Month 3 Day 7

Notebook Entry
Spoke about GSU intelligence, Major doesn’t want to work with, didn’t coordinate time for Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace, Guy from 2nd Kandak came, Made Priority Intelligence requirements List, figured out source funding.

Journal Entry
Met up with S2A [Assistant Intelligence Officer]. I told him there was a Major in another unit on this base who might be able to help with Intel. He has no desire to work with him. The relationship between the brigade and the Garrison support unit is tense. What is really ironic is that the brigade, the operational unit, rolls around like its shit doesn’t stink, when in reality they are the ones who are basically worthless and the Garrison unit is actually pretty good. I also forced him to sit down for 2 hours and work on his Priority Intelligence requirements.* We should have presented them yesterday, but because this is tantamount to saying that he needs to do more work the date has been pushed off again and again. Major Kraus, the S2 [the Marine Intelligence Officer] wants to come over here and teach them some stuff, but I don’t think he understands how little they are going to retain or leave with. He also wants to talk about why I am teaching them conventional Intel doctrine designed for force-on-force warfare. The truth is that I am teaching them this because I was told to teach them this. Sometime you just need to shut-up and color.

Fate seems to have tapped me to get out of the USMC. I got a FitRep yesterday from Major Hesko. It was average and lacked some of the key words that I think you really need for upper-level promotion, especially with the culling that the force is going to get after this war draws down. It was a fine review, but he said the last 5 1stLts he had were in Ramadi with him in 2004 as his platoon commanders and XO with plenty of Bronze stars, combat Vs etc. I can’t argue that I need to be ahead of that curve.

Post Comments:
The Garrison Support Unit, these soldiers managed the facilities on the base and made sure that all of the infrastructure was running correctly so that the Brigade soldiers could do their job. They dealt with local security, water, food, housing, everything except planning where units were to be moved to and employed.

*Priority intelligence requirements are basically a list of questions from the commander that he wants to have answered. They should be the primary drivers behind his decision-making process.