Two weeks to go...

First, I'd like to apologize for the two week absence. Easter weekend I went home, and it was a busy but awesome weekend. In fact, other than getting crazy sick, the weekend was perfect.  Though, I must add a warning for anyone who is ever tempted...

Definitely a GO.

Big fat NO GO!

Don't try the chocolate covered bacon.  It's not worth it.  Trust me.

On a good note, though, I was able to visit the Birmingham, Alabama temple, and eat some tom yum gai and pad thai (the basic Thai national foods) in celebration of Songkran.

Unfortunately, class over the last two weeks has been fairly busy as well.  We've been going through a process called JOPP (Joint Operational Planning Process), which is how the US military plans out operations.  The scenario we use (and which all the other "advanced" courses, like the captains' career courses, sergeants major academy, etc. use) is based on what the Army calls the GAAT (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey) region.  Of course, the rest of the world calls this area the Caucasus, but we're the Army, so we have to come up with our own name for it, and then make it an acronym. (I'll bet someone got a good OER bullet out of renaming a historic world region...)


Why use the Caucasus?  Probably because it's fairly representative of the geopolitical craziness we face these days.

So, our fictional scenario takes politically correct license, and instead of making a bad guy of Iran (wouldn't want them to think we have plans against them, eh?), we've created the fictional breakaway state of Ahurastan.  Fortunately for Ahurastan, they inherited nearly all of Iran's military capabilities...  Ahurastan, of course, wants to annex Azerbaijan, which is definitely not within the realm of reality, and threatens to do it by force.

Our task is to create a Joint Task Force, and go through the planning motions as if we were actually planning the deployment of a deterrence/combat force to the region.  It involves quite a bit.  Identifying friendly and enemy available combat power and assets, identifying centers of gravity, developing lines of effort, developing the enemy's course of action, and developing our own course of action. 

Frankly, while there are few things in life I enjoy more than fictional staff work, everyone else and I were ruined by Easter weekend.  It broke us.  We have culminated as a staff group.

And what's worse, is that we've still got two weeks of the Military Decision Making Process...