What are your questions?
What are your questions?
"The status quo is not sustainable. All of DoD needs to be placed in a large bag and thoroughly shaken. Bureaucracy and micromanagement kill."
-- Ken White
"With a plan this complex, nothing can go wrong." -- Schmedlap
"We are unlikely to usefully replicate the insights those unencumbered by a military staff college education might actually have." -- William F. Owen
My best advice is to talk to platoon leaders and then squad leaders. If an intelligence cell, whether division, brigade or battalion, or company, doesn't get out and patrol then it never really understands the AO it is trying to provide intelligence to. Too often intelligence shops preach bottom-fed intelligence but practice top down distribution.
Recently got back from six weeks of research in-theatre, including approx. half the time down south with a line inf. bn. Fascinating stuff. Michael C, you're quite right. I went out on a good number of patrols, and saw the disconnects.
Much more in-country research to follow - mid-December to mid-January and April through August.
In the meantime, I'm looking at the history of int cells. I think I've found most of the related articles, but there are certainly still large holes in the story. Any contacts would be appreciated.
I'd also love a chance to send anyone who's had int cell experiences a list of questions (the more responses, the better the overall data).
Finally, if anyone is interested in discussing my more detailed impressions, please feel free to PM me.
Look at CALL products on this subject: there are seven company-level handbooks and a tac intel newsletter I put together from the JRTC Ops Grp CALL Cell working with our Brit excange officer and materials from OPTAG. that was in 2003.
Issues abound yes; consistency in application is one of the greatest
Tom
Cheers!Originally Posted by Tom Odom
CoiST Operations
CALL is/was producing a CoiST Manual from all of them when I left. Having seen the NTC CoiST Manual, they are invaluable to the Company level Soldiers. Units should get them in the hands of the Units well in advance to deployment to the CTCs though.
CoIST training
My task has trained most if not all of the Army units with a CoIST that are currently deployed. We have numerous examples of unit developed SOP as well as lessons learned from various deployments. One thing we try to capture from every unit is what tasks the Company teams are actually perfoming as well as what communication systems they use to share information with other Companies and the BN level. I would be interested in what practices you observed while you are there.
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