Command and Control Fog

Situation

You are commanding a detachment of Marines assigned to a joint task force (JTF) conducting humanitarian relief operations in the drought stricken country of Neptonia. In support of a United Nations (U.N.) task force objective, your mission is to produce potable water and fill local cisterns. The likelihood of terrorist activity in the joint operations area has you operating on a heightened state of alert. Although terrorists have raided cisterns throughout the joint operations area, there have been no cistern raids in your area of operations. (See map.)

The JTF commander is concerned that cistern raids may lead to civil unrest in Neptonia and ultimately upset the balance of power in the region. For diplomatic reasons, the JTF commander decided to follow the U.N. task force’s restricted rules of engagement-individual weapons may be cartied in Condition 1, but JTF personnel may only engage an adversary when fired upon.

Figure 1 contains your force list. Routes 1, 4, 7, and 9 are improved roads, and Routes K, X, and Z are unimproved. The commercial tankers cannot navigate unimproved roads.

For force protection you have limited convoys to 15 vehicles, varied convoy departure times, and directed your engineer company to improve Routes K, X, and Z. Additionally, commercial tankers have been integrated into the convoys, and tactical vehicles with mounted machineguns are in the front and rear of each convoy.

On the 31st day of your deployment, you launch a convoy to Village 2. Your engineer company commander has completed improvements to Route K. He is working in the vicinity of checkpoint 4 and anticipates completing Route X in 5 days. You are located in your command post (CP).

The lead element of the convoy has passed checkpoint 8 and is proceeding east when the convoy commander, a staff sergeant, reports hearing an explosion and seeing a column of heavy black smoke east of checkpoint 2. The excited staff sergeant reports two off-road vehicles (ORVs) approaching the convoy from the north at a high rate of speed. After forcing a tanker off the road and causing it to sink in the loose sand, the ORVs retreated to the hills north of the road. The staff sergeant states that the ORVs appeared to have gun mounts, but he did not see any guns.

While talking to the staff sergeant you hear the unmistakable sound of machinegun fire. The staff sergeant confirms machinegun fire coming from the vicinity of the rear of his convoy but states that he cannot see the rear of his convoy.

Requirement

From your CP 12 kilometers away, in a time limit of 3 minutes, what orders do you give to your subordinates, and what do you tell higher headquarters? Provide the rationale for your actions and a sketch of your plan. Submit your solution to Marine Corps Gazette, TDG #02-4, P.O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134, fax 703-630-9147, or email <[email protected]>.

Broken Screen

Situation

It is 1730 and 1 hour until sunset. You are the Scout/Sniper Platoon Commander, 2d Battalion, 1st Marines (2/1). Your battalion is conducting a dismounted movement to contact through an open valley flanked by low ridges. The terrain is rolling with a mixture of wooded and open areas. Scout/sniper platoon is screening 2/1’s northern flank and has established a series of indepth observation posts overlooking the most likely avenues of approach. Your platoon is task organized into two three-man M82A3 .50 caliber special application scoped rifle (SASR) teams and three two-man M40A3 sniper teams that are depicted on the map. You are collocated with Hunter 2. All teams are in good communications with each other and battalion.

Intelligence indicates that a mixture of regular and irregular forces, estimated at battalion strength, occupy the area. These forces possess automatic weapons, mortars, and manportable air defense systems. This last element was a nasty surprise as two Cobras conducting armed reconnaissance were damaged yesterday.

The lead company commander (Echo Company) reports that he has reached the high ground overlooking the valley exit, made visual contact with the enemy, and has not been spotted. Traveling perpendicular to the battalion’s line of march on an unimproved dirt road, the enemy column consists of approximately 80 to 90 infantry. Echo Company is establishing a hasty far ambush and estimates that the enemy will be in his kill zone in 10 minutes.

Just then Hunter 3 reports a platoon of infantry advancing toward his position, approximately 300 meters distant. Hunter 3 is requesting mortar fire to deal with this threat. His fire request has been denied to facilitate Echo Company’s ambush. Just as you are analyzing time and space factors to accomplish your screen mission in light of the enemy proximity to the ridge, the silence is shattered by rapid fire from Hunter l’s M82A3 SASR and M249 squad automatic weapon (SAW). “Infantry, technicals, 100 yards my pos . breaking contact now!” Simultaneously, Hunter 4 reports approximately 30 to 40 men approaching their position from the northwest, 300 yards away.

So much for Echo’s ambush. What now, Lieutenant?

Requirement

In a time limit of 5 minutes, detail the orders you give to your platoon and your report to battalion. Provide the rationale for your decisions and a sketch of the plan. Submit your solution to Marine Corps Gazette, TDG #03-5, P.O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134, fax 703-630-9147, or e-mail <[email protected]>.

Scout/Sniper Platoon

Task organization

Hunter 1

SASR Team (3 Marines)

1 x M82A3 special application scoped rifle

1 x M249 SAW

1 x M16A2 rifle

Hunter 2

SASR Team (3 Marines)

1 x M82A3 special application scoped rifle

1 x M249 SAW

1 x M 1 6A2 rifle

Hunter 3

M40A3 Team (2 Marines)

1 x M40A3 sniper rifle

1 x M16A2/M203 rifle

Hunter 4

M40A3 Team (2 Marines)

1 x M40A3 sniper rifle

1 x M16A2/M203 rifle

Hunter 5

M40A3 Team (2 Marines)

1 x M40A3 sniper rifle

1 x M I 6A2/M203 rifle

Scout/Sniper Platoon Weapons

The M82A3 SASR is a .50 caliber semiautomatic, magazine fed, shoulder fired weapon equipped with a 10-power scope. The weapon has a maximum effective range of 2,000 yards against vehicle-sized targets. Due to its lack of minute of angle capability, it is not a sniper rifle and considered inaccurate against man-sized targets beyond 600 yards.

The M40A3 sniper rifle is a 7.62mm bolt action, magazine fed, shoulder fired weapon capable of minute of angle accuracy. Coupled with a 10-power scope, the weapon has a maximum effective range against personnel to 1,000 yards.

Ambush at Dusk

You are the squad leader of 1st Squad, 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. You are fighting in a tropical jungle against guerrilla forces armed with small arms, light machineguns, and sometimes mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Recently, Company C has been conducting patrols in a populated region to counter increased insurgent activity. On this day, your platoon, with a machinegun squad attached, is running a security patrol to locate and destroy any enemy forces. Dusk is approaching-within the hour, you estimate. Your squad is the point of the platoon patrol column, some 200 yards forward of the platoon’s main body as you advance north through a rice paddy, paralleling a four-foot dike some hundred meters to your right. As your squad picks its way through a bamboo fence at the northern edge of the paddy, one ‘ of your Marines trips a boobytrap, suffering a severe leg wound. With the corpsman and platoon radioman, the platoon commander hustles forward to investigate. While they are still 150 meters away, the enemy suddenly opens fire with automatic weapons from the village, and the platoon commander is hit. The steady volume of enemy fire from the village has 2d and 3d squads pinned down in the rice paddy. After tending to the lieutenant, the corpsman makes his way forward under fire to your position, followed shortly by one machinegun team. The corpsman tells you the lieutenant is in a bad way. You wish you had a radio, but the radioman is pinned down near the lieutenant. The enemy fire against your position is sporadic; the two squads in the paddy, on the other hand, are returning fire but appear unable to move. You estimate that the sun will disappear within a half hour. You have no communications with your platoon sergeant. What do you do?

Requirement

In a time limit of five minutes, describe the actions you would take and the instructions you would issue to your team leaders. Include an overlay sketch and provide a brief discussion of the rationale behind your actions. Submit your solutions to Marine Corps Gazette, Tactical Decision Game #91-11, Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the January 1992 issue.

Hemmed in by Hedgerows

You are the lead infantry platoon commander in an Allied tank-mech company in Europe in 1944. Your company’s mission is to seize a nameless small town set among hedgerows, which typically line all of the roads in the area. In most places, there is a ditch between the roadway and the hedgerow. Roads are narrow, barely wide enough for two vehicles, and hedgerows comprise dense, ancient growth four- to six-feet high.

Your company commander has decided to continue to move after dark because the company is behind schedule. Since speed is vital, your troops mount the tanks and the company forges ahead through the night, breaking through German lines before the Germans realize what’s happening. Mistaking Allied tanks for German tanks, a German tank pulls into the column, only to be destroyed from the rear by an Allied tank. A few hundred yards from the town, the lead tank stops for no apparent reason, and the rest of the column also comes to a halt.

From your position on the third tank, you can now hear German voices on the other side of the hedgerow, about 10 feet away to your right. You immediately throw a hand grenade and command the nearest squad to open fire. The tank commander accelerates, moving out of immediate danger to a position 200 yards down the road. Hit by an antitank rocket fired by the Germans, the tank behind you bursts into flame, lighting the nearby roadway.

You deploy your troops in ditches along the road. There are now only 3 tanks, 22 riflemen (each with 3 or 4 grenades), and 2 Browning automatic riflemen left in your mini task force trapped between the burning tank and the town. You do not know what happened to the eight men from your platoon who were riding on that tank. Since the main body is stalled a quarter mile to the rear, the company commander orders you to rejoin the main force. You wonder how to do this. It is physically impossible for the tanks to leave the road, which is still partly lit by the burning tank. Your platoon can squeeze through the hedgerows into the fields beyond, but that is where the Germans are. Although you can only see a few Germans near the burning tank, you believe that you are surrounded by the enemy. The Germans can fire through the hedgerow, but only with limited accuracy. They can also fire over the hedgerows, but must expose themselves to do so. Some of your men have been in combat for only a few days and are near panic. You outrank the tank commander, who is another lieutenant. What are your orders?

Send your frag order and rationale to the Marine Corps Gazelle, TDG #91-6, P. O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the August issue.

Bermside Ambush

by 1stLt Michael A. Hanson

Situation 

You are a Squad Leader in Company B, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. Your squad is conducting a patrol moving north, parallel to a road situated on a berm about one and a half meters above ground. The terrain surrounding the berm is flat with multiple scattered rock piles about one meter tall. Your squad takes fire from a light machine gun across the road about 100 meters ahead. As you instinctively lunge for cover, you see an enemy infantry squad maneuvering toward you from behind the berm on the opposite side of the road. They begin throwing hand grenades across the road at your Marines. The first few explode far enough away that none of your Marines are hit, but the grenades are getting closer. You hear enemy voices.

You have a thirteen Marine rifle squad with a standard complement of M203 grenades, M67 fragmentation grenades, and one AT4 Rocket. What do you do?

Requirements

What commands do you give your squad in your frag order?

Provide a sketch depicting the actions you expect your fire teams to take as a result of your frag order.

Submit your solution by email to [email protected] or to the Marine Corps Gazette, TDG 01-19, Box 1775, Quantico, VA, 22134. The Gazette will publish solutions in an upcoming issue.

>Author’s Note: This scenario is adapted from one described in Colder Than Hell: A Marine Rifle Company At Chosin Reservoir, by Joseph Owen. It has been updated to reflect current rifle squad table of organization and equipment. The terrain has also been modified for simplicity.

Part V: “Meanwhile On the Road.”

by Staff, Marine Corps Gazette

You are the S-4a (Assistant Logistics Officer) for 1st Battalion, 1st Marines. You are an infantry 2nd Lieutenant, but when you graduated IOC, you took 30 days PCS leave, plus 8 days of travel and proceed. By the time you checked in to the battalion, there were no platoon commander assignments left unfilled. The battalion XO gave you a choice between Adjutant and S4a, and you obviously chose to support the Marines in the field the rather than do paperwork and make coffee for the XO.

Since deploying to Raz Al Dezzel, you and the Marines of the S-4, the Motor Transport Platoon and Battalion Supply, have been “outside the wire” conducting convoy operations to sustain the battalion and the company (-)(reinforced) at “COP Ritz” and to support various humanitarian relief tasks. You have personally led 12 convoys through complex attacks, including IEDs, small arms fire, and indirect fire. Despite the high level of proficiency you and your Marines have developed, you have lost two M1113 “up armored” HMMWVs, numerous Marines WIA, and you have been wounded twice. You have already experienced more close combat than most of your fellow infantry lieutenants.

You have been assigned as the convoy commander for a eight-vehicle resupply convoy to COP Ritz. You have four M-1113 HMMWVS armed with a mix of .50 Cal and MK-19 Heavy Machineguns and four MTVRs with ring-mounted .50 Cal and M240B machineguns. One infantry squad from C Company is attached to your convoy as local security and to provide a dismounted counter ambush force. The convoy is carrying a mix of Class I, III, and V plus mail and personal demand items for the company at the Ritz. The class Iw (bottled drinking water) is a high priority for resupply since the water in the city of Minna Sultan Usween might carry cholera. Ammunition is always a priority as are batteries and fuel for the COP’s generators.

The route from the battalion FOB to COP Ritz is only about 3.5 miles and crosses gently rolling rocky semi-desert terrain. Off road movement is possible, but it is very slow and damaging to all tactical vehicles. There are numerous small shacks used primarily by shepherds and smugglers throughout the area, none closer than about 100 meters from the road. There is seldom any local vehicle traffic on the road; however, foot traffic, pedal “trikes,” and animal-drawn carts are common in early morning before the heat and humidity become oppressive.

Your experience leads you to ensure that in addition to the infantry squad you also have two MUGA commandos who serve as your interpreters, an Independent Duty Corpsman, HM1 Zorba, and two additional Corpsmen. You coordinate to depart friendly lines at noon since the route will be clear of local civilians during the heat of the afternoon and you will arrive at the COP before sunset. You plan to remain overnight at the COP and return to the battalion FOB the following day.

The JTF continues operating with degraded and denied communications. Since working radio sets are in demand only your MTVR and the four M1113 HMMWV heavy machinegun vehicles have communications within the convoy. You also have a radio capable of reaching the battalion, the forward company, for calls-for-fire, or for the dedicated MEDEVAC coordination net.

Fire support is currently limited to the battalion’s organic mortars, and Marine rotor-wing CAS on alert +15 at the battalion FOB. The battalion’s alert +5 section of MEDEVAC helicopters has a dedicated radio net. Response time is less than 10 minutes, and the JTF Level III treatment facility is 45 minutes flight time.

Your lead vehicles are almost a mile away from the outskirts of the city when there is a large explosion between your second and third vehicles. The third vehicle, an MTVR with the mounted infantry squad, stops and pulls off to the left (west) of the road. Your MTVR is next in the order of movement. You stop and the rest of the convoy comes to a halt and disperses in herringbone fashion to the left and right of the road. The machinegun section leader, Corporal Oh, reports on your convoy control net that no one was killed or injured in the IED explosion; however, most of the Marines in the MTVR “look like they walked out of the gas chamber.” They are unable to see clearly due to burning watery eyes, and are coughing violently with red rashes on their exposed skin. Corporal Oh reports the area “smells like a swimming pool or some kind of industrial cleaner.” Also, the MTVR took the blast under the front axle and engine compartment and is no longer drivable but looks like it can be towed. Of course, all of your MTVRs are equipped with tow-bars.

You direct HM1 Zorba to take his corpsmen to assess and treat the Marines in the MTVR and you start working on getting the MTVR on-tow by a second truck when you are wanted on the battalion radio net. COP Ritz is under attack by a force of roughly 40 unidentified enemy. A VBIED hit the barriers northwest of the mosque followed by two teams with suicide vests and automatic weapons. The Marines at the COP were ready for the attack and have fired an effective FPF disrupting the attack. No enemy have yet penetrated the perimeter of the COP, but the Marines are in imminent danger of being overrun.

Do you continue to recover the MTVR, treat the injured, and press the resupply mission when able; leave the convoy and join the fight at the COP; or do something else completely?

Requirements:

  • 1. What are your orders to your Marines?
  • 2. What is your report to the battalion?

Include an overlay sketch and provide a brief discussion of your rationale. Submit your solutions by email at [email protected] or to the Marine Corps Gazette, TDG 07-17, Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish solutions in an upcoming issue.

Part II: “Red Death” Patrol

by the Staff, Marine Corps Gazette

Situation

You are the new commanding officer of A Company, 1st Bn, 1st Marines. You have been in command for one week since the relief of the previous company commander following an “unauthorized deadly force incident.” Your predecessor had ordered his Marines to “shoot down” a commercial quad-copter hovering over the company position with automatic weapons. Rounds fired in this engagement killed two Ouaddiyan children, and several more locals in the surrounding farmland were wounded. Your battalion commander relieved the former “Red Death Six” for a loss of confidence in his ability to command and reassigned you from duty as his assistant operations officer.

Since this incident, the battalion FOB (forward operating base) has been periodically hit by sporadic mortar and rocket fire. These indirect fire (IDF) attacks appear to be unobserved with no evident adjustment of fire, and no more than seven rounds per volley. The timing of some attacks corresponded to the muezzin’s calls-to-prayers from several local mosques while others occur at random times—both day and night. To date, only three Marines have been wounded by these attacks. The battalion’s counter-mortar radars have been largely successful in locating the points of origin for these attacks; however, these have uniformly been located in congested residential and commercial areas in the surrounding farmland and on the outskirts of Minna Sultan Usween. As a result, counter-fire has not been authorized.

After these indirect fire attacks began, the intelligence and surveillance efforts of the entire JTF have been brought to bear to identify and locate the anti-government factions conducting the attacks so they can be neutralized and prevent further disruption of the JTF’s mission. Multiple IMINT (imagery intelligence), HUMINT (human intelligence), and COMINT (communications intelligence) sources confirm that teams armed with small arms and mounted in commercial trucks are moving 82mm mortars and 3.5 inch rockets in improvised launchers around the battalion’s perimeter using populated areas as covered and concealed firing positions. Intelligence reports and pattern analysis indicate that the area around the Al Mumeet Mosque on the outskirts of the city northeast of your company’s position has the most frequently used firing positions and may also contain a “workshop” where the improvised rocket launchers are being assembled and stored.

Company A’s mission is to conduct a series of combined combat patrols to establish observation posts in the area of these points of origin in order to neutralize the anti-MUGA forces conducting the mobile indirect fire attacks. You remain responsible for securing the eastern entry point into the battalion FOB.

Your battalion commander’s intent is as follows:

Get out there, establish presence in the area of the Al Mumeet Mosque and the next time a crew attempts an IDF attack, kill or capture them. Locate any workshops or weapons caches and destroy them.

You have decided to personally lead the first patrol made up of your 3d Platoon partnered with a platoon of MUGA Special Forces commandos. The commandos are organized just like U.S. Marine infantry, and 2ndLt Zaar leads this platoon of 40 commandos.

The following attachments and supporting arms are available to you:

• 1 machinegun section (-) (4x M240B 7.62 machineguns).

• 1 assault squad (2x SMAW 83mm rocket launchers).

• 1 joint tactical air controller (JTAC) Team

• 2 interpreters

The commando platoon is equipped with AK-47 rifles, rifle grenades, and is reinforced with an RPK machinegun section (4x RPK 7.62 machineguns)

There is a CAS “stack” of USAF F-15 Strike Eagles with tanker support continuously on station. Response time is approximately 12 minutes from authentication of “troops in contact” (TIC).

The battalion maintains a section (two) U.S. Army Reserve medevac Blackhawk helicopters on five minute alert at the battalion FOB. Response time is less than 10 minutes, and the JTF Level III treatment facility is 45 minutes flight time.

You have designated the four-story building (formerly clerics’ offices, now home to two families of squatters) immediately west of the mosque as the patrol’s objective and you intend to establish a squad-sized OP (observation post) after negotiating with the squatter family elders. The patrol has moved without incident to the outskirts of Minna Sultan Usween.

As the patrol approaches the mosque area from the southwest, a single rifle shot is heard. 2ndLt Dhan, your 3d Platoon Commander who was moving with the lead squad, drops with an “armpit shot”—entry wound through his right shoulder under the body armor. About five seconds later a second shot hits the platoon corpsman, HM3 Smith, under the helmet behind his left ear. He is killed instantly. You now have one “urgent surgical” and one “routine” medevac. Your Marines and the commandos have all taken cover as best they can. No one can see the shooter.

As you task the Platoon Sergeant to set up a landing zone in the fallow field to your southeast for the medevac, both he and your JTAC report that none of the radios or tablet devices are working. The JTAC also reports that blue force tracker is down and your personal commercial GPS receiver and radio is inoperative. Lt Zaar reports that his radios are down as well.

What are your orders?

Requirement

Quickly formulate your plans and issue your orders. Include an overlay sketch and provide a brief discussion of the rationale behind your actions. Submit you solutions by email at [email protected] or to the Marine Corps Gazette, TDG 03-17, Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish solutions in an upcoming issue.

1. You always have the right to defend yourself, your unit, and other personnel directly supporting JTF operations.

2. The use of force, including deadly force, is authorized to protect the following: yourself, your unit, and friendly forces; Prisoners and detainees; Civilians from crimes that are likely to cause death or serious bodily harm, such as murder or rape; Designated civilians and/or property, such as personnel of the Red Cross/Crescent, UN, and U.S./UN supported organizations.

3. Use only the force necessary to protect yourself and accomplish your mission.

a) Positive identification (PID) is required prior to engagement. [PID is a reasonable certainty that the proposed target is a legitimate military target. If no PID, contact your next higher commander for decision.]

b) Do not engage anyone who has surrendered or is out of battle due to sickness or wounds.

c) Do not target or strike any of the following except in self-defense to protect yourself, your unit, friendly forces, and designated persons or property under your control: civilians, hospitals, mosques, national monuments, and any other historical or cultural sites.

4. Do not fire into civilian-populated areas or buildings unless you have PID of forces using them for military purposes or if necessary for your self-defense. Minimize collateral damage.

5. Do not target local infrastructure (public works, commercial communications facilities, dams), lines of communication (roads, highways, tunnels, bridges, railways) and economic objects (commercial storage facilities, pipelines) unless necessary for self-defense or if ordered by your commander.

6. Do not enter mosques or other religious sites unless you have PID of forces using them for military purposes or if necessary for your self-defense.

7. Treat all civilians and their property with respect and dignity. Do not seize civilian property, including vehicles, unless you have the permission of a company-level commander and you give a receipt to the property’s owner.

8. Detain civilians if they interfere with mission accomplishment or if required for self-defense.