Let me ask you this; could you do your job in the village as a BN Commander without security?Originally Posted by AdaptAndOvercome
PM enroute.
Personal Security Teams for BN COs
About a year ago, a specialist told me that his battalion commander in Iraq had a detail of soldiers who were his "personal security team", or bodyguards. Has anyone heard of this TTP, or was this guy pulling my leg?
Let me ask you this; could you do your job in the village as a BN Commander without security?
PM enroute.
Example is better than precept.
It depends on how you define a personal security team...Do you envision a small group of troops who are flowing in and out of diamond and box formations around the BC as he moves on foot to visit a sheik? Or are you thinking about the larger concept of a task-organized element of soldiers who provide command and control within the BC's jump CP (I think your doctrine calls in the TACC or something), as well as mounted/dismounted security, depending on the situation?
Either way, those two profiles have been done. I think I still have the slideshow I used to train a small cell of Marines to do the former for my BC the last time over.
It is a status symbol to some degree, so if the BC believes he wants to increase that status when out and about among Iraqis, the train-up needs to be done right and not out of some handbook. Grab a trained and experienced MP who's worked this stuff in the past and ask him.
Having done personal security detail for a judge in a relatively non-hostile environment I can't even imagine the task in a war zone. How many layers, how deep, counter-sniper or not, multiple mis-directions or not, force to destination or covert... gosh it must be a literal head trip trying to provide any true level of security on a single point target like a BC.
Sam Liles
Selil Blog
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The scholarship of teaching and learning results in equal hatred from latte leftists and cappuccino conservatives.
All opinions are mine and may or may not reflect those of my employer depending on the chance it might affect funding, politics, or the setting of the sun. As such these are my opinions you can get your own.
To clear things up, the soldier I talked to was disgruntled that the BC got special protection. The sense I got from the conversation was the soldier felt the BC was not sharing hardship and danger with his soldiers.
The point of my post wasn't to ask for TTPs, but to solicit opinions on the necessity versus adverse effects to morale this special protection causes. Is this a "moral failure" on the part of the BC or a necessary precaution miscontrued by a junior soldier?
The latter.
Example is better than precept.
Sounds to me like a misguided and naive soldier concentrating on something he has no business questioning. Better to work on his MOS-related skills.
Regarding TTPs et al, the SWJ's ROE are listed here.
BC security
The security around a battalion CO is necessary on multiple levels. The security detail often functions as a squad does around its leader. The men understand or should understand that their security is interdependent despite individuals roles beyond personal and unit security. Certain operations and enviroments will predicate layers of security precautions, and even with that the enviroment is unforgiving. No Marine goes on patrol alone.
Last edited by MASON; 09-09-2007 at 11:58 AM. Reason: typo
Adapt and Overcome:
Sir, I have something I need to share with you. As a very, very, junior soldier assigned to Btn HQ, I was overheard by the Btn Sargent Major grumbling to myself about having to get the CO a cup of coffee, clean his sidearm for him, etc.To clear things up, the soldier I talked to was disgruntled that the BC got special protection. The sense I got from the conversation was the soldier felt the BC was not sharing hardship and danger with his soldiers.
The "little talk" I immediately had with said SM left me considerably wiser and my ego and posterior extremely bruised.
Of course the CO needs a protective detail. He is too busy thinking about YOUR protection to worry about his own.
And furthermore, a dead CO is worth considerably more to the insurgents than anyone else's sorry backside.
Last edited by walrus; 09-10-2007 at 01:01 AM.
I am suprised some people don't know about a Col PSD (Personnel Security Detactment). However, the PSD is ussually a plt. In fact my BN CDR's PSD has an office just beside mine. It's a mix of MOSs and it has a PSG but no PL.
As for it's use, it is critically importantant that your main link between Brigade and Batalion stay alive when he leaves the wire to go to meetings and soforth.
Plus, its not like it is extra security. NO soldier, marine, or trooper leaves the wire alone. You always role out in a convoy of guntrucks and joe's. SO, no matter who you are your always with your own PSD. Furthermore, when there on the FOB or not on mission its notlike there huvering over the BC.
In fact our PSD will go out on missions when not actively employed by the BC.
SO, I don't get his complant.
Recon 1-6 out.
I happen to know a BC who was so aggressive and self-less (and beloved by his men), that that his HHC provided PSD protection despite his objections.
I never went shipboard as a Marine but I thought Marines did personal protection for the Captain on carriers and other bath tub toys too.
Sam Liles
Selil Blog
Don't forget to duck Secret Squirrel
The scholarship of teaching and learning results in equal hatred from latte leftists and cappuccino conservatives.
All opinions are mine and may or may not reflect those of my employer depending on the chance it might affect funding, politics, or the setting of the sun. As such these are my opinions you can get your own.
It's just SOP
All commanders have a "PSD" these days, it's just good sense in Iraq.
For me as a company CO, whenever I traveled to a local national meeting with Sheiks, I created a target. The threat was not from the tribe hosting me but an external actor seeking a two-fer (or three, four, five). Usually one of my platoons escorted on the mission and performed joint security with the locals. My vehicle crew and my XO's crew provided my personal detail. My RTO was a senior E-5 and my tank gunner, who stuck on me tight. The other guys manned the truck and the long range radios .
On normal patrols, I would patrol with my platoons. I especially remember when one of my Infantry E-5's told me that if I ever entered a building first again, he would physically place me back with the HMMWV. A gentle reminder that CO's are supposed to command, otherwise you're an overpaid PFC if you get engaged. It's a balance you have to strike.
That said, during BILATs the goal is to secure your men through making friends with the locals. I used to tell my guys that we were making ourselves safer by chatting with the locals and drinking tea for hours.
Our BN Co had a PSD with him at all times. Our BN was scattered from Mosul all the way to Balad. He and the Bn CSM did itheir rounds every week. It's not like the PSD surrounded these guys 24/7. They escorted them from base to base. Every Bn level command movement absolutely needed "security"
I think we were the lucky ones, though. Our CSM and Bn CO actually went on missions with their troops. They did what the lower level troops did. I've had our CSM in my truck countless times (to my dismay) driving me (a lowly E-5) on missions.
Lead from the front, it stinks less.
Talking to guys in the infantry up here the consenus seems to be that it is an important job...as long as somebody else is doing it. If you are the one on PSD, then it just sucks.
SFC W
In early 2005 I was invited to Baqubah by some cheeses at War Horse and was driven around the city for a couple of days by a BDE CDR's PSD. They were assigned to that role, 2 vehicles, three troops per. They were junior guys, pretty good at the task, but rather laissez faire about everything. Probably fed up with having to drive lots of VIPs and not-so-VIPs (like me) through what was then becoming a rather active IED alley.
Cheers,
Joe
Just because you haven't been hit yet does NOT mean you're doing it right.
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." President Dwight D. Eisenhower
That's funny, because we had to take "vip" and not-so "vip" personnel back and forth to bases all the time. we joked about NOT being a trailblazer patrol, and being a cabbie service. i guess we weren't the only ones.
Yeah, its not hard to understand the views of the guys on the detail: "who the hell is this guy, and why am I going into harm's way to get him someplace?"
Cheers,
Joe
Just because you haven't been hit yet does NOT mean you're doing it right.
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." President Dwight D. Eisenhower
When headquarters asked my company to give up a few guys for PSD detail we sent them all our ####bags lol Its not like the LTC and Sergeant Major go out much anyways.
Example is better than precept.
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