Fundamentals of the Battle Captain
RTK has written on his experiences using the framework of the 28 Articles, and I felt that same framework could be used to offer some lessons learned on the battle captain system that my unit applied during its 2004-2005 rotation.
I can't lay claim to any degree of enlightment, but I'd like to think that towards the end of our deployment, our "council of captains" (S-3A, AirO, FSC, FAC, and SJA) had gotten into a sustainable groove.
Article 1: Know your turf – Ltcol Kilcullen makes reference to developing a mental model of your area of operations. Try as we might to study imagery, review the maps and gain situational awareness, it took us in excess of three months to realize that battle captains need to physically see the battlespace with the naked eye. We eventually caught helos which flew over the turf, or went out when the Bn cmdr went forward to check on the companies.
Article 2: Diagnose the problem – A battle captain’s problem is not the same tactical problem a company or platoon faces. He needs to move information (reporting) as quickly as possible, have a clear understanding of what needs to happen when a CCIR is tripped, when he must roust the QRF out of the ready room, and which means of communication to use in order to expedite a casevac request. Battle captains have to share lessons learned and offer ideas, and get the rest of the COC staff in synch so that they do not add to the friction when troops are in contact.
Article 3: Organize for intelligence – The critical detail here is that COC staff need to be organized to maximize the capture of information for analysis. Do not let the S-2 staff stray out of reach of your daily battle rhythm. Because current operations and intelligence sections often report what should be the same information, up two separate paths, patrol, raid, and contact debriefs must be conducted with S-3 and S-2 representation. The patrol leader may conduct a more detailed debrief later with the intel rep, but ops has to reserve the right to final review of follow-on reporting offered up by the S-2. I’ve been queried by the night Regimental-level battle captain on significant events tidbits that the Regt S-2 briefed, but Regt Ops did not know. It is an unnecessarily painful experience.
Article 4: Organize for interagency operations – Even if the battle captain doesn’t organize anything regarding interagency ops, he should know where these folks live, and stop by for a chat when they are on the FOB. A fellow battle captain and TF IO officer introduced me to the civil affairs HQ responsible for our AO. A couple of visits helped us explain matters to the company commander who was justifiably frustrated that his recommended pump house project hadn’t seen movement for several weeks.
Article 5: Travel light and harden CSS (Combat Service Support) – All I can speak to is the travel light piece, and you’ve got to maintain the ability to revert to pens, maps, and acetate to fight the fight. For hardening, don’t let digital comms rest on a single point of failure. Test back-up systems regularly.
Article 6: Find a political / cultural advisor – I found that the contract linguists are a remarkable source of ground-truth information, if you only listen to them. A lot of what they say has to be taken with a grain of salt, because they love rumors, but after you’re done with the shaker, they still provide a lot of context. You’d be surprised what you can pick up over a cigarette and cup of tea.
Article 7: Train the squad leaders, then trust them – Get your COC people to as much formal and informal training as possible, even if it means foregoing multiple COC exercises. The Battle NCOs may think that steady state ops are mind-numbing, but when you have rockets impacting around the COC, troops in contact, and a developing casevac situation, a properly trained NCO truly shines. My battalion had an ops idiot savant who amazed me daily with his ability to pull in COP feeds, re-wire the COC after displacement, and sense when things needed to happen. He was a graduate of an operations specialist course, and it paid off during both deployments.
Article 8: Rank is nothing, talent is everything – See article 7. If the square peg won’t fit into the round hole, keep searching until you find a fit.
Article 9: Have a game plan – Treat the deployment as a marathon, not a sprint. Rehearse your actions in garrison and develop a rough plan to support ops in the AO, but don’t become enamored with that plan. Don’t be afraid to employ tricks you pick up during the RIP/TOA. It wasn’t until we’d been in country for over four months and had fought Fallujah v.2.0 that our battle captain system really started to click and run smoothly. During a RIP in Ramadi, we even stole some TTPs from the Army.
Article 10: Be there – As a battle captain, you can’t be there if you are exhausted. Those days will come for sure, but the companies outside the wire deserve better, and if you are starting a 12 hour watch after only fours hours of sleep because you were playing Xbox, then you are simply negligent. Build a duty rotation like Marine Security Guard duty. Try to give the battle staff time off, if possible. At one point when we were in Ramadi for a few months, our rotation had it where the battle captain and his NCO could have 36 hours off, after a 3-day duty period. It keeps everyone rested and maintains their sanity. You will need it when the worst days come. Another component to “being there” is to have a semblance of depth. My TF had to split to support the Fallujah fight, and we learned the hard lesson that we did not have enough well-trained battle captains to do so without incurring more risk than we needed to. The senior personnel went forward and the junior guys did a stellar job, but they had to violate the first point in this paragraph.
Article 11: Avoid knee jerk responses to first impressions – I’ll trump RTK a bit and say that initial reports are wrong 99% of the time. Every time you press an RTO for more details, the urge to embellish creeps in and reporting morphs into speculation. Give the unit 30 minutes to submit a follow-up report, and preferably after the senior man on the scene has made his assessment of just what the hell happened. In a running gunfight, remember that silence on the net probably means the commander has a helmet fire going on. He is busy…give him some space.
USMC Battle Captains: Coy level officer or Battalion Staff?
And here I thought the role of the Battle Captain was just to keep Battalion off of the Company Commander's back in battle, silly me...:rolleyes:
jcustis, i'm not quite clear on just how the USMC LAR Bns uses its Battle Captains; is there one in each coy (that's what we have in each LAV/Stryker rifle coy in the RCR, now) and this is what appears to me what you're describing, or are the Battle Captains actually part of the Battalion Staff and are attached out to companies? In Canadian Army, both the mechanized rifle company and the tank squadron, the OC is on the coy/sqn/combat team net and monitors the bn/reg net, the 2 i/c takes care of the A1 echelon, and the Battle Captain is nearby the OC and is on the bn/reg net while monitoring the coy/squ/combat team net. Is this the same as USMC (LAR Bn)?
I see it's not quite the same...
I see, so the Battle Captain in the US Army is whoever is the Duty Officer at the time in the Bn TOC (or BGD HQ for that matter), and apparently the USMC Watch Officer (how very naval) is basically the same.
Evidently the Battle Captain in a Commonwealth Tank Squadron (Company) or Mechanized Infantry Company is not the same thing as the US Army Battle Captain or the USMC Watch Officer (both battalion or brigade level Duty Officer). The Battle Captain is somewhat more like, but not identical too, the Senior NCO in the German Tank Company that Ken describes. In short, a Commonwealth Battle Captain acts as a sort of filter between the Company/Squadron OC who is fighting his command and Battalion/Regimental HQ, while the Company/Squadron 2i/c is with the Coy/Sqn HQ.
Just goes to show that the same term can have very different meanings in the same langauge. As Churchill said, Britain and America are two people divided by a commmon language.
Thanks for the info, gentlemen. It cleared up quite the confusion on my end.
Seems Commonwealth divvies up US XO functions between 2i/c and Battle Captain.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Cavguy
FYI, the role you describe is usually handled by the Company XO (2IC) in most units. The CO "commands" the company, and talks to the Bn CO when necessary regarding major issues, but focuses on fighting his company. The unit XO usually keeps BN informed with routine reports and traffic.
Yes, and I was confused when I first encountered jcustis' posts on the Battle Captain - I was unaware the US had them in the Commonwealth sense, and I wondered if things had recently changed as a result of battle experience in Iraq and A-Stan. I now see that the US Army Battle Captain or USMC Watch Officer is the same as the Watch/Duty Officer at Bn/Rgt/Bge HQ in Commonwealth Armies.
I had known of, as you point out, the roles of both the Company CO and XO in the US system, and I was quite lost when I saw this thread about the "Battle Captain", and I assumed that some new innovation had been made in the USMC somewhat along Commonwealth lines, presumably as a result of recent battle experience. I had no idea that the US Army had "Battle Captains" (but I now know what the usage of that term in the US Army is).
In the Commonwealth system, there are 3 officers at Company/Squadron level:
The OC (Officer Commanding - 1i/c if you will - a Major) commands the infantry company or tank squadron in battle ("F" Echelon) and listens in, but only responds when very necessary to, the Bn/Reg radio net, while actively using the Coy/Sqn radio net himself to control the fight.
The 2i/c (a Captain, but sometimes a Major himself as well) takes care of the Coy/Sqn HQ and Admin (Coy/Sqn Logistics in general: the Company/Squadron Sergeant Major commands "A1" Echelon, not the 2i/c - my error - front-line resupply, casevac, and HQ defence, while Company/Squadron Quarter-Master Sergeant commands "B" Echelon - CQ/SQ - stores, etc.). I think the 2i/c listens in to both the Coy/Sqn radio net and the Bn/Rgt net. The 2i/c (or CSM/SSM) may lead an armed resupply body to, and casevac back from, the front line ("F" Echelon).
The Battle Captain (3i/c, if you will - an experienced Captain) accompanies the OC to the front line ("F" Echelon) and joins him in the battle. Think of the Battle Captain as a sort of Company S-3, maybe that's the easiest, but not the exact, way to describe his function. The Battle Captain is on the horn to both Battalion/Regiment HQ (sitreps) and decides which messages are for the OC's ear, and to Coy/Sqn HQ and sends orders for ammo/fuel resupply and casevac to the 2i/c. The Battle Captain deals with the Bn/Rgt S-3 and other requests for info, leaving the OC to concentrate on the fight. If the OC is killed, the Battle Captain assumes command of the Coy/Sqn until the 2i/c arrives from Coy/Sqn HQ. The Company/Squadron Sergeant-Major CSM/SSM takes command of Coy/Sqn HQ in that event.
Just to confuse the issue...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Cavguy
Very interesting. The role by the 2i/c above is performed by the company First Sergeant in Combat, and a combination of the XO and 1SG in garrison. I know certain light infantry units reverse that, with the XO running logistics and the 1SG up front. The XO in Tank/Cav/Mech units has a fighting vehicle, wheras the 1SG gets a HMMWV and an APC, and hangs with the supply sergeant.
I knew many foreign armies used Majors as company commanders. (the Iraqis do) I didn't know that they had two assistants in addition to the platoon leaders, I guess it makes sense.
Until the LAV-25 and Styker arrived in rifle coys (until then both Light and Mech with either LAV-1 or M-113), the arrangment was more backwards. The OC, warning order in hand, formed the lads up on the line of departure, handed control of the company over to the 2i/c, then returned to the rear Coy HQ to work on the plan for the next mission. The CSM was at Coy HQ and took care of most things there. The CSM at Coy HQ was fine by me, but I could never get over the OC handing off to the 2i/c moments before starting the advance-to-contact, and heading to the rear to go to work on his next plan.:( WE didn't have a Battle Captain in the rifle coys until the arrival of the newer LAVs.
I think things are much better with the new arrangement.:)