Today was the first day of our three day Command Post Exercise (CPX). This is pretty much the last thing that we have to do before validating prior to actual deployment. It is an exercise with how an operations center reacts and deals with missions and other daily tasks. They simulate a mission and interject with things that might happen during day-to-day operations, like people going home on emergency leave or equipment getting broken. It is really just a test to see how react and track the various pieces of information that are provided on a daily basis.
They tried to approximate the jobs we would have once we get in country, but for some reason, I was tasked to be the Battle Captain. This position is usually held by a Captain in a battalion TOC (Tactical Operations Center), or at least a very experienced NCO. Our primary Battle Captain, SFC Mozzicato, selected me to be his “assistant” because he knew I could handle the job which would allow him to roam around and help out all the other sections. This was a good thing because a lot of the other groups seemed really lost as to what they were supposed to be doing. Today was a good learning experience and it should only get better over the next two days. We do have some pretty bright people in the unit; some might just need to learn how to multitask a little better.
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