Amphibious Warfare Planning

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dlr110
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Amphibious Warfare Planning

Post by dlr110 »

I guess I'm bored right now so I thought I would bore you all with a few meaningless sea stories from my past.

There is a lot of pre-deployment training that has to be done by everyone. One of the most important schools I attended was “Amphibious Warfare Planning” at the school’s command, Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, VA. Normally this is an officer course, but as a senior enlisted in a specialized unit I was allowed to attend. The course was about a months’ worth of information crammed into two weeks. The first week we spent learning the history of amphibious warfare and all the stages of an amphibious operation. The second week we were each given a role to play and instructions for planning a major amphibious landing and I was to be the communications officer.

On the Friday of the second week we had to give a mission brief to two real amphibious commanders, a Marine Corps General and a Navy Admiral were invited in and would tell us afterwards if they would go to war with our plan. Each one of us had to get up in front of them, introduce ourselves as to the role we were playing and then give our brief. So when it came my turn I got up, introduced myself and then took about ten to fifteen minutes for my brief. It really wasn’t hard, because most of the communications plan was already scripted. I thought I did pretty well and when I finished I ended with “that concludes my brief sirs, are there any questions.”

The General looked at me for a moment and then asked me what my Navy training really was and I responded that I was an air traffic controller. The General hesitated for a moment again, made a few comments about the importance of good communications and then said “Chief this is normally where I would be raking the communications officer over the coals about having the communications plan and my radio equipment ready when I needed it. I’ll cut you some slack on this one, because I know as an air traffic controller you understand that.” The Admiral just smiled at me, looked over at the General, shook his head a little and thanked me for my briefing. Man was I glad that was over and that I wasn’t going to have to do that part in the real world.
David R (United States Navy Retired)
Don't just count your many blessings, be the blessing others count on!
Visit my website: Woodburning Art by David https://www.wdbydavid.com/
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