The mission Pt 1 OPORDER

The army is a giant corporation, it there are giant sections of it that do nothing but try to find new ways of doing things. Sometimes this works, most of the time it doesn’t. For instance there has never really been an improvement on the rules for Rodgers Rangers, however every Sergeant Major and Battalion Commander thinks they have found the new version to last a life time. The OPORDER or Operations Order works, as long as it is used as it is intended. SSG Moto does a great OPORDER.
Some time before a mission the entire squad gathers in a shipping container that has been converted into a briefing room. Maps under glass cover the tables and more are posted on the wall. A giant flat screen TV will show the required power point presentation to all of us. We sit at the two picnic table sized tables, the last people in have to stand in the back. First he covers generic squad business.
This is not just a opportunity for the squad leader to babble at us. We there is a lot of banter also. Myself or someone else who has recently got a package from home comes in and tosses things down the table, cookies, candies, and other stuff. It is a combination of sharing and self defense, I have to keep my weight down somehow.
After the little stuff he launches into the mission. What is going on around us, where we are going, who we are taking with us. All the details are handled here. We write down the important stuff, like time lines and changes. He does an oral quiz to make sure we were listening then briefs us what has happened in the echelons beyond reason.
This is always exciting, and makes us appreciate the fact that Moto is not a brown nosing lick spittle like some guys who have advanced as fast as he has. There was a desire for a minute by minute time line of mission prep, that included how long it took to walk to the motor pool. Then there is the additional requirements for us to complete in our copious spare time. During this the squad bonds, there is some cross talk, back talk and jokes.
The problem is that Moto is the leader of the basic maneuver element. All the work is done by squads. Platoon, company and battalion have become management. The army told them they would be maneuvering units, working outside the wire, involved in the day to day, minute to minute operations of a combat element. Instead, they see individual squads go out, sometimes for days at a time without them. They have been betrayed by their expectations. Most of our management hasn’t been here before, while junior leadership has one or more tours already under their belts. It is the way things work.
You can learn a lot from an OPORDER about how a unit is working, watch how early people show up, how they pay attention and how long they hang out after the brief.
I hang out afterward and chat with the squad, watching another unit load up their trucks. All indicators say that we have our shit wired tight, we just have to keep the bosses dick beaters out of our pudding.