Candidate Burton's Enemy Situation: Case Study

Candidate McKenzy demonstrated and understanding on how to conduct a five paragraph order but omitted key information throughout the entirety of the brief. SNC displayed he was somewhat confident with his brief by his calm demeanor using a conversational tone during his brief. SNC stated there is no need for security prior to conducting his brief. The scheme of maneuver was vague, and non-executable without further guidance. The tasking statement stated basic billet assignments as who was the ready, fire and the assist. Once the execution began, SNC was in control of his subordinates and effectively communicated adjustments to the initial plan. Upon the first friction point, SNC remained calm and was able to devise a new plan and maintained

Candidate Martinez began the SULE I evaluation with a standard five paragraph order. Although it was a standard brief, SNC failed to give an adequate mission and execution paragraphs. The statements were disjointed and confusing and were briefed without confidence. SNC was briefed that the mission was to get the map found at the weapons cache and brought back to MA2A IOT have S2 Intel look at it. Candidate Martinez was given the map and reminded that it was part of the mission and not to forget it. SNC started the execution without the map, ultimately failing the mission. During execution Candidate had little regard for the tactical situation as demonstrated with little to no communication for formations at danger areas or dispersion.

Candidate Hoeptner briefed all major elements of the five paragraph order and managed to speak in an articulate manner; however, the content of his brief clearly lacked any executable plan and made little sense. SNC failed to address security, degrading his team's attention to the tactical environment. SNC failed to understand the contents of higher’s coordinating instructions and failed to comprehend the mission based on the problem presented and the obstacle in front of him. SNC’s inability to conceptualize relevant, applicable, and actionable plans and orders was only exacerbated by his inability to understand simple concepts presented to him. SNC made no attempt to formulate a plan prior to execution and adjustments to the plan he tried

Candidate Doyle delivered his five paragraph order neglecting to mention the information covered in the Orientation as it was briefed to him by the evaluator. SNC only covered the grid points contained in the Orientation, thus making other parts of the brief confusing to the squad. SNC’s squad asked questions regarding the direction of travel. During the execution, SNC was unable to quickly make adjustments to the initial plan, as he seemed slightly overwhelmed and unable to assess the entire situation. Once SNC realized that he had taken casualties, his focus was still on the objective ahead. His focus on the mission displayed sheer neglect for his casualties as he did not know what the extent of the injuries were while issuing commands to the teams. SNC had to repeat to the squad several times to move the casualties, as the team failed to display any sense of urgency.

Although leaving out pertinent information in the Orientation, Situation, and Mission paragraphs, Candidate Brown demonstrated an ability to rapidly develop an initial plan and communicate that to his fire team. SNC provided a Scheme of Maneuver that was anonymous, sequential, and thorough, and briefed tasks specific to each fire team member. Despite being choppy at times as he composed his thoughts, SNC spoke in an enthusiastically confident tone throughout his brief. Upon conclusion of his brief, SNC lost momentum with his fire team when he took approximately one minute to explain the plan again to his fire team. However, SNC was able to regain his sense of urgency by quickly altering his plan when he recognized it would not work. SNC

Candidate Grund displayed confidence and a strong command presence when briefing his order. During the scheme of maneuver sub-paragraph, SNC briefed in phases which assisted his fire team with clear understanding what they were doing. For the execution, he identified the need to utilize a specific length plank during each of the phases, showing he was able to think of future requirements and include that in his execution. When some of the planks were "out," SNC continued to take action instead of waiting for specific items to come back, keeping his fire team moving towards mission accomplishment. At the beginning of the execution, SNC began placing the plank himself instead of tasking his fire team member with the task, which hindered his ability

Candidate Dietrick failed to brief the admin/logistics and command/signal sections. Of the parts he did brief, he did not identify separate paragraphs and seemed unfamiliar with the overall order format. Security was not set for the brief but was established during the execution. Despite not having an initial plan once execution started, SNC was able to quickly orient to the problem and decide on a course of action. As friction points were encountered, SNC was able to make adjustments to the team's current course of action and communicate this to the team members. He was able to maintain a good tempo/momentum by continuing to re-attack the problem after friction was encountered. SNC displayed a good command presence and was clearly leading

Candidate Taylor provided a shoddy five paragraph order. The mission was a statement of a basic plan to accomplish the task. The enemy situation did not even contain the expected enemy actions on contact, which was provided by the evaluator’s brief. The Execution paragraph was made up of information already provided in the Enemy Situation and billet assignments as tasks containing no purposes. There was no scheme of maneuver. SNC’s delivery was very choppy in the first few paragraphs with intermittent pauses because SNC would lose track of where he was in his notes. During execution, SNC maintained a very tactical posture throughout. At points of friction, SNC placed himself where best to facilitate his team’s movement. Communication flowed

Candidate Branom’s five paragraph order was extremely detailed, contained information from higher’s warning order, and was one of the few orders that attempted to brief TCMs. However, SNC’s frequent pauses, stumbling of words, and repeating of information caused him to mismanage his time and detracted from an otherwise highly detailed and concise five paragraph order. SNC’s sense of urgency and strong verbal and non-verbal communication with his team directly translated to positive control while traversing a danger area and making contact with the enemy; this strong communication came from a calm and confident demeanor at decision points, causing his team to push through to mission accomplishment. Finally, SNC failed to adequately manage and

Candidate Watson delivered a sequential, and very informative five paragraph order to his fire team. He informed his subordinates of their specific tasks and movement formations throughout the problem. Additionally, he ensured they all understood the importance of why, and how fast the mission was to be completed. During the execution phase, SNC moved his fire team quickly to the objective as briefed in his order. He was constantly vigilant and aware of his surroundings. Upon enemy contact, SNC quickly delivered an ADDRAC and led his fire team towards the objective. His fire team willingly followed and rushed towards the aggressor. SNC did a good job by accounting for all of the candidates and communicating throughout the entire evolution.

Candidate mullins delivered his five paragraph order with minor errors. SNC established security prior to the start of his brief. Before delivering his order it was evident that SNC possessed a strong command presence. SNC’s tasks were unclear, and were displayed through the confusion amongst his fire team during the execution. SNC failed to properly brief his Coordinating Instructions, this caused questions to arise during the execution. Candidates were confused about what they could or could not utilize during the execution. SNC was not confident and was aware that he missed pertinent information, because he would pause during his brief attempting to account for the information he missed but could not gather his thoughts. During the execution

Candidate Brown was able to include the information relayed to him in his operation order brief. SNC was able to pass the information in a manner that was easy to follow and that was pre thought out as he briefed directly from his skeleton. However, SNC did not relay accurate information. SNC stated during the Scheme of Maneuver that the squad was to transport two ammo cans, when it was passed to him they were to deliver three. This resulted in the squad to only pick up two ammo cans and leave one in place as they located the cache. SNC was unable to adjust his plan of action while the squad was making their way across the three rope bridge. SNC allowed the members transporting the ammo cans to cross the bridge while carrying the cans

Candidate Illuminati’s brief was at a normal volume, had a calm demeanor and a relaxed tone. He provided a detailed assessment of the enemy in his Situation paragraph; however, he did not mention if there were any Attachments or Detachments in the Friendly subsection. Utilizing a terrain model, he provided an executable initial plan to his fire team leaders. SNC’s tasking statements were clear and detailed, and he made eye contact with his team leaders to confirm understanding. During execution, SNC demonstrated good tactical awareness, staying within the tree line and maintaining all-around security presence. He positioned himself just behind the center mass of his squad’s formation, providing him with a good position in which he could

Candidate Steinbach briefed a detailed orientation with all tactical control measures included. His five paragraph order was complete, with the exception of briefing danger areas to his fire team. Though his order was complete, he took a long time to brief, thus wasting time to actually complete the problem. Candidate Steinbach’s Fire Team had an extra member and SNC ensured to engage all candidates to work toward mission accomplishment. Candidate Steinbach set in security and frequently checked on him. SNC’s initial plan was not feasible and failed. Candidate Steinbach did not allow this to distract him from continuing the problem. He quickly developed a new plan with input from his Fire Team. Candidate Steinbach acted with a sense

Candidate McGarry demonstrated an understanding of the five paragraph order by giving a clear and concise scheme of maneuver and tasking statements, SNC was confident during his brief by maintaining eye contact with his team but used the word “uh” often. After the brief SNC began to task individuals then set in security this showing an understanding of a tactical situation. Throughout the evolution SNC reacted quickly with devising new plans but failed to follow through with them. SNC was being indecisive with his planning by changing up the plan before the team had a chance to try what he just asked of them. Being indecisive slowed the forward movement of the team and took away from the focus of the mission. Throughout the mission SNC was