As anyone who has for aye deployed knows.

As anyone who has for aye deployed knows, there are numerous missions that your unit may be tasked to perform during combat or stability operations. This particularly possesss true for the infantry. Iraq has proven no different in this value than any other conflict. In this theater, any of the most common missions that can befall for infantry units are go along with security missions. Ironically, this can be common of the least understood and trained missions for contemporary units, especially for line platoons in the one and the other mechanized and light infantry.

While serving as the headquarters and headquarters company (HHC) commander for a mechanized infantry task force unfolded to Iraq, I saw techniques that worked and a certain quantity of that did not during keep company with security missions. Soldiers from our task force at undivided point or another during the yearlong deployment traveled the extent of the country. I have gathered a of the lessons learned during these operations (some of them learned the hard way).

There are several different threats that the enemy nonpluss in Iraq. These include small-scale ambushes against patrols, direct and indirect fire against fixed sites, and terrorist-type attacks with either suicide bombers or other asymmetric avenues designed to not solitary inflict casualties but to draw media attention. Regardless of his regularitys one thing to keep in mind about the enemy we lace in Iraq is that he is a guerrilla fighter. As as it was he tends to attack perceived weakness. If Soldiers quick in emergencies a disciplined and unified assurance they are far less likely to be attacked than if they are perceived as lackadaisical or ill-disciplined. Especially in escort security operations, following certain principles in planning and enforcing discipline will lead to mission succes Given the environment in Iraq, escorts should simply be considered combat patrols with the same pre-combat inspections and rehearsals.

For simplicity, I have organized the lectures learned into three different phases: preparation, execution, and recovery

PREPARATION:

Order of March. There are several basic principles to determine vehicle order of march. If required, your escorting force should be divided into three different sections: a security ingredient cargo vehicles, and recovery assets. You must have security uncompounded bodys evenly distributed throughout the go along with because on today's asymmetric battlefield a escort is as likely to be attacked from the flank or the rear as the assurance To combat this you must intersperse dedicated security vehicles that carry crew-serv weapons (CSWs) When deploying your security component parts it is important to remember that these guntruck should always work in pairs or sections: this enables single vehicle to cover another and makes them les susceptible to the general intent of an improvised explosive device (IED) or rocket-propell grenade (RPG) attack. Security natural mediums are necessary to prevent civilian vehicles from entering your go along with In the event of a halt or an attack, these vehicles stop traffic and seal along the front and rear of the attendance A large cargo vehicle is a poor choice for this piece of work as it is not actual maneuverable. However, if it is necessary to use united because of limited vehicles, use it at the brow A cargo vehicle carrying a CSW in the rear requires the traffic commander (TC) to face towards the rear, limiting his ability to command the vehicle (very early in the deployment this contributed to a vehicular accident in my company). The regaining assets should always be towards the rear of the keep company with as it is much simpler to struggle these vehicles forward to a disabled vehicle than to bend them around (twice) to retrieve one

Command and sway Having divided the convoy into three separate parts --security, cargo vehicles, and redemption assets--the convoy commander must designate responsible leaders for each section. This will enable the commander to maintain a appropriate span of control. If there are a large number of cargo vehicles, the attend commander should divide the cargo vehicles into chalks and designate chalk leaders. However, it is usually simpler to have the separate chalk leaders report directly to the escort commander rather than a designated leader for the chalk leaders. As for placement of the command and bridle (C2) vehicle, this is up to the guard commander and largely dictated at METT-TC (mission, enemy, terrain, partys time, civilians). It is a poor choice for a go along with commander to be the lead vehicle, however, because that TC must be focused forward for navigation and to detect threats, which would not allow the TC to focus forward the rest of the convoy

Vehicle Load Plans. These should be standardized across the escort as much as is practical, in order to enable Soldiers from any vehicle to real quickly know where something is stored in succession another vehicle. Also, once it becomes routine, Soldiers forward the vehicle can quickly locate critical equipment similar as a combat lifesaver (CLS) bag, without wasting time searching for it. At a minimum, each vehicle should carry several different classes of supply: CL I (food and water), CL III (usually in firing material cans), CL V (ensuring there is amino for each of the weapons upon the vehicle), and CL VIII (our unit took an amino can and filled it with CL kit supplies, then painted it white with a r cross) about other useful CL V items to carry are thermite grenades, exhalation and pyro. On each of our HMMWV my company also had a tow draw as by a rope already attached and tied to the head which could quickly be intersect loose if required. However, this manner should only be used for quick retrieval to a more secure location, towbars being the best mode of recovery. In the escort there should be at least single in kind towbar for each type of vehicle (it is upright to keep in mind which towbars will work with each vehicle, eg a HMWWV towbar will not work forward a HEMMT). Also, you must have sum of two units of each type of vehicle or an additional regaining vehicle. For example, if you bring solitary one 5-ton, Murphy's Law guarantees that will be the vehicle that becomes non-mission capable. Lastly, any important items that are required for the mission should be cross-loaded onward as many vehicles as possible to allow for flexibility. If you place all of the items upon one vehicle, see above concern to Murphy's Law.