Driving for la porta

Situation

You are the company commander of Company B, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, (Light Armored). Your company consists of three platoons, each of four LAV-25S, your own LAV-25, your executive officer’s LAV-C2, a section of four LAV-ATs, an attached section of four ATs from Company C. and your company combat trains of a LAVR. three LAV-Ls, and two HMMWVs. A squad of engineers also has been attached. Additionally, you have the platoon of eight LAV-Mortars, equipped with 81mm mortars, in direct support of your company.

1st Marine Division has been conducting a penetration to the south, having moved 35 miles in the last 2 days. The division is moving rapidly to seize the combat service support facility at La Porta and deny the enemy its ability to sustain combat activity against the division. The attack would also effectively cut the enemy force into two separate elements. The 5th Marine Regiment is the main effort of the division’s aggressive attack, and your company is the main effort of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Light Armored). The main division thrust is pushing south along a thrust line on the Route 5 corridor. The Route 5 corridor passes through the Negra and Bianca Hills, which are slow-go terrain for your LAVs.

The enemy appears to be acting without a unified plan, but they are stubbornly defending hastily established battle positions. They appear to be elements of piecemeal reserves hurriedly thrown info battle.

You are presently at a forward assembly area, having just begun to conduct a hasty service station resupply. As you prepare to continue the movement southward against the confused, isolated but tenacious enemy forces, you receive the following fragmentary order from the battalion commander:

Two BMPs and one lank have been sighted in the vicinity of the Negra and Blanca Hills, on the principal axis of advance. Route 5 (an improved-surface road). Unmanned aerial vehicles also have identified a hasty surface-laid minefield to the west of Blanca Hill along Route 10 (an unimproved road).

At 1000, Company B conducts an area reconnaissance of the Negra and Blanca Hills area to determine the best route for the quick advance of the Division’s follow-on echelon. My intent is to identify enemy dispositions, destroy them within capabilities, or fix, bypass, and hand them over to one of the companies in reserve. You will have a section of two Cobra AHIW helicopters in direct support of your company, since you are beyond artillery range.

Requirement

It is presently 0900. Prepare the fragmentary order you would issue to your company and attachments. Provide a sketch and a brief explanation of your plan. Submit this order and explanation to Marine Corps Gazette, TDG #93-9. P. O. Box 1775. Quantico. VA 22134.

Action at Oxford

Situation

You are the executive officer of Company L (Lima), 3d Battalion, 7th Marines. You are operating in rolling, wooded terrain. Vehicles move best on the roads, not at all in the woods, the battalion is presently on the defensive, currently in reserve, your company is moving northeast via Oxford to conduct a relief in place with Company K (Kilo) at the forward edge of the battle area about 8 kilometers north of Oxford. Your coinpany is mounted on assault amphibious vehicles (AAVs) and is further reinforced with a Dragon section, a TOW squad, and a heavy machinegun section (one M2 .50 caliber, one Mk19) on HMMWVs. Upon arrival the tank platoon currently supporting Kilo will be attached to your company. The company commander and first sergeant have already gone to Kilo’s position by helicopter to see the terrain and coordinate the relief. You are responsible for moving the company up to the forward edge of the battle area. The company gunny and the machinegun vehicles have driven ahead as an advance party.

The company commander calls you by radio to report that Kilo is coming under increasing pressure to the front from enemy probes. He frags you to move the company as quickly as possible into a blocking position at a designated location several kilometers to the rear of Kilo (5 kilometers north of Oxford) and to prepare for a rearward passage of lines rather than a relief in place. He says the tanks will meet you at that position and will come up on the company tactical net. You are about a mile west of Oxford. The forward observer tells you that somebody is calling for fire east of Oxford using your company call sign. Simultaneously, the gunny comes up on the tactical net with the following report:

Checkpoint 21. Enemy force at least company strength closing on Oxford from the east inside two clicks. I count five PT-76 followed by at least that many BTR-60. Looks like more coming. No sign of friendlies to east. Two BRDMs approaching South Oxford from east; will reach high ground in about two or three mikes. I have not been spotted.

What now, Lieutenant?

Requirement

Things are happening fast. In a time limit of 3 minutes, issue instructions to your subordinates. In an additional 2 minutes, decide what reports to make and to whom. Provide an overlay of your solution and a brief discussion of the rationale behind your actions. Submit your solution to Marine Corps Gazette, TDG #93-12, P.O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134.

Quote to Ponder

The Small Unit Leader

On the maneuver warfare battlefield, NCOs must make decisions based on tactics, not just rigidly applied techniques. . . . “[they] must learn to cut to the heart of the situation, recognize its decisive elements, and base [their] course of action on these.”

-Capt Daniel J. O’Donohue

Rescue the Ambassador!

Situation

You are the commanding officer Company G, Battalion Landing Team (BLT) 2/8, 26th MEU(SOC) currently embarked aboard amphibious shipping on your regularly scheduled deployment to the Mediterranean. You have been awakened from your early afternoon MORP and hurriedly summoned to the BLT commander’s stateroom where the BLT commander, S-3, S-2, and air officer are waiting for you. You are told that our national security agencies have been watching the crisis unfold in the neighboring Middle Eastern region, and the situation has just taken a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse, as the small, peace-loving nation of GOOD was invaded (without apparent provocation) early this morning by its much larger and stronger neighbor BAD in a blitz-style attack. In a matter of hours BAD had completely engulfed the unprepared nation of GOOD and is now engaged in consolidating its conquest. Of immediate concern to us, however, is that the forces of BAD have captured and are holding the U.S. Ambassador and his family in his country residence. All of the Ambassador‘s staff, servants, and security who were present at the residence when it was seized have been removed.

The National Command Authority has decided to attempt a surprise rescue immediately before the forces of BAD either relocate or harm the Ambassador and his family. Your mission, Skipper, is to rescue the Ambassador tonight. It is expected that the Ambassador will be located in either Building A or B, both of which are two-story stone buildings. All of the other buildings in the compound are made of wood. You are to bring out the Ambassador, his wife, and their three children. The rescue attempt will be conducted in the last few minutes of the predawn darkness. You are to depart in less than 6 hours.

It is believed that the residence is being guarded by no more than 60 lightly armed security forces. The exact deployment of this small enemy force cannot be determined. However, no BAD vehicles have been observed inside the compound. (It is precisely because of this temporary vulnerability that the decision has been made to attempt the rescue immediately.) It is estimated that BAD forces are capable of reacting to the residence from the west within 15 minutes with a reinforced company mounted in OTC-62 personnel carriers. BAD air should not be a threat, as we expect to maintain local air superiority over the objective area for the duration of the raid. However, BAD air defenses will preclude us from either approaching or retiring from the west.

Because of the distances involved, you will be supported by six CH-53Es (.50 cals mounted) and fixed-wing aircraft only. (Aerial refueling will be required.) The objective is out of range of naval gunfire. You are to build your raid force from six rifle squads and can take as much of your weapons platoon as you need. Finally, you may take any two of the specially configured M151s. Our air operations will support your scheme of maneuver on the ground.

Requirement

Describe your task organization for the mission. Submit an overlay of your scheme of maneuver within the objective area to include specific landing points for each of your six helicopters and a brief explanation of your plan. Send your solution to the Marine Corps Gazette, c/o Tactical Decision Game #92-1, P. O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the March 1992 issue.

“Film at eleven”

The following is the third in the Gazette’s series of tactical decision games similar to those used at the Marine Corps University as a tool for developing tactical decisionmaking capability. Think of commander’s intent, concept of operations, focus of effort, and frag orders, and send us your solution.

The Situation

You are a rifle company commander fighting in an arid desert environment that offers exceptional mobility for wheeled and tracked vehicles. You are supported by a platoon of assault amphibian vehicles (AAVs), enough to mount your entire company. After intense fighting at the front for several weeks, the battalion commander has assigned your company to rear duty providing security for the Mobile Combat Service Support Detachment (MCSSD). As the ground combat element (GCE) advances north, the MCSSD plans to move in that direction and establish a forward supply point at Oasis, some 25 kilometers north but still another 25 kilometers south of the front. While the front is generally to the north, there is no clear delineation between friendly and enemy territory; you long ago learned the importance of allaround security. Irregular enemy forces mounted on small trucks and equipped with heavy machineguns are known to operate in the area.

Oasis is the only source of water in the region. The local population lives in adobe dwellings, which will not normally withstand anything larger than small arms. The only masonry structures are the two-story community center and the pump house. In the center of town is a large plaza. Surrounding the buildings are irrigated fields of “short” crops that meet the needs of the local people. The local population is of the same ethnic group as the enemy, although actual support is sometimes less than enthusiastic.

The time is 1400. The MCSSD commander tells you he wants to occupy Oasis by 1200 tomorrow, and he expects you to secure the settlement by that time. From experience you know that each oasis has a small militia force consisting of the adult males of the settlement, equipped with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), machineguns, and possibly light mortars. The fighting skills of these outfits vary greatly. Some are looking for any excuse to lay down their arms; many fire off a few rounds to satisfy their sense of honor before surrendering; only a few fight tenaciously. However, there seems to be no way of anticipating how the forces will act from settlement to settlement. In the case of Oasis, the S-2 estimates the militia to be between 100-150 strong. He can tell you nothing more than that.

As you are grumbling about the lineage of the S-2, the MCSSD commander comes up to you and says: “One more thing; there’s a cable TV news team covering the MCSSD that’s looking for a little action. I’ve told them they can accompany you as you secure the Oasis. Cooperate with them, but keep them out of trouble.” The news team comes equipped with its own camera van. You are introduced to the correspondent, whose smug, mustachioed face you recognize. He says: “Let’s get something straight, Captain. The public has a right to know what’s going on over here. I want to be right where the action is. If you try to keep me from doing my job, it could be embarrassing for you.”

The Requirement

You do not feel particularly friendly toward the news team, but you have other things to worry about. How will you approach the problem of securing Oasis? Within a 10-minute time limit, write the fragmentary order you will issue to your rifle platoons and weapons sections and your instructions for the camera crew. Include a statement of your intent, any plans for supporting fires and an overlay of your scheme of maneuver. Then write a brief (300 words or less) explanation of the rationale for your plan. Remember, since every battlefield situation is unique and there is no right or wrong answer, we are not so much interested in what you would do as why you would do it. Send your solutions to the Marine Corps Gazette, Tactical Decision Games, P.O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. Solutions will be published in August.

The Raid on Gazebo Ridge

The Situation

It is dawn, the morning after a typically chaotic and bloody desert battle during Operation HOLY WARRIOR. You are the first sergeant of Company A, 2d Light Armored Infantry Battalion. The company’s last remaining commissioned officer was killed in the opening moments of yesterday’s battle; since then you have commanded the company. As of this morning, Company A consists of six light armored vehicles with 25mm chain guns (LAV-25s) each carrying only two or three scouts; two assault gun variants (LAV-AGs); two TOW variants, (LAV-ATs); and an air defense variant equipped with Stinger, a 2.75 Hydra 70 rocket system, and a 25mm gun (LAV-AD). The 25mm chain gun on the LAV-25 fires He (high explosive) and AP (annor piercing) rounds with a maximum effective range of about 1,500 meters. The 105mm assault gun variant has an effective range of about 2,500 meters. The battalion has been in intense combat for five days running, and you are hoping for a day off to pull maintenance. No such luck: as your gunner heats up the morning coffee, a messenger arrives with instructions to report to the battalion command post immediately.

You arrive at the command vehicle; the battalion commander, a captain who began the campaign as your company commander, says with a smile, “Good morning, skipper.” (Lucky he put you through all those tactical decision games, you muse.) He gets down to business:

We’re here. [Pointing on the map with a pencil.] The Indigenous Division is here. [Another jab some 25 miles to the east.] The enemy is here on Gazebo Ridge, in between, giving the Indigenous boys a beating. Our division has orders to relieve the pressure on the Indigenous Division. Unfortunately, fuel is low. Division has enough for a limited operation-a reconnaissance in force-which naturally will be us. We will make a raid directly into the enemy rear while the rest of the division pulls back for replenishment. First sergeant, your boys will be on the right; I can give you a section of two TOW Cobras in direct support. Bravo on the left; Charlie and Delta are reserves, on the right and left respectively. We’ll have one battery of self-propelled arty in direct support.

I can’t give you any instructions about what to do until we meet the enemy. If in doubt, raise as much havoc as you can-mindful of the fuel situation-but do not get committed to a set battle. If he attacks in force, pull back; use your superior speed to break contact. But it’s imperative that you act boldly to take some pressure off our friends in the east. We move out in one hour. Any questions?

You meet the Cobra section leader, who will come up on your company frequency. You agree that he will hover out of sight to your rear until you call for him.

You organize the LAV-25s into two sections of three vehicles each, gear up, make a radio check with battalion, and move out to the east across the scrubby desert. At least the comm is working for once, you think; that’s a good sign. But when it goes down-which experience tells you it will-your company has a tried-and-true standing procedure: “Do as I do,” or as the captain used to call it, “Follow the leader.”

You approach the rear of the enemy position-a low, crescent-shaped escarpment-apparently unnoticed. You are less than four miles away. In the distance to your left you can see the vehicles of Company B advancing in dispersed formation toward the enemy positions farther north. You see an enemy tank detach itself from a small cluster on the extreme left of the enemy position and move directly across your front to the other flank. Through your binoculars you see the enemy tank commander look over at you, apparently without recognition, and wave. You return the greeting.

You try to raise battalion on the radio, but comm is dead. The Company C commander tells you he will relay messages to battalion.

You see an artillery battery position in the hollow of the crescent pounding away at the friendly forces to the east. You see trucks and clusters of troops going disinterestedly about their morning chores. You see clusters of five or six tanks on either flank of the position, the crews milling about dismounted, and field guns lining the escarpment, also firing to the east. At the center of the crescent, among a cluster of smaller vehicles, you spot an enormous, two-story command vehicle, which you recognize as a captured U.S. model. Amazingly, the enemy seems unaware, or at least unconcerned, of your approach.

You are now nearly within the horns of the crescent. The cluster of enemy tanks on the far left starts to show signs of life; one by one you see the diesel signatures of the engines revving up. You sense it is the moment of truth. . . .

The Requirement

In a time limit of five minutes, describe the actions you will take in the form of the fragmentary order you will issue to your subordinates. Include an overlay and a brief explanation of your plan. Send your solution to the Marine Corps Gazette, care of Tactical Decision Games (90-6), P.O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish several solutions in two month’s time.

The Infantry Company in the Desert

With nearly a third of the Marine Corps deployed in the desert, opposed by a large tank threat, every Marine ought to be thinking seriously about how to fight tanks. Such thinking raises questions at a number of levels. Confronting a tank-heavy enemy with one of our Marine air-ground task forces (MAGTF) organizations is one thing, a problem to be solved by generals and colonels alike. There is a different set of problems to be solved by companies, platoons, and squads of Marine infantry and for combat service support Marines, problems of close combat against tanks that loom as overriding for a lance corporal and drive into insignificance any theories of fighting the MAGTF. Make no mistake: colonels and generals also need to be vitally concerned about combat at this level.

Marines are infantrymen. The Marine expeditionary force, combined arms force that it is, remains fundamentally an infantry unit. Therefore, Marines ought to be able to answer the question: What does infantry do against tanks in the desert?

Focusing on the company level, this problem is designed to begin a dialog in answer to that question.

Background

You are commanding officer, Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines (1/7). It is 0530, 12 December 1990. Mounted in amphibious assault vehicles (AAVs), you have been moving south to north across the open Southwest Asian desert, following an intensive but indecisive battle against enemy mechanized forces. You, Company B, 1/7, and Company A, 1st Engineers, have been placed under the leadership of commanding officer, 1st Tank Battalion (-) (+), following the battle. He is operating as part of Task Force Mauler, a combined arms task force whose mission is to find and destroy an enemy armored brigade.

Your company includes detachments from the Dragon, TOW, and 81mm mortar platoons. In addition to your tables of organization (T/O) allocations of small arms, automatic weapons, and machineguns, your inventory of weapons includes:

2 TOWs (HMMWV-Mounted)

8 Dragons

6 SMAWs

8 AT4s

27 LAAWs

10 AT (antitank) mines

2 81mm mortars

1st Tank Battalion (-) (+) is the easternmost thrust of a number of multiple thrusts that comprise Task Force Mauler’s move north. As the leading element assigned to 1st Tank Battalion (-) (+), you have been performing reconnaissance and screening missions. The battalion commander, who habitually leads from the front, is moving with a small mobile command group some 1,000 meters to your north and west. Company B, 1/7, is moving slightly behind Company A, two to three kilometers to the west, The engineer company has been moving along with you. The tanks-approximately two companies of them-have been moving behind you.

Situation I: 0600, 12 December

Monitoring the battalion tactical net, you hear the battalion commander order the tank companies to halt. A logistic train is approaching, and it will rendezvous at their present position to refuel and perform maintenance. Though fueling and repair will be conducted as rapidly as possible, the battalion commander thinks it will be three hours before all his tanks are up and ready. All vehicles in the battalion are critically short of fuel, including your AAVs. Priority will go to fueling the tanks, but you must either accommodate the logistic train in your position or dismount and send your vehicles back to where the tanks are fueling, depending on the situation, as the fuel your vehicles have onboard will not last more than another hour. You discuss this over the radio with your battalion commander and halt your company in the position shown on the diagram. By the time you halt, the distance between you and the tank companies has widened to about three kilometers.

The battalion commander now calls you on the radio as follows:

The tanks are going to refuel and refit in their present position. The threat is still to the north. It’s possible that 50 to 100 tanks with infantry could be down here in less than an hour. I want the two rifle companies to protect us while we refuel. Alfa, You orient towards the north and east. You are the focus of effort. Bravo, you orient towards the north and west.

1st and 2d Battalions, 11th Marines are both in range to give us artillery support if we need it HMLA-369 is on the deck with 10 UH-1Ns and 10 Whiskey Cobras that can be in action here in less than five minutes. The wing has launched dawn patrols; if any enemy tanks materialize, you can expect EA6Bs and Harriers to attack immediately.

The terrain is fundamentally featureless desert, save the single ridge near Company A’s present position, shown on the diagram. This ridge rises to a maximum of 10 meters in height, is approximately 1,500 meters in length, east to west, and 200 to 300 meters in depth, north to south. Though otherwise featureless at the macro level, it does, of course, offer the normal indentations and depressions that individual infantrymen can use to hide and to afford themselves a modicum of protection. Although approximately level, there is a gentle slope, never more than 3 degrees, downward on either side of the dotted line shown on the diagram.

Requirement I

Who should determine at this point where and how you should position the forces that are at the disposal of Company A-the battalion commander or the company commander?

Assuming the role of either the company commander, the battalion commander, or both, submit your concept for employing Company A and its attachments. Where will they be positioned vis-a-vis the tanks?

Situation II: 0700, 12 December

In the morning twilight, dust plumes are visible on the horizon, following reports from aerial reconnaissance that at least 50 tanks are heading due south, directly towards your position. Aerial recon confirms that the tanks are T-62s. They are followed by as many BTRs, probably carrying infantry. Indications are that they are unaware of your location but are hopeful of locating you and surprising you. U.S. Marine attack air begins its attack 6-8 kilometers north of your position; however, enemy fighters are on the scene as quickly as the Marine planes arrive. You see two Marine Harriers go down, apparently from ZSU-23 fire.

Requirement II

Draw a separate, enlarged diagram of your company position, showing how you will emplace the additional weapons available to you. (See Background above.) Include enough detail in your diagram to show how these weapons are integrated with your T/O weapons and the infantry units of Company A, including, where appropriate, detail at the squad and/or fire team level. (Use of improvised symbols, numbers, or letters to identify weapons is permissible.)

Send your solutions without delay to the Marine Corps Gazette, TDG #90-9, P.O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134.

Rifle Company Defends in the Desert

You are a rifle company commander who, together with the rest of the regiment, landed in the country of Aridia a few days ago. The regiment is part of a Marine expeditionary force whose mission is to deter aggression by Aridia’s hostile neighbors, who covet her riches and have large mechanized armies. It is general knowledge that, in Aridia, mobility is excellent for armor but not always good for wheeled vehicles. While no one is at war yet, there are threatening concentrations of armor along Aridia’s borders, and border patrols from each side occasionally fire at each other, usually without much effect.

Yesterday morning, a platoon of assault amphibious vehicles (AAVs), enough to transport your entire company, joined you, as did a squad of engineers. Otherwise, you have a standard table of organization. According to battalion’s standing operating procedure, the battalion commander will retain control of his TOW assets but will readily entertain requests from his company commander for support by other antimech assets at his disposal.

Early this morning, the battalion moved northeast along Route 1, screened by Cobra helicopters, and halted approximately 15 miles from the hostile border. The battalion commander called you to his newly established command post for a meeting. You ordered your executive officer to disperse the AAVs, put out some security, and recon the area to the north and northeast of your stopping place.

When you arrive at the battalion command post, you find that the battalion commander has been called to regiment “for an urgent meeting.” leaving the S-3 to brief the company commanders. He tells you only that the battalion’s mission is to defend the area in order to deny the use of the coastal highway to the enemy and invites the company commanders to make overlays of the provisional boundaries on his map. Your frontage is small, about 1,000 meters, but it is astride Route 1, the coastal highway, about where the company is now. You notice that Route 1 is the only highspeed avenue of approach into the country in the area. You also notice that there are no discernable contour lines on the map. The S-3 promises more guidance when the battalion commander returns.

You drive back to the company, where your executive officer reports urgently that the recon patrol he sent down the road has just reported a large dust cloud “right front and left front, 8 to 10 miles” and “possible gunfire.” Looking around, you yourself notice a small dust cloud to the southwest, roughly where, you suppose, your neighbor could be setting in. The shape of that cloud suggests movement away from the front. You also notice that the dunes on either side of the highway form small linear ridges up to 10-feet high, much like gentle crested swells at sea. There is a moment of silence, broken only by a Marine 10 yards away muttering sometiling about “a speedbump.”

What are your orders?

Would your orders be different if you had more time to prepare your position?

Facing an End Run

You are the company commander of Company D, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. Your company is mounted in assault amphibious vehicles.

The enemy has landed forces east of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) and has been attacking west for the last three weeks. Far superior in numbers and equipment, the enemy’s advance has been delayed through deception and an almost constant rain that has turned the road system into a quagmire. Vegetation is relatively thick along the river, with cultivated areas farther inland.

Your regiment is fighting a withdrawal under pressure when you discover that an enemy force of battalion size mounted in armored personnel carriers has now gotten across the river at Eltham’s Landing and presents a threat to your withdrawal route.

Your battalion is providing screening forces to the regiment’s flanks. Prevention of enemy interference to the regiment’s movement for the next 24 hours is critical for its survival.

You are tasked with delaying the enemy force that landed at Eltham’s Landing until the regiment can reach its new defensive position. One artillery battery and a section of 81mm mortars are in direct support. What do you do now?

The Requirement

Within a time limit of five minutes decide what actions you would take to cope with this threat and prepare the frag order you would issue to your subordinates. Include an overlay and a brief explanation of the rationale behind your plan. Both the frag order and the rationale should be brief and to the point. Send your solution to the Marine Corps Gazette, TDG #91-4, P.O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the authors’ and other solutions in the June issue.

Seizing the 70-Ton Bridge

You are an officer serving in a large Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF). The ground combat element (GCE), a “mech heavy” force that includes a battalion of M1A1 tanks and an infantry regiment mounted in assault amphibians, is advancing toward the east. Its present position is some 50 kilometers west of Highbank River. Your mission is to seize the 70-ton bridge over the Highbank River and hold it until the GCE can complete its advance and link up with you. The expected time of linkup is 1200 on H+6. (It is currently 1200 on H+5.)

For this mission you are given one rifle company reinforced by an attached Dragon section (eight teams) from the battalion’s antiarmor platoon, sufficient transport helicopters to lift this force, and four AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships.

The intelligence officer gives you the following information: “As far as we can tell, the enemy has yet to cross the Highbank River with major units. The bulk of his force consists of light armored vehicles that can cross the river at many places, so he doesn’t need the bridge for his own purposes.”

Your plan is simplicity itself. You intend to land at Landing Zone (LZ) Hawk and set up a perimeter defense around the bridge.

On the last leg of your flight toward LZ Hawk, your force flies south along the path of the Highbank River. Just north of the Eastbank woods, you see 10 enemy light armored vehicles travcling south along the road. What do you do?

Send your solution to the Marine Corps Gazette. TDG #91-5, P.O. Box 1775. Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the authors’ and other solutions in the July issue.

Coca Strike

The Situation

You command Company K, 3d Battalion, 4th Marines. As part of a multinational operation, you are patrolling a rural area in the nation of Generica with the intent of destroying the local cocaine-trade infrastructure. Company I is patrolling 20 kilometers to your east. The rest of the battalion is aboard the USS Tarawa 10 kilometers offshore, 40 kilometers west of you, with Company L in heliborne reserve.

You are reinforced by the battalion air liaison officer, an intelligence officer/linguist from the Defense Intelligence Agency, a Generican Marine officer with a bullhorn, and a radio operator with an AN/PSC-3 satellite radio providing UHF communications with the Tarawa. At the Generican Government’s request you are on foot, but you have an AN/MRC-138A radio vehicle for HF communications with a Generican Marine company patrolling 20 kilometers west of you.

Your mission is to destroy coca crops and processing facilities and capture traffickers while avoiding collateral casualties and damage as far as possible. No artillery or fixed-wing air support can be used. Four AH-1W Cobras armed with miniguns, rockets, and Hellfires are on strip alert at a FARP (forward arming and refueling point) 25 kilometers south of you. You have first priority for their support.

Moving north along a dirt road, you stop at 1300 as you emerge from moderately dense forest to check in with battalion. A steep hill mass is ahead; your map shows that the road leads to a village in a saddle on the hill mass, but you cannot see it from where you are. The battalion commander tells you real-time satellite imagery shows about 20 people loading cargo onto a large airplane at an airstrip near several sheds amid coca fields northwest of the hill mass. You know the traffickers usually take off at dusk, about 1730. People are also in the village, in the fields of potatoes, corn, and sugarcane southwest of the hill mass, and on the road west of the village.

The battalion commander orders you to capture the plane with its cargo if possible and destroy it otherwise, capture any traffickers you can, and destroy the airstrip, processing facility, and cultivated coca. Because of the desire to show goodwill toward those uninvolved in the drug trade, you are not to fire any weapons in or at the village atop the hill mass unless fired on from the village, and under no circumstances may you use mortars or rockets against targets in the village.

The Requirement

Within fifteen minutes, prepare the fragmentary orders you would issue your company. Include plans for use of supporting arms, an overlay, and a brief explanation of your rationale.

Send your frag order and rationale to the Marine Corps Gazette, TDG #91-8, P. O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the October issue.

The Attack on Narrow Pass-Continued

This scenario is the continuation of TDG #91-3, “The Attack on Narrow Pass,” published in the March 1991 issue, and is based on a common solution for that scenario submitted by several players.

The Initial Situation

The initial scenario, described in detail in the March issue, is summarized here: You command a reinforced rifle platoon guarding the left flank of the battalion as it advances north through Narrow Pass to relieve a helicopterborne force encircled at Sanctuary City. As you parallel the battalion, your point squad chases off an enemy listening post near Checkpoint 37. About the same time, the battalion gets involved in a significant firelight near the bridge. The time is about 2030. You spot two enemy machinegun positions on the outcrops to Narrow Pass that are opening up on the battalion. You contemplate taking some sort of action to assist the battalion, but you decide that your orders to guard the flank are explicit and that you had best stay put. You decide to try to suppress the westernmost gun position with an attached machinegun squad, and you let battalion know you can adjust supporting arms on the easternmost position. But beyond that you will stick to your original mission. You set your three squads in a blocking position in the trees along the east-west road near Checkpoint 37, preparing to repel any enemy approaching from the west.

The New Situation

The enemy machineguns fall silent as you suppress with supporting arms and your own machineguns. Battalion has successfully outflanked the enemy and is advancing north again. Your platoon engages an enemy patrol of about squad size approaching from the northwest; the enemy patrol withdraws hurriedly from whence it came. Checking out the scene of the firefight, you recover two enemy corpses. Artillery impacts several hundred meters west of your position. That was about a half hour ago; you have had no enemy activity since then. Suddenly, battalion comes under heavy fire as it nears Narrow Pass. The enemy machineguns that you engaged open up on the battalion again, this time from either flank. It is apparent that the enemy has a sizable force at the pass. From the radio traffic you discern that battalion has been hit hard: two companies are unable to advance and are taking casualties. Anxious to help, you contact battalion to offer your services. “Just wait out,” the S-3 snaps agitatedly. “We’ve got other things to worry about right now.” The time is now 2200. What do you do?

The Requirement

Within a five-minute time limit, prepare the fragmentary order (if any) you would issue to your squad leaders and attachments, including the intent of your plan. Include any plans for the use of supporting arms, an overlay of any schemes of maneuver, and any further communications you would make with battalion. Then give a brief explanation of your rationale. Send your solution to the Marine Corps Gazette, Tactical Decision Game #91-9, Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the authors’ and other solutions in the November issue.