Cell Phones Degrading Preparation

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 03:10:55 -0400

Now I can understand the usefulness of cell phones in the military, however, I believe they are a massive contributing factor in the lack of proper planning, dissemination of information, and delegation. The way I see this happening is that too many of our leaders are relying on the fact that if they forget to put something out, they have the ease and convenience of just making a quick call or text and pushing it out through the call roster. It creates the complacency in a garrison environment that allows the small simple things that may affect a mission, such as 'clean sweep' areas of responsibility(Ft. Bragg Bi Annual mission) to be missed, and allows it to be pushed out rapidly in a reliable manner. Now when you are deployed and comms are shaky at best, it creates an environment where small simple thing such as sectors of fire are able to be missed and possibly get someone killed. It seems to me that this ease of pushing out changes doesn't force leaders to properly think through the most likely COAs Essentially what I see is the fact that prior to cell phones, the military operated just fine, and didn't collapse. With that being said we as leaders need to always remember and practice the 7Ps. Proper Planning & Preparation, Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Response by PO1 Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 5 at 2014 8:39 AM

PO1 Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 08:39:12 -0400

Cell phones are a fact. They're a wonderful tool. However, with that said...I agree with you. Using the phone to push things down the "tree" just because you, as a leader, failed to do your job - not good! I have had to rely on cell phones in many jobs, even today. But as leaders, using the phone instead of proper briefings, etc., we should (a) discourage this trend (b) establish a "punishment" for using the phone for these "error corrections" - (maybe reflected on your evaluations in the preparation/planning/leadership blocks) (c) ensure that those below us understand the use of the phone to fix your screwups is NOT the way to do business.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 5 at 2014 8:41 AM

CW5 Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 08:41:41 -0400

SFC Private RallyPoint Member, that's a good point, and something I had not considered. You know the old saying ... "Train like you fight." And, as you point out, we likely won't have cell phones in a deployed environment. I do believe the Army is moving in that direction with equipment like the Soldier Radio, which - according to this article - the "Army [...] sees as critical to extending mobile tactical communications down to the dismounted soldier."

http://defensesystems.com/articles/2014/05/01/army-soldier-waveform-radio-contract.aspx

Army gives 4 companies contracts for Soldier Radio Waveform systems -- Defense Systems

The companies will supply SRW-Appliqué systems to extend tactical communications in the field.

Response by PO1 Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 5 at 2014 9:39 PM

PO1 Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 21:39:28 -0400

I see where you're heading with that, and you have a great point indeed. That's where 'train as we fight, fight as we train' concept has to come in, where we as leaders are compelled to polish our communication skills out in the field with limited or technology-free environment. Hooah!

Response by SSG Jason Cherry made Apr 4 at 2015 8:04 PM

SSG Jason Cherry — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 20:04:11 -0400

I couldn't have said it better myself... I just made a similar post about this in another thread.