JOPP Continued

We turned in our first history paper yesterday. Be relief for most of the class. We are continung JOPP for the rest of the week.  We are continuing COA development today.  On a side not, took the wife to the Cheesecake Factory in Overland Park yesterday.  Trying to find balance!

12 o'clock High

We watched 12 oclock high in our leadership class today.   Once you get through the black and white it is a pretty good movie.  There are lots of lessons that can be taken from it.   It's amazing to see the stuff that was dealt with in WWII and what is going on in today's war.  Some things never change.  The same challenges that leaders faced then, we still face today.

JOPP

Today, we started the JOPP (Joint Operations Planning Process).  We are focused on a scenario in Azerbaijan and the security challenges they face.  I have been tasked as the Deputy J5 and responsible for leading the group through the exercise for the next two weeks.  Today we focused on initial planning and did some operational art and design.  I used the JP 5.0 as the reference.  It is definitely different doing joint level exercises.  Glad they made it part of the curriculum.

Torch Exam

Over the last week I have been contemplating over the Torch Exam.  The idea here is to understand the center of gravities at the strategic and operational environments and determine if they are clear.  "Torch" was the name of operation in North Africa during WWII.  I like to think of it as a warm up for the main event.  We (US) learned a significant amount about ourselves during this operation.  I had read An Army at Dawn before reading this exam, so I was hoping that I would not be skewed by what I read.  I was surprised to find that it had primary sources attached.  I have another three days to complete it!  On a side not we discussed Learning Organizations in our Leadership class today.  I really enjoy the small tidbits that I can add to my kitbag in my future unit.