Operational Patience

In 2006, during turnover with 2nd Recon in Al Anbar, SSgt Eric Kocher said something that stuck in my mind.  “We’ve got operational ADD,” he said.  “We go somewhere, poke around for a couple weeks, then we leave.” While he was talking specifically about the way we were being employed, his sentiments can be applied across the operational spectrum from the small-unit tactical level all the way to the strategic level.  We seem to have come to expect war to operate on a schedule.  Needless to say, it doesn’t.  The enemy gets a vote, as they say, and that can throw your desired schedule into a cocked hat.  Not only does enemy action affect the timeline, but in a combat zone, even more than anywhere else, Murphy is king.  Equipment breaks.  Weather grounds helicopters or slows movement.  The imagery turns out to be outdated, and where there was a crossing, there is now just a ten-foot-deep canal.  Somebody gives the lieutenant a map. Read the rest at Breach-Bang-Clear: http://www.breachbangclear.com/site/10-blog/350-peter-nealan-on-operational-add-in-warfare.html