Duty Position and 36 ID Mission

After several months or so of shuffling and transitioning and wondering what exactly my job description is in the 36 ID, I have been firmly installed as the DSTB S2.

For those of you who think that looks like alphabet soup, let me break it down a bit. The Division Special Troops Battalion (DSTB) has the mission of supporting everything the 36 ID Staff does. For example, while each portion of the Division Staff is task organized into Sections, for example, the G3 or the Division Operations Section, that same section has no organic transportation, supply, communication, or maintenance assets. That Staff Section would go to their respective Company Headquarters within the Special Troops Battalion for their needs in these areas.

For each soldier in the Staff (currently 750 deploying) to get supplied, paid, housed, promoted, equipped and otherwise supported, it takes a Company and Battalion Headquarters Staff to execute this support. This is where my new duty position comes in.

A regular Battalion has 3-5 constituent companies task organized for different functions. The DSTB has 5 companies, 3 of which are task organized and two of which are mainly headquarters for Division Staff Sections. These companies are under a Battalion Staff, with a Lieutenant Colonel and Command Sergeant Major at the helm. The Commander has an Executive Officer, a Major who manages his Battalion Staff.

On this Staff, I am the Intelligence Officer, or S2. I provide the Battalion Commander with all the intelligence and Physical and Personnel Security Support he needs to run our Special Troops Battalion.

Day to Day at the DSTB, I manage Security Clearances, SIPR (Classified Internet) Account Requests, Information Assurance Training, and our Staff's Websites and Access Roles. I Issue Facility Access Badges and ensure all classified material is stored and handled properly.

Currently, my staff section consists of me, myself and I. According to our unit roster, I will gain a Senior NCO and Intel Analyst for the mobilization.

My schedule prior to this deployment consists of 20 days or so of Pre-Mobilization Training, recently pushed up to next week, and a big Division Staff Wargame exercise in August.

We have our Division Mobilization Ceremony on the weekend of 25 September and will be moving to Ft. Lewis, WA for our final train-up prior to deployment. From Ft. Lewis, after a 4 day pass around Thanksgiving (during which we plan to do Caleb's baby dedication) we will get on a plane bound for Kuait enroute to southern Iraq in early December.

Our Division will be responsible for running Southern Iraq as US Forces drawdown and handover authority to the Government of Iraq and Iraqi Security Forces completely. The only US presence currently planned to replace the 36 ID is the US State Department.