Summary of Committee Meetings and Site Visits
The Committee on Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders was first convened in August 2010. Over a period of 6 months, the committee held numerous meetings and conducted site visits both to gather input from the relevant communities and then to discuss the committee’s findings and recommendations. The meetings consisted of a combination of presentations from outside experts and discussion and debate among the committee. A summary of the committee’s meetings and site visits is provided below:
• August 5-6, 2010, in Washington, D.C. First full committee meeting. Briefings on enhanced company operations and small unit decision making from the Marine Corps Combat Development Command (MCCDC); Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, MCCDC; Training and Education Command (TECOM), MCCDC; and the Office of Naval Research, Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare and Combating Terrorism Science and Technology Department (ONR Code 30).
• September 27-28, 2010, in Washington, D.C. Second full committee meeting. Briefings on small unit decision making from U.S. Army Special Forces, Special Operations Command; Training and Doctrine Command, U.S. Army; and Ground Training Division, TECOM, MCCDC. Additionally, the committee hosted a panel of small unit leaders (i.e., Marine Corps captains) from the Basic School to hear their personal experiences and recommendations and a panel of government and industry scientists from the following organizations: Office of Naval Research; the Center for Advanced Operational and Culture Learning, TECOM, MCCDC; NSI, Inc.; and Personal Decisions Research Institutes.
• October 6-7, 2010, in Camp Pendleton, California. Site visit and small group data-gathering session. Briefings on the Future Immersive Training Environment, Joint Capability Technology Demonstration.
• November 15-16, 2010, in Washington, D.C. Third full committee meeting. Briefings on decision-support systems, expert performance, and training in adaptive thinking from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Naval Research Laboratory, Army Research Laboratory, Air Force Research Laboratory, Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, and Florida State University.
• December 7-8, 2010, in Quantico, Virginia. Site visit and small group data-gathering session. Committee interviews with Marine Corps small unit leaders.
• December 9-10, 2010, in Washington, D.C. Fourth full committee meeting. Committee deliberations and report drafting.
• January 10-14, 2011, in Irvine, California. Fifth full committee meeting. Committee deliberations and report drafting.
