Bill (and others who are interested):

 

I better set the record straight on what down range units are doing
record wise before more people embarrass themselves with their
speculations. By the way, I can discuss the type of classified info
gathered, not the content.

 

First, I need to provide some definitions. Staff officer functions are
labeled with a letter and a number. I wore two hats, I was both the Info
Ops Officer and the S6 witch is the Information Management Officer at
the battalion level. G6's serve at Brigade and higher. 1 is personnel, 2
is intelligence, 4 is logistics, 5 is civil affairs, 7 is engineer. Non
numbered staff officers are considered "special staff" and work directly
either for the Commander, the "3", the COS (Chief of Staff), or the XO
(Executive Officer). Non numbererd staff include JAG, Chaplain, Info
Ops, Psyop, Public Affairs, and others. This is a generic set-up and
many units tweak the organization to suit the command.

 

Now for the records that are kept. The following reports are mandatory:
Once compiled the reports are pushed up one level to feed into the
higher commands reports who in turn push it up to their higher. Reports
are typically sent up once every 24 hours.

-         SITREPS (situational reports) are the responsibility of the
commander but maintained by the "3". Everyone in the unit feeds into the
SITREP by providing what they did that day. This includes reports from
patrols and reports from the staff that do not feed into the other
mandatory reports.

-         INTSUM (intelligence summary) is compiled by the "2" and is
based on data that was gathered by professional intel collectors or is
gleaned from SITREPS and SIGACTS. This report will tell you who the bad
guys/friendlies are, areas that are high risk for IED's, potential
threats, safe areas, and so on.

-         PERSTAT (personnel status) is compiled by the "1" and is a
snapshot of the status of the personnel in the command (present for
duty, on leave, sick call, etc)

-         LOGSTAT (logistical status) is compiled by the "4" and is a
snapshot of the units logistical readiness (fuel on hand, rations, ammo,
etc),

-         SIGACT (significant action) is compiled by the "3" whenever
something eventful happens. When a patrol goes out and nothing unusual
occurs it is noted in the SITREP. When the patrol goes out and it is
engaged, a SIGACT is generated immediately. The patrol report will still
go into the SITREP later in the day.

-         Duty Log (sometimes called the Staff Journal) is the
responsibility of the Executive Officer and logs all incoming
communications, visitors, and the shift change of the Staff Duty Officer
and Sergeant of the Guard.

There are others but the listed are the biggies. Some commanders will
ask for something particular and a report will be created to present the
data (the money and projects civil affairs is executing, the number of
media request for info, and so on).

 

Contrary to Larry's snide remarks about soldiers not writing something
down due to being too busy protecting each others lives, everyone in the
unit is involved in providing info for the SITREP. Without the
information provide by the patrols and the staff, we would not be able
to present awards, document war time injuries, figure out which local is
supporting the Taliban, or eventually write the chronicle of the
campaign!

 

Now that I settled the question as to whether we actually keep records
in the field, now on to what systems we had at our disposal. CJTF-76,
the US command in Bagram, has something they called Digital Battle
Captain. It used a web interface and I think the backend was DB2. We log
on and key in the reports. Unfortunately, in a joint and multi-national
environment, not everyone had access to the Digital Battle Captain
because it sat on a SIPR (Secret) system. CENTRIX is the "classified"
system used by the coalition and they are trying to get something
similar to Digital Battle Captain on it. The Special Forces command
(CJSOTF-A) didn't use Digital Battle Captain. They preferred e-mailed
Word docs or Excel workbooks.

 

I was not prevented from collecting records. I was under a lot of
pressure to "feed the beast" more and more information. Much time and
effort was spent ensuring that units "down range" had the infrastructure
to send up the reports that higher up needed.

 

I hope this answers your questions and dispels any misconceptions that
people on this list had about the ability of units in the field to
maintain records.

 

V/R

Thomas C. Nield, MCP
Electronic Records Archivist
Records Management Division
Missouri Secretary of State
600 W Main, Rm. 153
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: 573-751-7299
Fax: 573-526-5327
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

 


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