Platoon Readiness Briefs
A tool for leaders to gain accountability of sustainable readiness
What’s a Platoon Readiness Brief?
Early on we recognized there were too many briefing requirements, too many slides, too much time spent on things seemingly unconnected. Then it clicked.
In the quest for Sustainable Readiness we find ourselves briefing non-deployable personnel one week, training statistics another week, gunline briefs every few months before gunnery, services in-briefs before semi-annual services, and command and staff slides routinely. These suffice in the moment but, let’s be honest, they’re typically crunched on a few days before the briefing and then cast away immediately following until the next month when the same binge briefing development process begins and ends again.
But we’re responsible for all this information all the time. And it’s constantly changing and evolving. Also, the fundamental building block for combat readiness and fighting effectiveness is the platoon. We focus on development two levels down and platoons are two levels below squadron.
Therefore, as a squadron commander, my focus area is the platoon if the combat effectiveness of the squadron is dependent upon the readiness of the platoon.
After discussion with Command Sergeant Major and the Squadron Executive Officer we decided to try something. We’d compile a list of all the things that contribute to readiness, collect the data, make the platoon leader and platoon sergeant explain it to us once a quarter, and make it inspectable at any time.
It becomes a two hour dissertation defense. More importantly, it provides Command Sergeant Major and I the opportunity to discuss with platoon and troop leadership teams priorities, get their assessment of risk and shortcomings in plans, training, equipment, and maintenance. It allows troop command teams the opportunity to maintain the pulse on the readiness center of gravity; the platoons within their formations.
If I have a Master’s Degree on a platoon or troop leadership team’s organization, they’d better have a Ph.D.
This briefing is a leader’s book on steroids.
Setup
Once a quarter this is briefed and discussed over about a two hour time period. It’s the longest meeting we have (all other meetings are limited to one hour). The platoon leader and platoon sergeant brief. The troop commander, executive officer, and first sergeant are present. The squadron executive officer, squadron maintenance officer, and typically a member of the S3 shop are present. It’s a board. It’s a discussion. It’s an opportunity for platoon leadership teams to hear from squadron leadership a candid assessment of their readiness from a squadron perspective. Even moreso, it’s an opportunity for platoon leadership teams to explain all the ways they’re getting after readiness from their level.
We have found this to be a great way to backbrief transitions between incoming and outgoing platoon leaders and platoon sergeants. We are about to do the same at the troop level which will help change of command backbriefs as well.
Information is maintained on the squadron sharepoint and can be accessed by anyone at anytime. With 6 scout platoons, 3 tank platoons, a medical platoon, maintenance platoon, and distribution platoon in the squadron, everyone is dependent upon each other to accomplish the mission and provide the very best in information collection, reconnaissance, and security for our brigade and division. Therefore, it so follows that the whole process needs to be open and honest; I want to know what those to my right and left are good at as well as what they need work in. It also means at any time I (or anyone else in the squadron) can go into a readiness brief and see the most current brief as things change over time.
Lastly, platoons submit their counseling packets for all Troopers in their platoon to the Command Sergeant Major prior to the brief so that he may review them, identify strengths and weaknesses, and further develop our leaders at echelon.
Agenda
The brief (Figure 1) is broken into three major categories: Personnel Readiness, Operational Readiness, and Maintenance Readiness. This allows deep dives into each of the three commodity areas. As the squadron commander, I review the slides prior to the brief and have a list of questions already (i.e. “why hasn’t this trooper taken a PT test since last March?” or “We redeployed a few months ago but this shows the last OCIE inventory as having been done in July. Why?”
Some may see this as micromanagement. I disagree. It’s an opportunity to assess how well a leadership team maintains currency in all the aspects that contribute to their platoon’s readiness. It’s an opportunity to see if troop command teams pick up on discrepancies before Command Sergeant Major and I do. It’s an opportunity to see where we are struggling across the board which allows Command Sergeant Major and I the opportunity to adjust our coaching focus or priorities.
Personnel Readiness
This is broken into three main areas — leader roster, crew roster, and administrative data. In the examples throughout this blog post we’ll use a sample brief for a tank platoon as they’re the easiest to show in scale.
Leader Slate
The Leader Slate (Figure 2) allows us to see key and branch qualifying assignments within the platoon (platoon leader, platoon sergeant, section sergeants). This shows when they got to the platoon, how long they’ve been in position, and anticipated date of departure. This allows Command Sergeant Major and I to maintain leaders for as long as possible and think about how to mitigate leader turnover during transition.
Crew Roster
The Crew Roster (Figure 3) allows for platoon and troop leadership to forecast crew continuity. Since both individual and crew qualification impacts sustainable readiness and Objective T standards, it is to the advantage of the organization to maintain cohesive crews. Just as Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have been together for nearly 19 years, maintaining gunner/vehicle commander combinations enhance crew proficiency, lethality, and experience.
Administrative Data
The next section (Figure 4) is administrative by design. This ensures leaders are taking care of Troopers assigned to their platoon. It ensures a next of kin is on file, as well as Loco Parentis where applicable. It tracks who has wills and powers of attorney — items not simply needed during deployments but could be problematic if not on hand by a family member during local area training or gunnery. We track when the last time a Trooper validated their Exceptional Family Member in the system (NOTE: we don’t, at the squadron level, ask which family member or why the EFMP — it’s more important to know whether the information has been validated within the past year). We examine updates for DD93s and Service Group Life Insurance currency as well as review flags and BARs to continued service, including how said Trooper is progressing and whether or not they’re upholding their piece of the plan of action to overcome the BAR. PCS and ETS data allow us to forecast awards of deserving Troopers and both meal and ID card data show us when a Trooper needs to get into the ID card line and replace their Common Access Card.
The next section (Figure 5) discusses medical stats and allows leaders to forecast when a Trooper is coming due for medical appointments, profiles, SRP, and the Global Assessment Tool.
The next administrative section (Figure 6) covers Troopers’ Organizational Clothing and Individual Equipment (OCIE) inventories, shortages, and inspections. This allows leaders to hold Troopers accountable for the equipment they are responsible for. It allows us to be good stewards of government resources and initiate proper administrative controls (statements of charges, financial liability investigation for property loss (FLIPL)) where necessary.
High Risk
Lastly, we cover high-risk Troopers within the formation (Figure 7). Each “baseball card” covers a number of demographics and training statistics. Most importantly, it explains the way ahead and any improvements or regressions over time. Particularly in cases where significant high-risk behavior leads to questions about deployability, the information gathered requires dialog and an involved leadership team to maintain understand and provide assistance to the Trooper. Troops also send these with their end of week closeout SITREPs to just Command Sergeant Major and I because of the highly sensitive nature of the information. Also, if additional parties attend the readiness brief we will excuse them at this point until we have completed this discussion.
Operational Readiness
This section predominantly gets into gunnery and collective training.
Gunnery
The first slide (Figure 8) shows a crew’s last gunnery score, their break point (NOTE: Only four things break a crew: PCS/ETS, Promotion into another position, Brigade Commander decision, or Physically Unable to Perform), and the reason for breaking. This shows where we need to think about collective task retraining due to leader changeouts later in training progressions or which crews we need to focus on in the Bradley Advanced Training System (BATS) or Advanced Gunnery Training System(AGTS).
The second slide (Figure 9) allows us to monitor the progress of crews through both Gunnery Skills Testing (GST) and either BATS or AGTS. Since Gunnery Skills should NOT just be something you do 2 weeks before gunnery this affords the platoon and troop leadership a quick check on the frequency of training and allows Command Sergeant Major and I an opportunity to monitor progress. In conjunction with the training calendar, it affords us an opportunity to observe and participate in training and ensure it is being conducted to standard.
Live Fire Progresssion
This is always my favorite slide (Figure 10) for discussion because you can gain insight quickly into how someone thinks about training for Mission Essential Task (MET) and subordinate collective training task proficiency. This is typically where new platoon leadership teams have their “AHA!” moment with regard to training management and the building block approach to gaining mastery in collective tasks. This also provides an opportunity to platoon and troop leadership teams to have my training philosophy reinforced straight from my mouth so there is not ambiguity or confusion as to intent.
We start on the left side of the slide with a discussion of primacy of platoon collective tasks (Figure 11). In the example on the left are the six platoon collective tasks supporting the four METs for a tank troop/company in the center. The discussion begins “which collective task is the most important to be a master of?” It is evident quickly whether this has been thought through at the platoon level. Future tank platoon leaders in the BlackJack Squadron will be well served to review this blog posting and understand it so as to enhance discussion in their own Platoon Readiness Brief.
Troop Leading Procedures (TLPs) are conducted for every operation — it so follows the one task the platoon must collectively master is how to conduct TLPs. Initially each platoon leader team argued for “Conduct an Attack” or “Conduct Movement to Contact” as the number one collective task, focusing first on the offensive nature of our operating concept and philosophy of the conduct of combat.
It is extremely difficult to conduct a movement to contact if you cannot communicate to your platoon what you want them to do.
After that, the discussion of platoon tactical tasks and the differentiation of task numbers (what indicates a new task number meaning it’s most updated) lead to discussions of which is hardest. The echelon of platoon collective tasks depicted in the figure below is the most logic nesting of collective tasks at the platoon level — it is more difficult to conduct a movement to contact than a deliberate attack. Additionally, if a platoon conducts a movement to contact properly then the platoon leadership team must integrate both direct and indirect fires properly and to standard. Therefore, if a tank platoon can develop mastery in Conduct Troop Leading Procedures, Movement to Contact, and Area Defense I will assume appropriate risk in the other three tasks. Because Conduct an Attack, Integrate Indirect Fire Support, and Integrate Direct Fires contain aspects resident within the first three tasks above it is safe to assume if a tank platoon can conduct a Movement to Contact or Area Defense then they can conduct a deliberate attack as well.
Platoon Objective T Metrics (Figure 12) become a running estimate based upon crew and platoon qualification, collective task training proficiency, live fire proficiency, and an estimate of training days required to achieve T1. This discussion demands dialog between the platoon and troop leadership teams because Objective T is based upon MET proficiency (there are no METs at echelons below Troop/Company/Battery). If Crews are qualified, the troop has achieved T’s in greater than 50% of their assigned METs, and platoons have demonstrated live fire proficiency at the platoon level, then the Troop is at least T2 by Objective T standards. In this, platoon live fire proficiency becomes Objective T’s Decisive Point as, per our training publications and outlined on the Army Training Network, once platoon live fire proficiency is demonstrated it takes only 9 allocated days to achieve troop/company/battery and Battalion/Squadron proficiency as per MTOEs.
The section concludes with after action review comments (Issue, Discussion, Recommendation) on previous months’ training and gunnery progression.
Maintenance Readiness
This section is all encompassing. If it shoots, moves, communicates, sees through the dark, allows you to see something far away closer up, or is otherwise on a hand receipt we talk about it. This is the portion of the briefing that takes the longest and requires the team briefing to bring their “A” game. Bluntly, as an armored cavalry squadron, it is difficult to do our job for the brigade and division if our stuff doesn’t work.
Figure 13 depicts the first slide. After having just discussed training and gunnery prior to getting here, this slide provides a good checkpoint to ensure scheduled services are not in conflict with collective training events. It also allows the platoon leadership team to discuss faults found and allows me the opportunity to deep dive the Equipment Status Report (ESR).
The next slide (Figure 14) includes a rundown of tools and BII for the vehicles. This allows for identification of shortages and ordering status of missing tools and equipment.
The next series of slides goes over every weapon system (both individual and crew served), optic system (night vision, thermal, close quarters sights, scopes, etc), communications system (FM, HF, JCR, etc), and chemical protective equipment (masks and JSLISTs). We discuss shortages, services, parts on order, and any deadlining faults for any equipment. For the sake of space Figures 15, 16, 17, and 18 show examples of each of the four commodity areas above, though there are slides for each piece of equipment the platoon is responsible for.
Like operational readiness, this section concludes with after action review comments (Issue, Discussion, Recommendation) on maintenance, supply issues, and ancillary equipment.
Conclusion
Over the past 6 months we have found accountability, responsibility, and ownership in personnel management and caring, training management and planning, and maintenance proficiency increase significantly. By having discussions with those responsible for personnel, training, and equipment they have owned it, increasing their personal accountability within their formations. It makes us better.
It is helping us be Ready Now. Because #WinningMatters.
For a shell brief, contact me at 410cavBlackJack6@gmail.com
