Divisional Staff Question

[kalos72]

Can some one explain to me the practical difference between the S-3 and the S-5 positions please?

To me, the descriptions I have found, seem to imply either one or the other is used in most units but usually not both. But I dont know what one does versus the other.

Thanks...

[kalos72]

Ok so I found a PDF that shows S-5 as civil affairs now not planning?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staff_%28military%29#Operations_.283.29

Has there been a change since the BCT changes?

[Eddie]

Yep.

[Webstral]

Kalos, as a matter of terminology, S-3 refers to operations at the battalion and brigade level. Division level operations is G-3.

In the 1990's, battalion staffs had only four sections: S-1 through S-4. Brigades occasionally had an S-5, which was host nation relations. This is the framework Twilight: 2000 will inherit.

Nowadays, it seems like there's a staff section at the battalion level for the guy who makes coffee and another one for the clowns who pile out of the little car. I can't say whether this has made battalion operations more eficient or more effective, but it seems like there were twice as many people seated around the table at a battalion command and staff meeting as when I was active in the 90's. Lots o' captains.

On a related note, a friend (also a captain) was transferred to division staff at BIAP partway through my tour. I never saw the inside of the division headquarters, so his feedback is all heresay. Apparently, though, the place was rotten with captains, majors, and light colonels looking for meaningful things to do. Obviously, in Twilight: 2000 this reservoir of leadership (ahem) will have been drained dry by 2000.

Webstral

[Targan]

Nowadays, it seems like there's a staff section at the battalion level for the guy who makes coffee and another one for the clowns who pile out of the little car.

Got up in a bad mood this morning because I have to work on a Sunday (and over the entire long weekend here too). That quote made me LOL. Thanks Web, I needed it :)

[pmulcahy11b]

I never saw the inside of the division headquarters, so his feedback is all heresay. Apparently, though, the place was rotten with captains, majors, and light colonels looking for meaningful things to do.

The leaders I felt sorry for at 2X were the HHC commander and 1SG. The HHC commander was a Captain in a company where Captains were Corporals and even Lieutenants in the G-sections had more power than him. He had little more power than counting bed linens and hamburger patties in the mess hall, yet was held responsible for everything wrong with the day-to-day operations of the "company." And they both hell when our mess sergeant turned out to be crooked and had been selling the best food on the black market for four months. They must have felt really helpless the entire time they were in those positions.

[Abbott Shaull]

Yeah, being a Captain as CO of HHC/HHB/HHT would be the ultimate move backwards unless you were just promoted from 1st Lt. No matter the lever at Battalion/Squadron on up you have very little power. At Battalion level most of the troops that were under weren't even really yours. Go out to the field and you have assets farmed out...