SECTION
IV
WHEN
A COMBINED ARMS ASSESSMENT TEAM (CAAT)
SHOWS
UP ON YOUR DOORSTEP...
If your unit happens to be part of the team alerted for a possible deployment to some "hot spot" in the world, CALL will be directly involved, up front, with your key command and staff personnel.
Today CAATs link up with units during mission planning stages, rather than waiting until the actual deployment. However, if you've never worked as part of a CAAT, or witnessed the teams at work, it's useful for you to understand how CAATs work "friendly" as part of you team.
Typically, as Call gathers together a task-organized group of subject matter experts (SMEs) to form the CAAT, a CALL military analyst will be attached to your unit. He conducts the subsequent coordination and liaison between your unit headquarters and Call. This facilitates the eventual linkup of the CAAT and the commanding headquarters. The command and control relationship either assigns or attaches the CAAT to the commanding headquarters, where the CAAT then functions under the auspices of the G3 (Operations).
The scope of the collection effort will likely encompass operations several levels above and below those of the commanding headquarters, as appropriate for any given mission.
The CALL representative on the ground is the expert in the lessons learned process, and is responsible for ensuring that the CAAT functions both for the unit and for the Army at large, The CALL representative officially serves as the operations officer for the CAAT team chief. In this capacity, he must not only pull the pieces of the collection effort together, but he must also be the quality control expert. In this capacity, the operations officer assists the team chief in conduction the initial observation sort. This screen serves to help maintain the "big picture" perspective and ensure that observations pass the "so what" test before they get loaded into the system.
Additionally, when the operation ends, the CALL operations officer can help you structure your unit's after-action report, as required by AR 11-33.
The CAAT team chief typically is either a brigadier general or a colonel. Mission-dependent, the selection of the team chief is based upon the expertise required for a given mission, coupled with availability for the duration of the effort. The team chief becomes the ranking CALL flag bearer in theater, and the person responsible for pulling together the final after-action report and briefings to the rest of the Army based upon the results of the collection effort.
The SMEs tasked to comprise the CAAT represent a cross section of expertise relating to the mission. CALL helps orchestrate the diffusion of this collective expertise throughout the collection process, while concurrently assisting in the cross-talk and information-sharing process so critical to quick lesson turnaround.
After the by-name identification of the team chief and SMEs, CALL gathers the CAAT at a central location and conducts a CAAT workshop prior to deployment of the team to link up with your unit. The workshop immerses the team chief and the CAAT into how to make the lessons learned system function during active collection efforts. Critical to this trainup is the development and publication of a collection plan.
The collection plan, organized by The Blueprint of the Battlefield (formerly TRADOC Pam 11-9, now a draft DA Pam), lays out a systematic approach to the collection effort utilizing specific tasks, standards and performance measures either doctrinally and or regulatory based.
The identification, assembly, trainup, equipping and subsequent deployment of the CAAT occurs in accordance with an event-based sequence, the timelines for which are mission dependent. Message traffic announces the sequencing and requirements for the necessary addressees to keep every one informed.
Critical for your understanding is knowing that the CAAT is NOT there to look over your shoulder and report on how you conduct your operations. Certainly what you do and how you do it are important to the ultimate accumulation of relevant lessons. However, CAATs function to your benefit by providing relevant information to your units decision-makers in a timely manner that can positively impact what you ultimately do. This "in-stride" information sharing and quick lesson turnaround serves to make everyone smarter quicker in the conduct of operations.
The burden is on the CAAT to become an integral part of your team. Missions and operations from JUST CAUSE, DESERT STORM through RESTORE HOPE demonstrate successful precedents for a successful partnership between CALL's CAAT and units just like yours, producing positive results for the Total Army.
Table
of Contents
Section
III - Quick Lesson Turnaround: How the System Works for You!
Section
V - Today and Tomorrow: How to Make the Lessons Learned System Work for You!
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