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Military Command Relationships

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Command Relationships Command relationships delineate authority, responsibility, and accountability for force protection and execution of the collective mission, defining command relations, and understanding the four types of command relationships are essential to effective communications and mission execution. To understand command relationships one must first understand the organizational structure of the Armed Forces Leadership and key terms that communicate authority and the relationships derived from the structured authority. In a post Katrina analysis a breakdown of command relationships revealed the need for centralized decision-making authority, and an understanding of the military role in domestic emergencies. In hind sight it …show more content…

In an analysis of the situation in the aftermath of Katrina, there is a clear delineation of authority, with the National Guard of individual states remaining under state executive control of the Governor when not federalized (Tkacz, 2006). Understanding the progression of the levels of command is paramount to understanding command interactions and how command elements are unified under one Senior Military Officer forming specific operational command relationships.
Command Relationships
Command relationships preserve the preeminence of civil authorities in their domains of obligation while enabling the full utilization of military forces as permitted by the United States Constitution, Congressional law, and Presidential directives (Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2013). All United States military forces within respective branches operate under a single commander establishing a successive authority structure. Army command relationships define superior and subordinate relationships between unit commanders. By stipulating a chain of command, command relationships amalgamates effort and enable commanders to use subordinate forces with extreme flexibility. Army command relationships classify the level of control exerted on subordinate organizations (U.S. Department of the Army, 2014).
The type of command relationship is designated by the estimated duration of

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