Week 8 - OPORD

Well gentlemen, I won't make any bones about it -  I've been slacking on this journal.  In the ever present war between keeping current on my updates and letting off steam, letting off steam has won.  Es macht nichts.

Week 8 greeted us with a lovely little mid-course examination, focusing on offensive operations.  Topics for our particular exam included:

• Forms of Maneuver
• Types of Offensive Operations
• Types of Special Attacks
• Types of Movement to Contacts
• Purposes of Offense
• Principles of War
• Civil Considerations during IPB (ASCOPE)
• Military Aspects of Weather
• Military Aspects of Terrain (OCOKA)
• Steps for COA Development
• TLPs
• Operational Terms and Graphics, specifically:
• Unit Symbols
• Equipment Symbols
• Tactical Mission Tasks
• Types of Rehearsals

I am sure I am missing a couple, but rest assured, if you have these down-packed, you'll be fine - they will do a comprehensive review beforehand that will cover everything on the exam.  Just take the time to actually study these things.  All of this stuff can be found in the supplied field manuals.  One of the guys in our class has  something called the Battle Staff Smartbook, which takes all this stuff, from about three different field manuals, and smushes it into a book you can carry in your pocket.  Might be something to look in to.

Nothing much to tell you about the rest of the week, really.  They taught us how to do OPORDs, did a few practice ones, and set up a schedule for presenting them for a grade - they give you the grade sheet beforehand, so you know exactly what you have to hit.  Be forewarned, that the format for these OPORDs is probably not the same way you did them in West Point/OCS/ROTC, but it's not necessarily a bad thing.  The way they taught us how to do them streamlines a lot of the information and makes the whole endeavor less pedantic.  If you can stand to wait a few days until I return from leave, I will upload a scan of the grading sheet, along with an explanation of what all the acronyms mean.  I'll also take the time to walk you through how I presented my OPORD.  If you would like a copy of the company level OPORD that they gave to us, to see what it looks like, I will email it to you, if you provide a .mil address.  The rest of the week you worked on your OPORD, editing as you learned in class, and two brave souls volunteers to go first, so the rest of us could get a taste for what right looks like.  We asked the guys what their grade was, and they told us that it would be on a curb - in other words, we all had to go before we got a grade.  So maybe it's OK to suck, as long as you suck less than everyone else (the answer is no, by the way.  This is your bread and butter, here.).