supervises the movement of command posts.

9. Ensures the continuity of staff support and communication under all circumstances.

10. Ensures the staff gets adequate rest and is placed where they can best support the commander.

11. Maintains contact with the commander and keeps him informed of critical information, regardless of where the commander places himself during the operations.

12. Knows who can make "what" decisions in the absence of the commander.

Discussion of Techniques:

• The Orders Process.
  • Assemble the tools.
    • A tent or van out of the TOC with heat and lights. No phones or radios. Get away from distractions.
    • FM 101-5; FM 101-5-1, Operational Terms and Graphics; FM 63-20, Forward Support Battalion; FM 100-14, Risk Management, and any other applicable references handy to the planners.
    • Pre-made laminated blowups of the Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) staff inputs and outputs, MDMP time line, proposed CCIR, specified tasks, assumptions, implied tasks, highers' intent and mission, our mission, our commander's intent, operations order (OPORD) brief agenda, risk management worksheet, and each of the tactical logistics (TACLOG) functions. As you conduct MDMP, you can fill these out with grease pencils, facilitating MDMP and the OPORD brief.
    • Pre-made blank OPORD parts, i.e., synchronization matrices, templates, and weather data. As with the briefing blow-ups, you can fill these out as you go along, shortening your OPORD production time.

  • Determine and enforce the time line. Time is critical; make your staff's time as predictable as possible.

  • Get that Warning Order (WARNO) out.
    • WARNO 1 -- After the commander's initial guidance following the receipt of the mission. It includes the type of operation, general location, initial time line, and any movement or reconnaissance to initiate.
    • WARNO 2 -- After the commander's guidance during mission analysis. It includes the restated mission, the commander's intent, the area of operations, the CCIR, the commander's initial guidance on risk, reconnaissance, security, mobility, and rehearsals.
    • WARNO 3 -- After the course-of-action approval. This includes any essential information the subordinate units can use to refine their plans.

  • The XO has some decisions to make alone, and a lot to make in cooperation with the SPO. XO, this is why the FSB internal staff cannot just blow off MDMP. Here are just a few questions to be answered:
    • Do we push out a forward logistics element (FLE)?
    • Do we continue to use supply point distribution or logistics release points?
    • Do we need to prepare mass casualty (MASCAL) assets? When? Who?
    • Do we need litter bearers? When? Who?
    • Do we change our defensive posture?
    • Do we set up a radio re-transmission station (retrans)?
    • Are we prepared to operate a personnel decontamination station (PDS) in the BSA?
    • What is our nuclear, biological, chemical (NBC) plan? Will the enemy slime us?
    • Should we implement the save plan? Should we prepare to save the BSA?

  • Produce the Operations Order. Use the pre-made OPORD parts your staff has already started completing. Leave the PowerPoint switch in the "off" position.

  • Brief the OPORD. This is important not only to your own commanders, but also to those task force headquarters and headquarters company (TF HHC) commanders as well. This might be the only OPORD brief they get for this mission.
    • Brief off the pre-made OPORD briefing agenda. This is not a concept of support; it is an operations order.
    • Brief off the map from the plans tent. You know, the one that is identical to the one in the TOC, the one with the identical standard drops.
    • Brief off the pre-made acetate covered blowups. You've already got 90 percent of the information grease-penciled in from the MDMP.
    • Leave the computer and view machine in the administration and logistics operations center (ALOC). Who knows how many manhours were wasted because the S3 was making the PowerPoint brief with the XO looking over his shoulder about the time the generator quit and the production was lost?

  • Conduct a commander's back brief/confirmation brief. Do these immediately after the OPORD brief. They take very little time and confirm for the battalion commander that his subordinate leaders understand the mission and his intent. This is some of the best time spent in the whole process!

  • Rehearse the OPORD -- radio, map, sketch, terrain model, reduced force, or full dress. Some of these rehearsals are not worth the time; some are too time consuming. Whatever choice you make, ensure the participants actually rehearse their part -- they do the talking, not you or the S3. Do not make this just another briefing by the S3 over a terrain model.

  • Risk Management: Risk analysis and risk management are not goals. They are the standard.
    "Risk management is not an add-on feature to the decision-making process but, rather, a fully integrated element of planning and executing operations." -- General Dennis J. Reimer (Ret)
    • As you work the MDMP, plan for the risks and the mitigation of the risks.
    • After the MDMP is complete and the operation begins, continue to emphasize risk management to your subordinate commanders.

• Battle Tracking.
  • Assemble the tools.
    • One primary tracking map of the main battle area. If you have a separate S3 map, SPO map, commander's map, and BDE S1/4 map, they will all portray a different picture of the battle. Nine out of 10 times, they will not come close to matching. Please pick one and keep it accurate.
    • Have your stickies or push pins pre-made.
    • Have the right radio nets set up at your battle-tracking area. One technique is to have the brigade command (BDE CMD) and the battalion command (BN CMD) on a loud speaker, with the brigade operations and intelligence (BDE O/I) and brigade administrative and logistics (BDE A/L) each on headphones.
    • Have pre-made spot report forms with carbon copy on hand to take reports and pass information.
    • Have the required overlays on the maps hanging from the standard drops.
    • Make sure the maps and charts are positioned so that the commander can see the maps and applicable charts without obstruction. Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise had no one between his big chair and the main viewer.

  • Articulate roles and responsibilities. Set the standards, articulate the standards, and enforce the standards.
    • Battle Captain. This doesn't have to be an officer, but it must be someone who can monitor the situation, update the map and post unit locations, ensure messages are passed within the TOC, review in-coming and out-going reports, identify CCIR, and make recommendations to the commander.
    • Battle NCO. This doesn't have to be your S3 or SPO non-commissioned officer in charge (NCOIC), but someone who can do basically the same things as the battle captain, plus receive messages and reports, maintain a journal, update charts, submit reports, publish orders, and serve as a recorder.
    • Radio Telephone Operator (RTO)/Clerk. These young soldiers are our message receivers, journal maintainers, information distributors, recorders, and sketch and overlay makers.

  • During the battle, track what's going on. This needs to be the TOC's premier function in life during the fight; no meetings or church services, just good hardcore battle-tracking.
    • Know the combat power of the Brigade Combat Team (BCT). At least tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and Paladins. You may want to track scouts and dismounted infantry as well.
    • Know the location of the BDE TOC, BDE TAC, each maneuver team, each Paladin battery, each forward aid station (FAS), each main aid station (MAS), each unit maintenance collection point (UMCP), and each ambulance exchange point (AXP).
    • Be able to identify when specific units cross phase lines or reach objectives.
    • You can get all this information by closely monitoring the BDE O/I, BDE CMD, BDE A/L, and your own BN CMD nets.

• Meetings.
  • All types of meetings, briefings, or net calls must meet the following imperatives:
    • The meeting is scheduled at a logical time. Do not have a BSA meeting that begins shortly after the BCT crosses the LD.
    • The people that are required to attend are present. XOs must enforce attendance.
    • The people who are supposed to provide information are prepared to talk. There's nothing worse than bringing company commanders up to the TOC at 2000 to listen to the battalion staff tap-dance and the XO allows it to happen.
    • Specific agenda is displayed and followed. This is the best way to articulate what the information providers are supposed to provide.

  • Tenants' Meeting.
    • Once a day is plenty. Conducting both a morning and an evening meeting routinely fails. Company commanders spend more time walking up to the TOC and sitting in meetings than commanding their company. If the evening meeting ends around 2200 and the morning meeting begins at 0800, what great revelations happened in the10 hours since we last met? The XO slept well. . .who cares?
    • These must focus on BSA tenants issues. Do not waste the time of the TF HHC commanders by focusing on FSB pure issues.

  • Radio Net Calls.
    • Net calls have a great chance of success provided they follow the general meeting imperatives and are scripted.

    • Advantages:
      • Participants do not have to leave their area and can even participate from outside the BSA.
      • Many folks can listen (require all Platoon Leaders/Sergeants to listen -- great leader professional development).
      • Allows the commander to give guidance to a large audience without gathering leaders.

    • Disadvantages: None worth mentioning. Not enough BSAs use this technique.

  • Battle Update Briefings (BUB).
    • Good tool for the staff to brief the commander.
    • Use this to inform the commander after he's been asleep or gone for any length of time.
    • Incorporating this into the shift change brief is a viable technique.

  • Shift-Change Briefings.
    • The TOC must have shift-change briefings.
    • Try to get the battalion commander to attend these. This can be his morning BUB.
    • Have them early enough in the shift to allow each soldier to "get in the weeds" with his counterpart after the brief. For instance, if you want to get your day shift asleep by 2200, don't wait until 2130 to do the shift-change brief. There may be some details that must be worked out after the brief.

  • Staff Meetings. If the XO needs to get his staff together to work administrative issues, gather only the staff. Do not waste the company commanders' time dragging them into staff business.

• Communications Plan.
  • Internal information flow. Have a plan to get information disseminated and acted on.
    • Pre-printed/pre-carbon spot reports.
    • Duty journal.
    • Battle captain significant actions board.
    • Plot report on the map.
    • Update a chart.

  • External communications flow.
    • Get at least one of each required net on an OE-254 antenna. Many FSB TOCs have one of their required nets only on a whip while two other radios, in separate vans, are on the same net and both on OE-254s. That's just plain silly!
    • If you can't talk to your most forward units, put out a retrans.
    • Make sure your radios on the most distant nets are power-amplified radios. We routinely hear FSB TOC personnel complain that they cannot talk on the BDE CMD net, only to find that radio set on low power.
    • Give your communications NCO the mission to set up your TOC radios for long-range capabilities on BDE CMD, BDE O/I, BDE A/L, and BN CMD. You will be amazed at what he can do!
    • If your tactical standing operating procedures (TACSOP) require units to make radio or telephone communications checks, have your TOC personnel record checks, and the XO must enforce the standards.

• Commander's Critical Information Requirements (CCIR). FM 101-5 states, "CCIR include information the commander requires that directly affects his decisions and dictates the successful execution of operations." It further states the CCIR are "...time-sensitive information that must be immediately reported to the commander, staff, and subordinate commanders."
  • Ensure your CCIR are really critical. We routinely see as a CCIR for an FSB "Any tank or infantry fighting vehicle becoming non-mission capable (NMC)." So . . . if a great trooper who has read FM 101-5 is on nightshift in the TOC and overhears the SPO say that an M1 Tank just went down for an oil leak, he would go out to the battalion commander's sleep tent, wake him up, and report this. He'd be right! Does the battalion commander really need to know this in the middle of the night? Normally not. Be specific in your articulation of the standards.

  • Priority Information Requirement (PIR), Friendly Forces Information Requirement (FFIR), and Essential Elements of Friendly Information (EEFI) are each a separate component of CCIR. Please don't list requirements under PIR, FFIR, and EEFI and then another separate list under CCIR. It just proves to every soldier in the TOC that his leaders do not understand doctrine.

  • Do not make another list of things titled "Wake-Up Criteria." That list is already made -- it is the CCIR.

• Movement of the BSA. There is no way to describe with any detail the XO's role in the movement of the BSA in one paragraph of an article. Please refer to FM 63-20, Appendix A, for specifics. There are a few BSA movement imperatives, however:
  • Moving the BSA is arguably the most complex, difficult, and dangerous mission you have while in a tactical environment. Plan it, reconnoiter it, rehearse it.

  • Someone must have control of all the BSA assets from the start point to the release point. XO, it is time to step up to the plate.
    • Be able to direct a change to the alternate route while the BSA is moving.
    • Maintain communications with every serial.
    • Control the times of serials crossing checkpoints. Maybe one serial's rate is slower than another. Can you slow it down?
    • There must be a TOC with all the basic functions that go with it established at all times. Where is it? Maybe it is the XO's vehicle. Is it a functional TOC?

  • Ensure the standards for clearing the new area are articulated. Do soldiers go into every clump of bushes to check for opposing forces (OPFOR)?

  • Ensure the quartering party is prepared to accept the main body.
    • Bicycle flags for each vehicle and tent.
    • Security maintained.
    • Priorities of work. There is no doubt that we have all seen twice as many sleep tents erected before crew-served weapons were emplaced.

  • Ensure the TACSOP has clearly defined, attainable standards in setting up the new area of operations. Several TACSOPs were written that require every soldier in the BSA to have a fighting position, dug to standard with overhead cover, in the first 24 hours of occupation of a new site. Chances of attaining that standard while executing the support mission . . . two: slim and none.

• Battalion ALOC. May be the most overlooked section/area in the entire BSA. This is usually just a tent that houses the Adjutant, supply officer (S4), maybe the Chaplain, and the Battalion Maintenance Technician. It can be so much more to the BSA and specifically to the XO.
  • Functions of the ALOC as per FM 63-20.
    • Perform all the "normal PAC functions," i.e., mail, pay, awards, and organizational supply status.
    • Coordinate on the location of the enemy prisoner of war (EPW) collection point.
    • Process personnel replacements.
    • Be prepared to assume the role of the command post (CP) in an emergency or a BSA jump.
    • Coordinate for religious services.
    • Coordinate civil military operations (CMO).
    • Function as the public affairs officer (PAO).
    • Coordinate for the medical returns to duty of FSB personnel.
    • Complete staff estimates of barrier material for the BSA.
    • Provide the movement data for BSA moves.
    • Coordinate the organizational maintenance of the FSB's equipment.
    • Coordinate the area damage control (ADC).

  • The FSB ALOC can be a great asset to the XO if guided correctly. Why not set up more than just a frame tent and tell the S1 and S4, "You work here."
    • Require the ALOC to track the rear (BSA) battle. They need to be able to do this to coordinate ADC.
    • Require the ALOC to perform ADC.
    • Require the ALOC to track the Chaplain's location and coordinate his actions.
    • Make the ALOC your CMO office.
    • Require the ALOC to ensure the EPW site is to standard. They may not be the ones setting it up, but they can do the coordination.
    • Require them to coordinate all internal maintenance and have that information available to you.

FSB XOs have much more on their plate than one might think. However, they also have vast resources available to them. If they have a game plan prior to entering a tactical environment, they can move mountains. If they focus on what we have discussed, they will have set the conditions for success and complete the myriad tasks outlined in FM 101-5.

To review "a way" to focus the FSB XO's efforts:

• The Military Decision-Making Process -- This is clearly the XO's baby, and with a little preparation, he will have super products.
• Battle Tracking -- Do not dump this off on the S3. He has a huge part in this, but the XO owns and controls the TOC and the TOC's products for the battalion commander.
• Meetings -- There is a reason most of us say we hate meetings. Most meetings are not scheduled at the proper times; the right people are not there, or if they do show up, they are not prepared. Most meetings are simply a waste of time.
• Communications Plan -- Decide how you are going to communicate with the units 25 kilometers to your front and the guy five feet to your side.
• Commander's Critical Information Requirements -- Make sure they are critical, affect your boss' decisions, and the right personnel know them.
• Movement of the BSA -- A huge task that needs the XO's full attention in the planning, order, rehearsal, and execution.
• Battalion ALOC -- With some effort, this can be a great asset to the XO.

We need to ensure that we have a game plan prior to beginning a tactical operation, whether that is at a combat training center, the Balkans, or another contingency mission. If the FSB XO has that basic plan, he can focus on a few specific areas and probably keep the "fires of the hour" down to a minimum.

References:

FM 3-100, NBC Operations
FM 8-285, Treatment of Chemical Agent Casualties
FM 11-50, Combat Communications within the Division
FM 19-40, Enemy Prisoners of War, Civilian Internees, and Detained Personnel
FM 34-3, Intelligence Analysis
FM 41-10, Civil Affairs Operations
FM 63-20, Forward Support Battalion
FM 71-100, Division Operations
FM 100-5, Operations
FM 100-14, Risk Management
FM 101-5, Staff Organizations and Operations
FM 101-5-1, Operational Terms and Graphics
ARTEP 63-005, Battalion Headquarters, Forward Support Battalion, Heavy Division