Seminar 6 After Action Reviews
1. Exercise 1 (DSCA) – July 7-10
Real intent of exercise was to storm, form, norm as a group. That was the critical thing. Come out with a
better understanding of DSCA – constraints, legal, underpinnings, etc. Apply doctrine of mission analysis
to an unfamiliar problem. Do the same for COA development. We’ve achieved all the high points of what
we wanted to accomplish.
OPT Construct
How do we best construct an OPT, lead, organize, etc.? Did we use everyone’s strengths?
Improve
Bruce – “compass calls” led to many a rabbit hole
Kyle S. – getting too bogged down in BPT tasks b/c we lacked specific guidance (e.g., JTF-Kansas, 167
TSC, etc.)
Karl – go to CoS right away for answers to avoid rabbit holes, or make planning assumptions and move
on
Ross – We didn’t collaborate on/internalize problem statement, and that affected us throughout (Brice –
same with mission statement; Don – everyone come up w/ potential statements and share; Eric – do it
like we’re doing this AAR; Dooms – To everything there is a season…a time to work as a group, a time to
work in WfFs; Brice – depends on problem level; collaborate on squishy problems/divide and conquer
simple problems; Bill – thrown a curveball with lack of guidance/tasking/etc.
Karl – As OPT leader, better plan your “mad minute.” I walked in w/out awareness of names, specialties,
etc.
Sustain
Bruce – “compass calls” to stay on track and share information
Doctrine
Did we apply doctrine? Doctrine doesn’t only apply to conventional military problems. You do it
intuitively all the time. MDMP is just a process that allows a diverse group of people to work together on
a complex problem in a familiar way.
Improve
Reed – We have the books, references, checklists. We should have used them more to help OPT lead.
Karl – As COL Arnold said, historical application of doctrine. (Connie – RAND is a good resource for
published lessons learned)
1-1
Scenario
Improve
Ross – Words have meaning (TACON, OPCON, etc.). Either write orders in broader terms or respect
doctrinal terms.
Dooms – Use the resources we’re given, like the RFI tracker.
Sustain
Connie – School providing tools like real world actors, SMEs (FEMA office)
Ex Design
Improve
Reed – Add more installation play, real world actors from Leavenworth garrison.
Karl – Make seminar JTF-Kansas and actually be tasked with DSCA mission (Bill – but we were supposed
to be out of our comfort zone with confusing mission to storm/form/norm)
1-2
2. Exercise 2 (Unified Land Operations) – Oct 26-Nov 6
2-3
3. Exercise 3 (MAGTF) – January 5-14
3-4
4. Exercise 4 (Campaign Design) – February 29 – March 11
4-5
5. Capstone Exercise (ULO) – April 18-29
5-6