A Consolidated Support Operations Cell Can Improve Battalion Ops
By Maj. Jason Phillips
L
ogistics units are the square peg to the Army’s round hole, repeatedly hammered into an operations process developed for maneuver and fires units. Logistics units have several organizational constraints imposed on them by the current force structure and doctrine. The first is that support battalions lack a field grade S-3 and operations sergeant major (SGM). Instead, these units rely on a captain and master sergeant who may or may not have had company command and first sergeant time. Second, support battalions have two separate operations cells, the orders producing S-3 section mentioned above and the non-orders producing support operations section lead by a major as
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the support operations officer (SPO) and another master sergeant as the NCOIC. This can lead to a disjointed operations process where companies conduct actions communicated to them through logistics support requests generated by the SPO team. At the same time, the S-3 is unaware of these actions, resulting in overtasking as the S-3 continues to generate internal battalion tasks. Support battalion operations would be better understood and executed if there were a consolidated operations cell led by a field grade officer with support from an operations SGM. Placing the correct people in the correct job and ensuring stability is an excellent way to solve any organiza-
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tional friction. This process has led to units establishing cycles where field grade officers remain in position for one year before rotating to a new position, many times in the same battalion. Current doctrine does not support this construct in support battalions. Human Resources Command does not fill this position directly and does not track it as a key developmental position. The result is many captains coming directly out of stressful company commands do not see the S-3 as a worthwhile job. Based on move cycles, the S-3 may rotate several times a year and at times must be filled by a pre-command captain. Furthermore, no matter how senior, these captains are not Command and General Staff Officer Course graduates and not adept at the military decision-
