Home » Special Operations » When Senior Officers & CONOP Req.’s Get In The Way of Real Work.

When Senior Officers & CONOP Req.’s Get In The Way of Real Work.

by · March 4, 2012 · Posted In: Special Operations
afghanistan-strategy-sofrep
This came in via the comms check and was just too damn funny not to post.  We’ve all been there regardless of what branch you’re from.

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It reminds me of the featured strategic slide on Afghanistan stability.  Thanks for sharing, Mike.

This is a master piece…love the crying girl part also…so true.

Enjoy…



About The Author

Brandon Webb is a former U.S. Navy SEAL with combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the Middle East. His last tour in the SEAL Teams was as the Course Manager for the US Navy SEAL Sniper program, arguably one of the most difficult sniper courses in the world. He was formerly a contributing editor for Military.com, and currently the Editor-in-Chief of SOFREP.com. Brandon is regularly featured in the media as a subject matter expert on military affairs. An avid writer, his last two books (The Red Circle, & Benghazi: The Definitive Report) both hit the New York Times best seller list, and his writing has been featured in print, and digital media worldwide. You can follow him on Twitter @BrandontWebb
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Michael Golembesky
Michael Golembesky like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 5 Like

As a former Senior Watch Officer (SWO) and door-kicker, don't get me started on this topic. My blood pressure is high enough. Get out of the way and let the guys on the ground get the job done! -LZH

JackMurphyRGR
JackMurphyRGR moderator like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 5 Like

 When ODA's succeed it has everything to do with the pride those individuals take in their job, their individual creativity and initiative, and the espirt de corp that comes from working in a small team. It has absolutely nothing to do with the AOB or higher. Most of the guys I know won't even talk about this stuff because they get so pissed off that they will be walking around kicking things across the room for the rest of the day. What's wrong with the AOB and CJSOTF? How much time have you got?

 

The AOB demands so many products from ODA's that it directly interferes with their job, in fact they demand more products than they can possibly analyze. It becomes blatantly obvious when they are calling you asking questions that are already answered on the triple redundant forms and slides they demand everyday. Here is a great example, there was a team (not mine, I don't think it was even my Group) in which some idiot put some wildly inappropriate material in one of their products. It went all the way up to CENTCOM before someone noticed.

 

Higher does absolutely everything they can to inject white noise into the decision making process and slow down maneuver elements. Micro-managing, careerism, risk adversity, you've heard it before but it needs to be repeated again and again until things change. Rather than an unconventional warfare unit, SF has largely become an e-mail based organization that supplements paperwork and power point with genuine leadership, initiative, and the kind of discernment that can only be exercised by those on the ground.

 

If you want to know why we are walking away from 10+ years of war with very little to show for it, this is why. I'm going to be brutally honest, and don't expect to hear this on Fox News anytime soon, the US Military put career advancement ahead of victory in this war.

BrandonWebb
BrandonWebb moderator like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

 @JackMurphyRGR Well said Jack. Like I said earlier, I experienced this first hand as QRF during Robert's Ridge...I had to listen to the Ranger Captain plead for the lives of his men (who ultimately died and could've been saved)...and capable and willing men were held at bay by one high ranking coward...

Riceball
Riceball

 @JackMurphyRGR This reminds me a lot of some of the functions/requirements of the early Land Warriors system and why the Amy wanted it. I could only imagine the poor squad & platoon leaders getting inundated with requests for sitreps via e-mail as well Bn & higher level commanders trying to command individual squads & platoons simply because the system would allow them to do so. I'd really hate to think how this would be or have been implemented with ODAs, I'd imagine that there would be a lot of pissed off field commanders who would be getting fed up with the constant e-mails & comms for stupid reports, updates, and second guessing of their decisions all while in the middle of a firefitght or while trying to set up an ambush.

Old PH2
Old PH2

 @Riceball  @JackMurphyRGR  I must be out of touch, doesn't all this SIGINT open you up to counter fire?  Remember the second Chechen war?  If you used a cell/ sat phone you could expect a volley of GRADS in your lap.  Looks like Asad has done the same in Syria, witness the dead western Journalists.  How could anyone expect all this RF not to be picked up?

Old PH2
Old PH2

 @Riceball  @JackMurphyRGR Hezbollah has one of the most sophisticated signals branches going.  NGO's have just as much technology and probably more ingenuity than most Nation states. 

 

Hezbollah gets most of it's support from Iran via Syria.  So I'd think twice about any transmissions other than old school burst technologies.

Pete
Pete like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

 @Riceball  @Old PH2  @JackMurphyRGR They aren't thinking about the RF getting intercepted because we've been fighting asymmetrically against the Taliban and AQI.  These guys don't have that level of sophistication, at least not yet.  Wait until it's somebody with a little more ass, and we start losing guys because they're talking on the radio too much.

Riceball
Riceball like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @Old PH2  @JackMurphyRGR Good point, I never thought of that before and have to wonder how they expected to counter that with the Land Warrior and its successors. Obviously, some of it is not that big of an issue since things like e-mails & the like are probably are sent in too brief of a burst of energy to be tracked. But things like positioning/tracking systems would likely be pumping out a constant stream of energy and potentially make the users traceable/trackable by the enemy by virtue of the energy from their transmissions even if they can't "read" the signals themselves.  But this would only be a real issue if the tracking feature is something that goes beyond the squad or platoon level. I don't know that it does or was even intended to but I always had the impression that it was feature that the Army wanted.

JackMurphyRGR
JackMurphyRGR moderator like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

 @Riceball The AOB already does this via sat. radio.  They have never heard of "letting the situation develop".  Instead they demand that you bump up to their command freq and give them all of the details while you are still under fire and/or assessing men, weapons, and equipment.

JerryBiolchini
JerryBiolchini like.author.displayName 1 Like

@Riceball @JackMurphyRGR Been there. I did time in the Digital Division. The 4id. We had all the toys. In fact for a time battalions and even brigades had different gear. One commander even threatened to fire the first nco or officer that fought from the screen

Riceball
Riceball like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @JackMurphyRGR I can only imagine how much worse it would get if they're able to track what every man in the team is doing in real time. It won't be just updates but some higher up 100's of miles or more from the action trying to tell everybody what to do and how to do their job all because they think they know what's going by what they see on a video screen.

Blake Miles
Blake Miles

 @JackMurphyRGR The scariest is what will fix it? The only logical answer for me is WW3. Reality has a strange way of forcing BS out of the picture, the same way 9/11 opened doors for USASFC.

Tango9
Tango9

 @JackMurphyRGR Believe me. It's not just the Army and SF or SoF that have to wade through this shit.  It's one of the primary reasons I hung up my uniform 12 years ago.

JerryBiolchini
JerryBiolchini

@JackMurphyRGR Do you think this will get worst if the strategy to rely more on SOCOM for military efforts is enodrosed? I see it a reaction to bringing SOCOM to the forefront --while sexy and the public should know something -- it does put a light on the whole affair and does not insulate these warriors from squimish leaders and policy makers. All have to admit tha war is another formof politics...it just should not be governed by the same rules. Just my .02 cents.

JackMurphyRGR
JackMurphyRGR moderator like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @JerryBiolchini  @JackMurphyRGR The most effective units are the ones that exist the farthest away from the traditional Army command structure.  Delta and ST6 are two of them.  I'm not saying that they are out of control cowboys as some would have you beleive, they have a chain of command and rank structure as well but they are very effective units because they answer to JSOC and are not burdened with "Mother Army".  The 75th Ranger Regiment is also isolated from the regular Army to a large extent which helps their effectiveness.  For whatever reasons, SF has gone the other way with Officers who are more conventional than the conventional Army.  It's a complicated issue, we have an entire generation of Officers and Sergeant Majors who represent what people call "toxic leaders" making any kind of house cleaning difficult at best.

JackMurphyRGR
JackMurphyRGR moderator

 @justsome17yearold It would require a huge shift in military culture and a change in priorities to focus on.  Overhauling the NCOER/OER process and getting rid of non-performers would be a good start but the culture itself is what is demented.  Decentralization and empowering junior leaders would do wonders for everything from combat effectiveness to retention.

justsome17yearold
justsome17yearold

So what are some possible solutions to start fixing this problem?

 

I'm no expert at this stuff and have not experienced this first  hand but maybe one solution is to force the older "toxic leaders" to retire and get the younger folks who are more creative and more in touch to take over?

 

 

 

 

Old PH2
Old PH2

Years ago it was a simple CARVER matrix, My GOD what has technology done to us?

 

Power point comes with TTP's?

JerryBiolchini
JerryBiolchini like.author.displayName 1 Like

Brilliant. I must say that this is not just with SOCOM and ground operations. Ever wonder why the Army (even the DoD as a whole) has canceled more programs in the last ten years then they have in the last 30? Congress has something to do with it but the paperwork alone, if done back to back in a 12 hour day/5 day work week, would consume 8 years BEFORE even one design was started. One has to wonder how the fuck we got to the moon.

glenbub
glenbub like.author.displayName 1 Like

That was brilliant.  BRILLIANT I SAY.  I want to shake the hand of whoever put that together--we may have served in the same platoon at one point or another.  Definitely in the same military.  Sweet 8 pound 4 oz baby Jesus.  

 

Obsolete
Obsolete

Okay, I sat behind a radar screen in climate control for my enlistment, care to explain what a CONOP is and besides being heavy and a pain in the ass, whats the deal with body armor in the mountains? Dont you need that cause of the bad guys?! Sincerely, Clueless?

Blake Miles
Blake Miles like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

 @Obsolete CONOP = Concept of the Operation. It's essentially the plan presented to higher so they understand the whole thing, and can bounce it off of their image of the big picture. In theory, it allows for the chain of command a better ability to incorporate the plan at the tactical level into the greater strategic operation. In practice, it tends to be a way for risk averse commands to deny missions based on fear (personal perspective based on experience). The body armor thing is an extension of the risk aversion. DoD wants less casualties, so they enforce policies based on force protection, but they aren't the ones carrying the extra 30lbs of armor on top of mission essentials. Bottom line: The Good Idea Fairy Gone Bad.

Blake Miles
Blake Miles

There are few things more demoralizing than being prevented from doing your job, particularly when people around you want to kill you. The CONOP process was the most demoralizing aspect of my trip to Iraq in '06. "Careerism and risk aversion" describes it in a nutshell. It gets people killed.

BrandonWebb
BrandonWebb moderator like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @bmiles84 this video is a masterpiece....couldn't agree more. I experience the patrolling with armor in the mountains first hand....madness.

Tango9
Tango9

 @BrandonWebb Brandon didn't post s snippet from a book a while back about some water SEAL Cmdr rolling in and insisting on ballistic plated during an op?  And how beat down the team was when they finally humped to their objective?

Blake Miles
Blake Miles like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @BrandonWebb Thinking about it all now, and imagining the suck factor of armor in the mountains literally gives me a physiological response. It makes my heart hurt. I can't imagine it getting any better before it gets much, much worse. Good thing I have God to turn to.