Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin - Federation of American ...

trAInInG tHE COrPs
Theater and National level TECHINT enterprise. The
WID consists of the Detachment Commander (0-3)
and the Detachment NCOIC (E-7).
WITs normally consist of five enlisted personnel.
Specific military occupational specialties (MOSs)
may vary between teams but in general have consisted
of a combination of the following:
Ê The Team Leader is historically a qualified explosive
ordnance disposal (EOD) technician. In
addition to being the Team Leader, he or she
functions as the liaison between the BCT commander
and staff and the WITs higher headquarters.
The Team Leader will also coordinate
with EOD units that provide support in their local
AO.
Ê The senior and junior analysts are Military
Intelligence personnel from the U.S. Army, Air
Force, or Navy. Typically the senior analyst is an
E-5 or E-6 and the junior analyst any rank below
that of the senior analyst. There is no specific
Intelligence discipline required in order to
be assigned to a team. However, analysts with
strong briefing skills and multi-discipline experience
are preferred and traditionally do better
within the teams.
Ê A combat cameraman or photographer’s mate
brings an in-depth knowledge of shot composition,
mid-level photography expertise, and some
limited public affairs experience to the team.
Ê An Army Military Police Investigator, Air Force
Office of Special Investigations Agent, or a Navy
Master at Arms serves as the team’s law enforcement
expert. They understand crime scene investigation,
evidence preservation, evidentiary
rules and procedures to a greater degree, and
can coordinate with other investigative agencies
when necessary or beneficial to accomplishing
the mission.
Ê The final team member is the combat arms representative.
He contributes to the team by providing
expert tactical analysis of incident sites.
The combat arms advisor determines how the
incident was set up and or how the attack was
executed from a tactical point of view, records
any changes to enemy tactics, techniques, and
procedures (TTPs), and makes recommendations
on how to counteract any new enemy TTPs.
In order for the team to accomplish its mission,
every member is cross trained in each individual
position. Because every team member has a basic
knowledge and proficiency in each skill, the Team
Leader is able to divide the team up when necessary.
Team members are expected to train each other on
their unique skill set throughout their tour of duty.
Much of this training occurs in the forward operating
base between missions. Over the last two years,
many of the teams in theater have been required to
conduct split operations in order to support units
within their BCT that are not co-located. Having an
individual team member who can conduct each portion
of a successful WIT operation is a definite advantage
to the supported unit.
The Future of Weapons Intelligence
In the summer of 2008, the Department of Defense
announced that Weapons Intelligence would become
an enduring capability, with DA as the Service
proponent. While it’s clear that having teams with
this unique skill set is critical to winning any COIN
fight, there are several issues that still have to be
worked out.
First, WITs don’t technically exist on any unit’s organizational
authorization documents. As a result,
scheduling Soldiers for training, and tracking utilization
of the Soldiers trained and equipped to perform
as a WIT is challenging, to say the least. Plans
are underway to create a WIT force structure requirement
at the BCT level which would authorize units
to train Soldiers to fill those positions. Once this requirement
is established, USAIC will be prepared to
conduct periodic classes throughout the year to meet
the requirement for WIT trained Soldiers.
Over the last two years, requests from deploying
units to train their Soldiers have been tremendous.
54 Military Intelligence