Staff Responsibility to Help the Commander Develop his Vision

This monograph explores how the military battle staff helps the commander develop his vision. The researcher examined how the staff provides information to the commander using the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP). The study then shows how the commander visualizes the battlefield using criteria of know the enemy, know the terrain, know yourself, and see the future. The Battle of the Black Sea, Mogadishu Somalia October 3rd 1993, is used as a Case Study to determine what was the common shared understanding of the commander and staff. The monograph concludes that the commander initializes a common understanding by giving the staff the problem before mission analysis. The staff then is challenged to provide solutions to the commander's problem using an integrated staff system. The staff works as a system to filter information through a set of criteria to discover strengths and weaknesses of both the enemy and friendly units. Those strengths and weaknesses are then synthesized using a reverse battlefield operating system technique to provide the commander a picture of every feasible solution to the problem. Those feasible solutions then allow the commander to apply his experience to develop his vision for success.