Tips for Battle Procedure

[Haligonian]

I'm currently on the new trial IAP course and were going into week 7 so were heading into the field for the next two weeks and working on our battle procedures before our evaluation on the 8th week.  They've begun us on a shorter 7 step Battle Procedure as opposed to immediatly throwing us into the 15 step Battle Procedure.  However on previous courses cadets have received almost a week of classes on battle procedure where we have only received two classes.  Anyone on here have any tips for doing battle procedures for small party tasks, particularly when you don't actually know the technical aspects to the task itself (for example I was told to set up an observation post after an hour lecture on observation posts, thats all the instruction I received)? 

 

[George Wallace]

Couple of things to help you would be:

1.  SEARCH "Battle Procedure" and you will find several Topics on it; and

2.  For these tasks, it really isn't the completion of the task that you are being tested on, but your Leadership abilities and qualities.  It is how you handle the job and how you go about directing your personnel to do the task.

 

[orange.paint]

2.  For these tasks, it really isn't the completion of the task that you are being tested on, but your Leadership abilities and qualities.  It is how you handle the job and how you go about directing your personnel to do the task.

The assessment sheet is written in two parts.Leadership and task.IIRC the leadership was 70%.Either way like George said its how you handle leadership.If you plan on doing well I suggest you complete task and do well leadership wise.

As for your questions your asking about BP how about go look up info on O.P's so you know what to do! Soon to be leader of men; did any of your class ask for the assessment sheet?Leadership courses are usually pretty good for that.Sometimes when you ask for echo support to fill in your trenches at end ex.....it just may happen.
You a future leader ask for stuff,plan ahead.I have a flow sheet I made up as an aide memoire.That way it followed correct sequence and was in the excact order of the DS assessment sheet.(no way they can ding you then).

I didn't even really do a section attack.I asked the troop leader if we had arty,told en force guys I was going to call em in.Called in the arty and they popped arty sims layed down and I walked my section onto the objective.
I barley made it out of high school,a colledge kid shouldn't have trouble with battle procedure.Just relax and you'll do fine.Make leadership noises and for frig sakes dont do all the work yourself or you fail!(one guy didn't like how someone was doing a VCP and decided to lay it out himself....he failed.)

Relax its an ARMY course

 

[dglad]

You've already received good advice; I'd only add/emphasize a couple of things:

-focus on being a leader.  While there's nothing wrong with pitching in and getting your hands dirty if the situation demands it, your job is to stand back, maintain "situational awareness" (a fancy way of saying "knowing what's going on") and ensure that your plan is unfolding the way it should.  Don't get sucked into the weeds, because you'll lose control. 

-establish a chain of command right away.  This will clarify in everyone's mind what the hierarchy is.  You'll want at least a 2ic.  Once you've done your initial estimate, you may decide you want to designate team leaders as subordinate commanders, if the task seems to lend itself to break down into logical sub-tasks.

-take the time to make a good plan.  In small party tasks I've assessed, one of the more frequent failures is a leader who rushes through developing the plan in order to "get to it".  Trouble is, without a plan that everyone understands, you can't really succeed.  On the other hand, if you develop a good plan and communicate it to your subordinates so that each understands his/her part to play in the plan, then you'll find that the task will essentially execute itself.  That leaves you free to trouble-shoot, react to changes and watch things like the passing of time.

-incidentally, that communication bit above is key.  Even a sub-optimal plan can be made to work if everyone understands it.  Even a perfect plan that isn't communicated well is going to quickly bog down.  Don't launch into execution until you are confident everyone understands their job.

-ensure that everyone is kept busy with what's called "concurrent activity".  That doesn't mean coming up with "make work" for people, though.  Most small party tasks are specifically designed to keep about a section's worth of people busy doing something for a half-hour, give or take, with lots of simultaneous bits and pieces of work being done.  If some people finish their part of the task early, don't leave them standing about; direct them to assist with other tasks still ongoing.  Even if they're not really needed, it will show that you are aware of your resources and are managing them.

-finally, watch your time.  Another common failing I've seen is a leader who takes the time to do a good time estimate, then completely ignores it and loses track of time (this is especially true for those who let themselves get sucked into the nitty-gritty of the task and lose situational awareness).

Hope this helps.