Bullets! - T/P/U

BULLETS!
-- quick and dirty words of wisdom collected over the years --

T/P/U might be one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Army. The two extremes are pretty easy: (This is based on a rant by then-CPT R.L. Dewell)

T=Trained, which means you can do it letter-perfect every time, on demand. Load up the tanks, roll out, and conduct assembly area procedures with everything clicking and no steps missed. It's very tough, but you can get there, especially if you rehearse it enough.

U=Untrained, which means you haven't got clue one how to do it. An example of an Untrained platoon/task would be taking the nearest Army band and asking them to conduct assembly area procedures on a platoon of tanks. There's no way they're even going to get close, and that's with the manuals open and in front of them.

What, then, to make of "P"? P=Proficient, which should mean that you can execute the task reasonably well, although you may miss a step or two every once in a while. You may not get every critical or leader task letter-perfect, but you know what they are and you don't leave any out or forget to do them. There's a very [-----------------------wide-----------------------] range of P. You can have a lot of people that are Ps in a lot of tasks.

Unfortunately, the trend in the Army today is to throw "U"s around as some sort of motivational tool or punishment for a platoon that might not be just perfect. Let's be clear: if a tank platoon executes an Assembly Area mission, and their range cards aren't exactly right, and the hot loop takes some time to get set up and the LP/OP isn't in the best ground to cover a dismounted avenue of approach, that unit is not "Untrained." They know their tasks and they execute them. What they need is some refresher training on executing them perfectly every time.


your thoughts always welcome in the comments below!

By: Brant