Time for NTC AAR comments from your Friendly Neighborhood Savage. I will continue to add to this thread throughout the day, so check back periodically!! These comments are from my perspective as an Infantry platoon FO, and are mostly applicable to company fires.

Comment #1: Make sure your FOs attend Fires rehearsals at least one level up. If you can't have them there (other taskings, space issues) do a full briefing later, including TTLODAC and ensure they have the full TLWS.

Comment #2: For the love of God, PLEASE ACTUALLY HAVE A PLAN. I spent 90% of the rotation asking what the Fires plan was, and getting bupkis. Maneuver guys didn't have it much better, they seemed to get any Opord info approximately 30 minutes before LD,

Or they'd get something and it would all change, whole new plan, 15 minutes before LD. I'm not sure where the fault lies for that, and I'm not sure how to fix it. I just know it makes it impossible to have any kind of effectiveness as a fire supporter when there isn't a plan.

Comment #3: maneuver types, make sure your AT systems actually work. It takes way too many rounds for me to have any kind of serious effects on armor with company mortars, and it takes way too long to loop in and mass enough Arty. If you want those tanks gone, it's on you.

Comment #4: if you know you're getting into an OP fight, or will need to have OPs for any length of time past 24 hours, consider consolidating your FOs to a Fire Support OP, and your Jav/AT teams on a different one if possible. It lowers your footprint and exposure,

Rather than having a whole platoon milling around the topographical crest of a hill, running major risks of seriously skylining themselves.

Comment #5: execution of fire support during the force-on-force exercises is incredibly difficult, especially if you don't have an OC literally right next to you.

Comment #6: PCCs AND PCIs!! If you plan to be nowhere near your vehicles for at least 48 hours, make sure everyone has warm sleep system with a bivvy when you know temps get down in the thirties and there's chances of rain. We almost had a dude get hypothermia.