Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 68

(Photo courtesy of Col. Val Keaveny)

Col. Val Keaveny flys over his brigade’s former area of operations 31 October 2013 in Khost Province, Afghanistan. The flight was the last
one out of Forward Operating Base Salerno after it was handed over to the Afghans.

assuming multiple provinces as additional battle space,
creating the headquarters for a new one-star headquarters—these are just a few of the significant transitions that
our brigade was tasked to accomplish—in addition to (not
in place of) our existing mission set.

Terms of Reference, Definition of
“The Fights, Long-Range Calendar,
”
and Knowledge Management System
The last four tools are those that I considered essential to maintain optimal effectiveness and operational
synchronization. As with all of my products, I had a garrison and deployment version of each, but they served
the same purpose: to provide common definitions,
expectations, and norms to staff products that, when
properly completed and regularly updated, provided
value to the staff and commanders.
Our “terms of reference” document listed the duty
positions and expectations of the key commissioned and
noncommissioned officers within the brigade. Although
relatively bland on first look, this document was essential when we were tasked with establishing a one-star
headquarters. To meet the requirements of the new
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headquarters, we were able to use the terms of reference
as a base document and efficiently update it with new
positions and new duties that we previously did not
have to fill.
Our task organization document was similar to those
that all units prepare and update. However, when dealing
with unfamiliar command structures or new organizations, this document was again critical to get right as we
executed multiple major transitions. For example, at one
point our brigade was responsible for half of a province in
which we had no forces assigned—and the provincial capital was owned by a coalition force with separate national
caveats. Under these circumstances, a clear task organization and well-defined responsibilities were essential.
The nondoctrinal document titled “the fights” was
born out of my experience as an observer/controller,
where seemingly every asset known to exist in the Army
inventory was assigned to the company commander who
was in direct- or indirect-fire contact at the moment.
The overwhelmed company commander had neither
the ability nor the time to properly deconflict and synchronize each asset for best use. “The fights” document
defined the responsibilities of the company, battalion, and
March-April 2015  MILITARY REVIEW