Western Rifle Shooters Association

Do not give in to Evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it

Friday, January 29, 2010

What's With The Alphabet Soup?

I'll bet more than one of you is wondering, "What's with all of the military manuals and all of the acronyms?"

It's pretty simple, actually.

As you have read repeatedly here at WRSA, the organizing principles of this shop are:

1) We're screwed

2) There's gonna be a fight

3) Let's win

In this post, we defined the third element as follows:

1) Survive the first die-off.

2) Keep your kids alive.

3) Kill the enemy.

4) Keep fighting.

5) Stay alive.

That's the "what" of the plan -- what is it that a member of Nock's Remnant must do in order to claim (at least tactical) victory over the Bad People.

So knowing what to do is a piece of the puzzle.

But how to accomplish those objectives is a different analysis, from the individual all the way up to the large group level.

"How" is the point of the alphabet soup exercises.

No, no one here (who isn't already doing so) is likely to be leading formal military teams either today or tomorrow.

But if someone has a better idea for non .mil folks to start to learn how to think through problems of offense, defense, tactics, and strategy, please feel free to add your detailed thoughts below.

In the meantime, think about the challenges you will face in terms of the "5WH" framework of classic journalism:

What?

Who?

Where?

When?

Why?

How?


See how using that framework helps to inject structure into chaos?

The .mil acronyms of METT-TC, OAKOC, ASCOPE, BAMCIS, SMEAC, SALUTE, and others soon-to-com serve the same purpose as 5WH -- that is, easily-remembered tools by which order can be imposed on chaos so as to increase the chances of overall success.

So bear with us.

Read the material.

Comment, add, amend, or disagree.

But read and learn the material.

More chaos than anyone could imagine is headed our way.

And soon.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Seeing all of these acronyms brings back memories of my 8.5 years as a US Army Cav scout. Some of them have changed, but the principles are the same.

Regardless of whether you are a leader or follower, you need to keep these things in mind. The Army drills this into soldiers at all levels (at least in the units I was in). In combat everyone is only an explosion away from taking command. Pay attention and learn, friends.

While you are reading this, your enemy is training.

An Alaskan Patriot
III

A question-
What will be the tipping point? What will be the fateful spark? When does it begin? What do you think?

January 29, 2010 at 8:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

download-able version here:
http://www.marines.mil/news/publications/Documents/MCWP%203-11.3%20%20Scouting%20and%20Patrolling.pdf

January 30, 2010 at 7:07 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home