The View from the Other Side: How the OPFOR Fights, Adapts, and Makes the Entire Force Better. A conversation with with/ LTC Glenn Burkey, OPFOR CDR JPMRC 26-02 (Alaska):

Yeah.

When, what was it that was, you know, you, you were doing a really good job of communicating back and forth.

What was it that, that you were worried about? Was it mobility? Was it your ability to move from one side of the battlefield to the other, to reinforce in a certain area? What were you spending most of your time kind of thinking about because that kind of drives your information requirements, right? Those become your PIRs as, as even as a, any type of unit.

Yes, sir.

So I think, you know, initially, the way we were set up is I assessed that, you know, 111's main effort was on the central corridor that ran from west to east.

Yeah.

northern corridor the northern route you know i i you know i figured that was probably just to stretch me yeah but was not likely their their their main effort and then i also knew that i had a very large vulnerability to the south and there was a there's the the road that runs essentially south southwest was my was my g-lock for all my sustainment I didn't have the combat power to cover all three of those.

And so, you know, the initial fight, as things started to develop, I started to become suspicious that we potentially were bypassed to the south.

And we were able to get some ISR up and identify some tracks that was a pretty strong indicator that we were, in fact, bypassed.

And then eventually, you know, my S2 was able to kind of work with the assets that we had available to confirm that we did have, you know, a company from the third RCR in that was maneuvering on that southern G lock.

And so we were able to essentially, you know, retask a rifle company to go down there and establish a defensive position.

But I think just in regards to, you know, the things that I think about whenever whenever I have to move a company from point A to point B or retask a company for whatever reason, is I start looking at, you know, how can I do this and how can I do it quickly? And then what time is it? So you always got to set, you always got to account for the weather.

If I'm asking, you know, an infantry company to break down their 10-man tents and it's, you know, negative 20, negative 30 degrees, that is an inherently more risky mission.

It increases the risk for potential cold weather injuries.

And so there's a vulnerability there that you've got to account for.

But I think that if you're able to project those requirements ahead of time, you can do it at a time that's more opportune and reduces the risk.

And so generally, like, you know, risk was like one of those things that was always in the back of my head is like, how can I...

How can I do or maneuver where I need to go but do it in a way that's safe and then limits the hardship and risk to the paratroopers?

Yeah.

Talk more about the risk to the paratroopers and why in the Arctic that's so much higher, you know, a consideration, especially if the mission is more than two or three days long.

Sure.

So, I mean, the reality of it is, you know, you've got a number of threats in front of you.

You've got the enemy, you've got the weather, and you've got the terrain.

The terrain here in the Yukon terrain area, it is unforgiving, especially when there's two to three feet of snow.

It is very hard to maneuver in.