My Commander’s Summary in the Combat Team Situation Report (SITREP) on the 24th of December, 2010, in Afghanistan read:

Twas the night before Christmas,
And all through Afghanistan,
Not a creature was stirring,
Not even the Taliban.

I had first used the line in an underground operations room at HMAS Kuttabul some years before while working as a Watchkeeper. I thought that I may as well break it out again after a quiet few days in our Area of Operations. I’ve got no doubt I wasn’t the first to write that – or the last – but given my preoccupation with the upcoming mission I was still kind of impressed with myself for remembering it.

On this Christmas Eve I had to write my SITREP comments a little earlier than usual because I was about to deliver my orders for the clearance of the Tangi Valley. This was to be our most dangerous and difficult mission to date. So I hit ‘send’, hoped the tongue in cheek comment wouldn’t cause anyone in the Headquarters to have kittens, grabbed my sheath of orders and walked down to the shed to deliver them.

Orders groups can vary in length, size, complexity and delivery method. I’d given immediate action orders in Timor in helicopters and vehicles, patrol orders galore on both exercise and operations in front of mud models and under red torch light, quick attack and QRF orders however and whenever the hell was needed. Prior to our deployment I had given orders to the Combat Team leaders detailing our overall concept of operations for the deployment, basing those on the reconnaissance I had conducted with headquarters elements some weeks prior, and information gained from the 6th Battalion crew deployed ahead of us. Regardless of their type, an orders group was critical to getting the team to understand the situation, the mission at hand and how it was to be achieved.

The Army has a particular format for giving orders called SMEAC which stands for Situation, Mission, Execution, Admin and Log, Command and Signals. It is a format that – in theory – derives from the Military Appreciation Process (MAP) of which there are a couple of versions – quick, individual, staff etc etc. (SIDEBAR: If anyone ever tries to sell you the MAP or SMEAC as suitable for business, run for the hills. They might know military planning and orders, but they don’t know business strategy, business planning or finances). At any rate, pretty much everyone in the Army is familiar with the SMEAC format. It is familiar, makes sense, is repeatable and allows you to break down the components of a plan from high level to low (SIDEBAR Continued: This might sound attractive to business, it just isn’t compatible though. Run!).

My orders in this case were extensive. Normally I might only deliver this level of detail to my Mentor Team, Platoon, Troop and specialist commanders like the Snipers and Explosive Ordnance Disposal detachments and leave it to them to break it down for their teams. For this operation I also had my section and brick commanders involved – those who commanded the eight and four man components of our team – and my vehicle crews. Each soldier had to know the whole mission in exquisite detail, their part, the part of the soldier next to them, and also their commander’s part and that of the commander above them. As Nathaniel Fick wrote in his book of the same title, we were all just one bullet away from having to step up and take charge.

This mission would see a combined force of Australians, Americans and Afghans attempt to clear the Taliban from the Tangi Valley. For ten years the Talibs had controlled and oppressed the thousands of Afghan residents there, launched attacks into the rest of Uruzgan presence and fiercely repelled coalition force attempts to clear them out, inflicting casualties on the Afghan, French, Dutch and Australian forces as they did so. Colonel Jim Creighton, the Commander of Combined Team – Uruzgan, had left me in no uncertain terms as to his thoughts on having a stronghold along his lines of communication “Clear them out. Get it done. Get it done as soon as you can.”

So now I stood in front of this large group of Australian and Americans soldiers (Orders would be issued to the Afghans from their own commanders only hours before our launch to avoid security breaches). The US soldiers were from the 1st/2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment. Members of their unit would be conducting an airmobile assault into blocking positions deep into the valley as we fought our way up the north side side of the valley with the Afghan National Army, with other elements from their Apache Company on the south side. With artillery firing in support, gunships overhead, electronic warfare elements deployed, and an enemy waiting to receive us it was a true Battle Group Operation. It was certainly the biggest one we would be involved in.

Ideally I wouldn’t have given the orders on Christmas Eve but the machinations of Coalition Headquarters approvals and the Afghan Battalion Commander’s continued absence from the District ‘on leave’ had backed me up for time. I wanted the soldiers to have some down time over Christmas after the hard slog of the first four months and what was to follow, but also to have the time to get to know the mission. I also knew – almost for certain – that this was one operation that we would not all be coming home from. That risk always existed every time we set foot outside any of our patrol bases, but the Tangi Valley was the one place we knew we would get in a brutal fight.

All of these factors made me a bit more nervous than usual but I attempted to portray the image of the calm, confident and assured commander for the large group of mostly young officers and soldiers present. I sat them down in the order they would be inserted and operating into the valley; the Mentor Team leading the assault, snipers and engineers around them, my headquarters element and Cavalry Troop, the Infantry Platoon on the flanks, and finally the reserve element, there to be called upon to reinforce and exploit success, or prevent failure.

Between where I was and where the officers and soldiers sat, stood, kneeled or shuffled in place was a massive model of the whole valley. The model had been built by the Cavalry Troop soldiers who had steadfastly refused me entrance to the area during its construction. “We don’t need officers buggering it up.” was how it was put to me. The model was outstanding as a result. The twists of the Tiri Rud (river), spray painted representations of the density of the crops, models of the compounds created, orientated and labelled according to the coalition system were all present. The boundaries and key positions from the plan crafted on maps on my bedroom wall had been spray painted and laid out; the maps themselves had been carefully removed from that wall and placed back in order behind me. Rocks and pebbles had even been carefully placed to accurately represent the actual major outcrops on the features we would occupy, maneuver around and fight from.

All of this model lay before as I stood orders in one hand, a Bushmaster vehicle antenna acting as a pointer in the other. A deep breath, the time was now. “Gentlemen, these are my orders for the clearance of the Tangi Valley to be launched on the 27th of December 2010. This is the Combat Team Charlie component of Operation Takur Gur, a Battle Group minus operation.” To my front a young soldier swallows visibly. He hasn’t been in contact with the enemy yet and will be driving a Bushmaster close behind the assault force on a road we hope will have been cleared of IEDs. If we find them.

I continue. . .”Situation. . . . . ” I’m reading from the pages in my hand, but speaking from memory just as much. I have poured days of my life into getting this plan right. As I deliver our understanding of the enemy laydown we will confront my mind wanders. The situation is I might be picking a pretty fucking large fight. We will win, but we won’t all be coming home boys. I trust this team with my life, and they place their own lives in my hands, and the hands of my officers and senior-non commissioned officers. It’s a good trade. They are my brothers.

“Enemy forces. . . “Taliban. Evil bastards who have blown up wedding parties, slaughtered women and children and targeted those who oppose them for assassination. And that’s just in the four months that we have been deployed. Their vision of power and control is not congruent with any good version of life regardless of religion. They cannot be reasoned with and must be killed or driven away. Mixed in with them are those locals who will take up arms to fight against foreign forces they don’t trust and a faraway Government’s representatives who don’t understand them. We hope to make peace with them and avoid too much bloodshed if they don’t stand against us. They should be our friends. They can be.

“Friendly Forces. . . . . .” A glance to our US brothers. Their leaders are experienced, tough, resolute. Warriors. Their Battalion Commander, D.J. Sims, is one of the finest officers I will serve with. I’m happy to have them and their firepower along. They love fighting alongside the Aussie Diggers who they regard as deadly and efficient.

“Mission. . . . . . . ” Get rid of the evil bastards. Clear the valley. Bring my team home. Get home. Somewhere far away our families are oblivious to what we are about to do. It’s just ticked over to Christmas Day there. Who here will not get one more with their loved ones?

“Execution. . .” Lay it out. Bring to life the plan that has been developed in my head for months. Built out to its current state with the US Battalion headquarters staff. Polished, synchronised, revised, updated and still not worth much more than the paper I hold in my hand once the bullets fly. The Diggers need to know what they have to do. They know the why. They believe in the themselves, our team. I only hope they believe in the mission I am laying out before them.

I work my way through the SMEAC format. Everyone has a role to play. Talking about Admin and Logistics I lock eyes with Lahzy, my Quartermaster Lance Corporal, and speak to the vital role he will play in getting the right stores loaded at the right time. I think, but can’t be sure, that he mutters a quiet “Fuck me” as his responsibilities become clear. Believe in the team. Believe in the why.

Towards the back end of the orders group the words on the paper become unfamiliar. This is an old version of the orders. Somehow this old part has been caught in the updated version. I look at my Signals Captain, Raj, who had printed everything and fairly impolitely suggest that he has not quite got this right. He visibly shrinks a bit but really this is my fault, I should have checked it. No matter, once the fault is recognised I can give the rest out of the orders group by memory including the code words, control measure and frequencies. You have to know every part of the plan after all.

The formal orders group ends. Now I walk through the concept of operations again, walking the length and breadth of the map, pointing out the key features, expected enemy positions, calling out individual sections and soldiers where they will make a difference. The plan is taking shape in their minds. The soldiers of Combat Team – Charlie are beginning to see the fight to come spring to life in front of them.

I finish and look up. The soldiers are confident. There are no final questions. “Commanders and Platoon Sergeants, take charge. Get your copies of the corrected orders from the Command Post. Make sure you rehearse.” The soldiers break into their teams and start to talk through their part of the plan. Over the coming days they will come down to the model of the valley again and again to talk it through. It will become even more popular then the gym equipment as they rehearse and practice, talk through the ‘what ifs’ until they know it all back to front.

I walk outside a mixture of excited and drained and cast an eye skyward. It’s the night before Christmas after all. But no Santa or God appears here. . . . . as if they ever did. Back home in Australia my two boys will soon be waking up to presents and family in Canberra where they are visiting with my wife. I banish that thought away. My mission is here and I need the sleep that will soon be in short supply. Tonight the sky is quiet, it’s peaceful and I am thankful. The nights to follow will not be. The creatures are stirring.

#NAFT