daftandbarmy
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Someone deploying to the sandbox as an Ops Officer asked me to send him what I knew about the job. I knew quite alot about it 20 years ago and sent him this. No doubt alot of this is irrelevant now, but here it is FWIW::
Memoirs of an Operations Officer
Some free, unsolicited thoughts about Ops Officering:
Unlike other load stations, there's no manual for the job.... some of this stuff won't apply to you at all so feel free to pour scorn on me as required
Key supports for an Ops Offr include a strong set of watch keepers. It's mandatory to train at least 8 other Offrs and SNCOs in the job of senior watch keeper because you will likely be operating short handed from about a month into the tour due to leave schedules. Of those, three or four will turn out to be first class, the rest may need overwatch. You should have an Asst Ops Offr. You should also have a strong Sigs SNCO. If either of these two are dubious, shuffle them on or you will continue to have problems. Other watch keepers you will need to train will include the CSM, CQMS and Pl Comds and 2ICs. Sigs staff and int staff are the obvious junior watch keepers. There are others who will turn out to be excellent junior watch keepers; e.g., On one of my tours I had one of our cooks and a medic doing the job who were first class. You will need to manage the watch keeping schedule to make sure that weaker senior watch keepers are supported by stronger junior watch keepers and vice versa. This won't really become evident until about a month into your tour, so don't worry too much about it now. The leave schedule will be your biggest headache. Manage the leave schedule so you have your strongest watch keepers available when the danger is greatest e.g., half way through the tour. This is when you should be available too, so don't book your own leave mid-tour.
What makes a good watch keeper? Hard to quantify really. I always looked for the mature, level headed multi-tasker who really understood the situation on the ground. They need to be able to make fast decisions on things they should make decisions about, and refer upwards decisions that others need to make. This takes practise and training as well as your overwatch. They need have excellent voice procedure and log everything. The usual drill is to make a transmission and log the major decisions made during that transaction, even if they're being mortared at that time. Times and dates are essential and the basics are "What, who and when" - 'why' is less relevant. Keeping a calm and professional demeanor is essential because as soon as you get hit, the guy on the radio will automatically become the centre of a flood of in-bound assistance from other assets who will need accurate and clear direction. Panic can be transmitted quite effectively by radio. Also, you won't be around all the time and you will need to be able to walk into the CP, read the log and get a good picture of what happened while you were away from a watch keeper who should be fully in control of the situation. It's a dark art, but critical. A good watch keeper needs to be a good leader, but on the radio. Minor Hitlers and Weak Sisters need not apply. It's more of a customer service centre type approach. Nothing pisses off the troops more than a pr*ck or a waffler on the radio, and they will soon come to know the good guys and the jerks, and tend to ignore the jerks - which is really dangerous. The best watch keepers are ‘combat entrepreneurs'. By that I mean they are always scrounging around looking for more assistance for your troops. On operations there are an enormous number of assets lying around just waiting to be asked to help out. For example, I discovered that we were underutilizing helicopter time, so we used to 'poach' chopper hours from other units and as a result my guys got far more top cover support and heli lift as a result, and we could get far more things done. You may also hear aircraft or other assets come up on the net looking for employment and you need to be able to jump on these golden opportunities and task them immediately to support your guys in some way, or pass them on to someone else who might need them.
Always, always, always, have a QRF available. This needs to be gripped by you and the watch keepers and you need to ensure that this is a drill that becomes automatic. Nothing is worse than calling out your QRF only to discover that the CSM has taken them off for some area cleaning. They need to be brought up to speed on the tactical sit by the int staff BEFORE they come on duty. Doing their homework during their duty period is too late. They need to be able to crash out fully equipped and fully informed from the moment they come on duty. You must be clear with them about their degree of notice to move and what that means. They need to rehearse. You should develop a drill where you or the senior watch keeper tests them on their crash out drills at least 3 times a week. Word will then get out that they need to be ready. One idea you might try is to have the QRF commander sit in as watch keeper during their duty period. It helps to ensure that he is fully up to speed on the tactical sit.
The usual routine is to have a guard unit (provides local security and QRF, wathckeepers), a unit on 'stand down' (usually 30 minutes NTM), and a unit on duty (in action or on 5 min NTM). The whole company should be able to go anywhere and do anything on 30 min NTM, so anything longer is ridiculous. As soon as a unit is deployed you need to plan their replacement/ change over/ support. This is especially important in situations where there has been a no-notice deployment of some kind. Usually, no one will be really thinking about this kind of stuff apart from you, and if choppers are involved you need to be thing way in advance on the planning side. Plan for hot fresh meal to be delivered whenever possible too. You should be able to find a keen combat cook who you can connive with to make this happen. Nothing is better than mail and a hot meal (and fresh bread and fruit) on the objective. The admin net may need a reminder to make this happen as they've got their own problems to worry about.
Choppers are a God send and a problem all at once. If you insert troops by chopper, always have a Plan B of some kind to get them out some other way. Also, chopper crews like to stay busy all the time. They hate doing one trip and then going back to base to shut down. I used to have a series of tasks planned for them to keep them busy for the full time we had them at our disposal. For example, in South Armagh we would do rummage searches over about 100 sq Kms in a day using 2 x Lynx heli and about 180 troops divided into 6 man patrols. The choppers would bounce from patrol to patrol, picking them up from one location and dropping them off at another. Each patrol was able to search 5 or 6 small areas or point targets in the same day. This approach works great for VCP ops and you can shut down the road network over a wide area easily using this approach.
No matter how much work up training you have done, there is always a learning curve when you actually go on ops. Don't try to win the war within 3 days of arrival. Plan well before you arrive in theatre to do 'work up' operations starting with lots of simple, but meaningful, tasks and 'graduating' to the more complex operations. You will have to insist on this approach because, as soon as you become available to an over ambitious career minded General they will likely insist on throwing you into the equivalent of the Normandy Landings immediately. Plan for having additional support available on most operations for the first month or so, just as insurance. Fight, scream and whine until you get it. This is another important role that you have - buffer between eager commanders and your troops. It's kind of like Humphrey in 'Yes Minister'. Commanders will normally do the right thing, but at times you will find that they make ridiculous demands on the unit. The flip side is that they get too timid and underestimate what can be done. You will have all the detailed info to know what can and can't be done at that point in time. Never task your troops to do anything without giving them all the information they need. At some point someone will call you on the 'secret phone' and tell you to send some troops over here to do this and that. You're greatest defense in these situations is "WHY?". If they can't tell you that, then don't send anyone, anywhere, unless the guy on the phone is willing to lead them there and the OC agrees. This must be drilled into watch keepers as well who must avoid sending trooops on a task just because someone else said so and it's 'really important'. Like it or not, you will be seen as a ready source of manpower for various "WARGIs" (What a really good idea) that get dreamed up by various people in theatre who need you to support their medal winning plans.
Be prepared to ride the troops if they start switching off and setting stupid patterns. It's not Iwo Jima every day of the week, people get complacent, and the bad guys will soon figure out you patterns and start targeting you based on those. This normally happens after the first couple of months. In this kind of conflict your own patterns are your worst enemy. Keep a big map of the TAOR somewhere and have all patrols mark down their routes on it. Identify patterns using this map and develop plans to break them over time, or account for them in your planning.
Do you always drop off and walk back in to base? Do you take the same routes at the same time of day? Do you always use the same vehicles in the same way? Do you always occupy and withdraw from OPs using the same drills? etc etc etc. Make it a habit to track all your patterns and consciously plan to break them occasionally. For example, one day we would deploy an patrol on its own. The next, I would plan to have a large cordon deployed before inserting a patrol - for no other reason than to throw off the bad guys. One day we would go straight down the road, the next, we would select random pieces of high ground, insert teams to overwatch the route by heli, then send a unit down the road. The next, we would deploy overwatch by foot at night and extract by chopper before last light etc etc etc. For no reason at all, dismount and do informal rummage searches around various parts of the TAOR. Search can be your greatest weapon in this environment, so get your troops ‘search minded'.
Intelligence at Bn level and below is largely self-generated. Don't wait for the Int gurus to speak before you deploy on patrols. No patrol should go out without a meaningful int task. Your own int cell can amass a huge number of useful and intersting tasks, based on inputs from your own patrols. Make sure you have a good routine for briefing and debriefing patrols, and rapidly turning patrol reports into actionable intelligence. No need to wait for the patrol, commander to ‘submit in writing'. Get the Int Wogs to drag it out of the troops and get it into some kind of shape so you can plan ops with it. Improve the skills of your troops in noticing things and reporting them in for action. Make sure you act on these observations when you do or you won’t get much more out of them. Not normally a problem, but try to get the int out on the ground with the troops. This will help them get a better appreciation of the situation and improve their analysis. Get yourself out on the ground too – nothing sucks worse than an Ops Officer who doesn’t have a clue what kind of terrain he’s sending people out to.
Off soapbox now. Best of luck!
Memoirs of an Operations Officer
Some free, unsolicited thoughts about Ops Officering:
Unlike other load stations, there's no manual for the job.... some of this stuff won't apply to you at all so feel free to pour scorn on me as required
Key supports for an Ops Offr include a strong set of watch keepers. It's mandatory to train at least 8 other Offrs and SNCOs in the job of senior watch keeper because you will likely be operating short handed from about a month into the tour due to leave schedules. Of those, three or four will turn out to be first class, the rest may need overwatch. You should have an Asst Ops Offr. You should also have a strong Sigs SNCO. If either of these two are dubious, shuffle them on or you will continue to have problems. Other watch keepers you will need to train will include the CSM, CQMS and Pl Comds and 2ICs. Sigs staff and int staff are the obvious junior watch keepers. There are others who will turn out to be excellent junior watch keepers; e.g., On one of my tours I had one of our cooks and a medic doing the job who were first class. You will need to manage the watch keeping schedule to make sure that weaker senior watch keepers are supported by stronger junior watch keepers and vice versa. This won't really become evident until about a month into your tour, so don't worry too much about it now. The leave schedule will be your biggest headache. Manage the leave schedule so you have your strongest watch keepers available when the danger is greatest e.g., half way through the tour. This is when you should be available too, so don't book your own leave mid-tour.
What makes a good watch keeper? Hard to quantify really. I always looked for the mature, level headed multi-tasker who really understood the situation on the ground. They need to be able to make fast decisions on things they should make decisions about, and refer upwards decisions that others need to make. This takes practise and training as well as your overwatch. They need have excellent voice procedure and log everything. The usual drill is to make a transmission and log the major decisions made during that transaction, even if they're being mortared at that time. Times and dates are essential and the basics are "What, who and when" - 'why' is less relevant. Keeping a calm and professional demeanor is essential because as soon as you get hit, the guy on the radio will automatically become the centre of a flood of in-bound assistance from other assets who will need accurate and clear direction. Panic can be transmitted quite effectively by radio. Also, you won't be around all the time and you will need to be able to walk into the CP, read the log and get a good picture of what happened while you were away from a watch keeper who should be fully in control of the situation. It's a dark art, but critical. A good watch keeper needs to be a good leader, but on the radio. Minor Hitlers and Weak Sisters need not apply. It's more of a customer service centre type approach. Nothing pisses off the troops more than a pr*ck or a waffler on the radio, and they will soon come to know the good guys and the jerks, and tend to ignore the jerks - which is really dangerous. The best watch keepers are ‘combat entrepreneurs'. By that I mean they are always scrounging around looking for more assistance for your troops. On operations there are an enormous number of assets lying around just waiting to be asked to help out. For example, I discovered that we were underutilizing helicopter time, so we used to 'poach' chopper hours from other units and as a result my guys got far more top cover support and heli lift as a result, and we could get far more things done. You may also hear aircraft or other assets come up on the net looking for employment and you need to be able to jump on these golden opportunities and task them immediately to support your guys in some way, or pass them on to someone else who might need them.
Always, always, always, have a QRF available. This needs to be gripped by you and the watch keepers and you need to ensure that this is a drill that becomes automatic. Nothing is worse than calling out your QRF only to discover that the CSM has taken them off for some area cleaning. They need to be brought up to speed on the tactical sit by the int staff BEFORE they come on duty. Doing their homework during their duty period is too late. They need to be able to crash out fully equipped and fully informed from the moment they come on duty. You must be clear with them about their degree of notice to move and what that means. They need to rehearse. You should develop a drill where you or the senior watch keeper tests them on their crash out drills at least 3 times a week. Word will then get out that they need to be ready. One idea you might try is to have the QRF commander sit in as watch keeper during their duty period. It helps to ensure that he is fully up to speed on the tactical sit.
The usual routine is to have a guard unit (provides local security and QRF, wathckeepers), a unit on 'stand down' (usually 30 minutes NTM), and a unit on duty (in action or on 5 min NTM). The whole company should be able to go anywhere and do anything on 30 min NTM, so anything longer is ridiculous. As soon as a unit is deployed you need to plan their replacement/ change over/ support. This is especially important in situations where there has been a no-notice deployment of some kind. Usually, no one will be really thinking about this kind of stuff apart from you, and if choppers are involved you need to be thing way in advance on the planning side. Plan for hot fresh meal to be delivered whenever possible too. You should be able to find a keen combat cook who you can connive with to make this happen. Nothing is better than mail and a hot meal (and fresh bread and fruit) on the objective. The admin net may need a reminder to make this happen as they've got their own problems to worry about.
Choppers are a God send and a problem all at once. If you insert troops by chopper, always have a Plan B of some kind to get them out some other way. Also, chopper crews like to stay busy all the time. They hate doing one trip and then going back to base to shut down. I used to have a series of tasks planned for them to keep them busy for the full time we had them at our disposal. For example, in South Armagh we would do rummage searches over about 100 sq Kms in a day using 2 x Lynx heli and about 180 troops divided into 6 man patrols. The choppers would bounce from patrol to patrol, picking them up from one location and dropping them off at another. Each patrol was able to search 5 or 6 small areas or point targets in the same day. This approach works great for VCP ops and you can shut down the road network over a wide area easily using this approach.
No matter how much work up training you have done, there is always a learning curve when you actually go on ops. Don't try to win the war within 3 days of arrival. Plan well before you arrive in theatre to do 'work up' operations starting with lots of simple, but meaningful, tasks and 'graduating' to the more complex operations. You will have to insist on this approach because, as soon as you become available to an over ambitious career minded General they will likely insist on throwing you into the equivalent of the Normandy Landings immediately. Plan for having additional support available on most operations for the first month or so, just as insurance. Fight, scream and whine until you get it. This is another important role that you have - buffer between eager commanders and your troops. It's kind of like Humphrey in 'Yes Minister'. Commanders will normally do the right thing, but at times you will find that they make ridiculous demands on the unit. The flip side is that they get too timid and underestimate what can be done. You will have all the detailed info to know what can and can't be done at that point in time. Never task your troops to do anything without giving them all the information they need. At some point someone will call you on the 'secret phone' and tell you to send some troops over here to do this and that. You're greatest defense in these situations is "WHY?". If they can't tell you that, then don't send anyone, anywhere, unless the guy on the phone is willing to lead them there and the OC agrees. This must be drilled into watch keepers as well who must avoid sending trooops on a task just because someone else said so and it's 'really important'. Like it or not, you will be seen as a ready source of manpower for various "WARGIs" (What a really good idea) that get dreamed up by various people in theatre who need you to support their medal winning plans.
Be prepared to ride the troops if they start switching off and setting stupid patterns. It's not Iwo Jima every day of the week, people get complacent, and the bad guys will soon figure out you patterns and start targeting you based on those. This normally happens after the first couple of months. In this kind of conflict your own patterns are your worst enemy. Keep a big map of the TAOR somewhere and have all patrols mark down their routes on it. Identify patterns using this map and develop plans to break them over time, or account for them in your planning.
Do you always drop off and walk back in to base? Do you take the same routes at the same time of day? Do you always use the same vehicles in the same way? Do you always occupy and withdraw from OPs using the same drills? etc etc etc. Make it a habit to track all your patterns and consciously plan to break them occasionally. For example, one day we would deploy an patrol on its own. The next, I would plan to have a large cordon deployed before inserting a patrol - for no other reason than to throw off the bad guys. One day we would go straight down the road, the next, we would select random pieces of high ground, insert teams to overwatch the route by heli, then send a unit down the road. The next, we would deploy overwatch by foot at night and extract by chopper before last light etc etc etc. For no reason at all, dismount and do informal rummage searches around various parts of the TAOR. Search can be your greatest weapon in this environment, so get your troops ‘search minded'.
Intelligence at Bn level and below is largely self-generated. Don't wait for the Int gurus to speak before you deploy on patrols. No patrol should go out without a meaningful int task. Your own int cell can amass a huge number of useful and intersting tasks, based on inputs from your own patrols. Make sure you have a good routine for briefing and debriefing patrols, and rapidly turning patrol reports into actionable intelligence. No need to wait for the patrol, commander to ‘submit in writing'. Get the Int Wogs to drag it out of the troops and get it into some kind of shape so you can plan ops with it. Improve the skills of your troops in noticing things and reporting them in for action. Make sure you act on these observations when you do or you won’t get much more out of them. Not normally a problem, but try to get the int out on the ground with the troops. This will help them get a better appreciation of the situation and improve their analysis. Get yourself out on the ground too – nothing sucks worse than an Ops Officer who doesn’t have a clue what kind of terrain he’s sending people out to.
Off soapbox now. Best of luck!
