I've been grinding through the guide with a certain fervor of late - not just hitting the highlights or flipping back and forth, but reading front to back. That's a bit of a challenge when you're talking doctrine or TTPs, but that's sort of besides the point.

As I read, I see plenty of references to charts, network diagrams, and miscellaneous tracking/collection tools to help a company commander and his staff organize and prosecute the COIN mission.

Does anyone know of a package of digital COIN tools out there that can be easily manipulated to suit the situation, sort of like a "COIN ops in a box"? From my experience as a TF battle captain, I realize that some information capture tools need to be built from the ground up, but given the already critical time crunch commander's face in training for the deploy, why not give them pre-formatted templates and tools right out of the gate? The first direction to take may be to go to the S-2, but even then he doesn't have it all, so it often comes down to the Marine with the quickest Powerpoint and Excel skills. Not to mention, there are a number of TTP sections that rate their own smartcard for reproduction and issue as required.

Any MCCDC guys on here who think attaching a CD-ROM to the back dust jacket makes any sense?