Today we're going to be going over how to properly create a task organization chart. When you brief your Operations Order (OPORD), the Task Org is one of the first things you will brief. Briefing your Task Org well can set a strong first impression, so it's really important to make it look nice, neat, and obviously, doctrinally correct. For the example in the video, we just use an infantry platoon as the base. Obviously the first step in depicting a task org is to draw the units in a line wire diagram.
If we are doing a Platoon Task Org, then the sub units will be squads. Remember to depict a platoon, you use three dots and for a squad, one dot. Some people like to go ahead and write out the naming conventions and everything, but I typically like to get all units laid out first before I do all that.
When you're drawing out a task organization, don't be lazy, be sure to use the correct colors. Friendly is blue, the enemy is red. So when you're making your task org, use blue, it's going to help it stand out and distinguish it from the enemy doctrinal template that you'll do later on during METT-TC and Enemy Analysis.
Once you have the line wire diagram complete, next step is naming conventions. The video shows you best, but in the past few years, doctrine changed on naming conventions, and the way people used to do it is no longer valid, so make sure you're doing it right!
So once you have your platoon and squad naming conventions straight, we're not done yet. We've got to go through and identify who the decisive operation is and who the shaping operations are. There are two ways to do that. So you write it out and you also graphically depict it. So let's say that first squad is the decisive operation for this mission. You will draw two chevrons above the dot on the squad, then you're going to want to write out (DO) next to the name of the squad.
All of the other squads will be Shaping Operations. You will draw one chevron above each squad, and then based off which operation priority they are, you'll label them SO1, SO2, etc.
Now once the Decisive Operations and Shaping Operations are laid out, now we've got to add in key leaders and key weapons systems. So typically if you're an infantry platoon, your key weapon systems are going to be two 240B machine guns, two Javelin missile launchers, and however many AT4 rocket launchers you platoon has.
Key weapons can be dispersed however the platoon leader and platoon sergeant see fit, but typically the M240Bs will go with weapons squad and AT4s with Assault and Security elements. Javelins are pretty METT-TC dependent but often will go with weapons squad.
At this point, you're done with your task organization! However, I typically depict which squads are part of the assault, support, and security elements. After that I write each squad's task and purpose below.