Forty years ago in many Bns / Sqns, that was the job of the OpSgt during the day and the Asst Op Sgt at night. Surprisingly, with an at least similar or possibly even higher combat optempo, with less technology and a radio handset at both ears while another net blared over the speaker on the remote, most did it pretty well...

Those were also the days of an Officer shortage and a 3-shop with three Officers, four NCOs (the senior a MSG) and three Specialists -- the 2 had one Officer, two NCOs and one specialist.

In those days, at Bde, the job in my observation was done usually by two LTs or CPTs in rotation and with the two NCOs as back up. The Bde 2 and 3 shops were only slightly larger (S3 5/4/5 and S2 2/3/3) than the Bn crews.

I understand the staff sections have grown a bit...

Some commanders were reluctant to give NCOs that much responsibility, some had weak NCOs and thus those tended to use Officers but I think those were the exception rather than the rule.

IIRC, the Armor guys adapted the Battle Captain idea from the Bundeswehr. In it's formative days in the early '50s, they had a Hauptmann Tk Co Cdr -- and an OberFeldWebel, old experienced WW II vet at the time, who actually fought the company from a Hotchkiss PC just back of the contact line while the Hauptmann led the Panzers...

The Army has also done away with the Ops and Intel NCO MOSs in the combat arms -- not a smart move IMO. Some guys make great ops NCOs, more make great First Sergeants; a few can do both well but most cannot. Some can't do either well and should be relived for cause before they hang around long enough to get promoted...

What worked then could work now but times change and I have little doubt things are better today; I mention all the above only so some will realize that talent and not rank can be used as a criteria for most things -- particularly in event of personnel shortages and even more particularly in combat. Especially in combat...

Long as it works...