I shamelessly cribbed this from "The Angry Staff Officer", Mac hooked me on this guy a while back so blame him. I like the way the author brings modern operations with a Star Wars flair, he does this to make the material understandable to the troops especially since the Star Wars influence is a part of the culture.
My fellow Imperial Officers and classmates,
I hope this communique finds you well,
I’ve enjoyed reading the updates from my classmates from Coruscant to
the Outer Rim. I apologize for being offline for the past few years. In
my last three years in Fleet Strike Force 2, the pace of action has
often prevented me from sitting down and writing a note to my friends.
It’s been interesting and filled with challenges. I know everyone
thought I was crazy to volunteer for this assignment, but as future
senior leaders, I can assure your subordinates that this is a capable
and fulfilling assignment.
Several of our classmates have sent me
notes over time asking what life is like in a “nerf herder assignment”
as a liaison officer to the Stormtrooper Corps. I wanted to share some
updated TTPs with our group as most of you have Stormtroopers and other
Army personnel under your command. I’ve witnessed various tactical
issues with our Stormtrooper and dismounted security forces, mostly not
their fault or a fault of Imperial doctrine. By and large, our troopers
are superior in training and capacity to Rebel forces and criminal
entities that I met in combat operations. As a Navy pilot and weapon
systems officer, in all honesty, I dreaded my assignment to ground
forces out of the Imperial Academy but with my class standing I didn’t
have many options. In this assignment, I found not only fulfillment in
the ability to lead our Emperor’s best men and women, but exceptional
opportunities for career advancement. Over operations in 20 different
systems with combined arms forces in multiple counter-insurgency
campaigns I’ve observed the following trends.
1. Rumored Poor Performance of
Stormtroopers: There have been lots of jokes floating around about
Stormtroopers not hitting the broad side of a Bantha. I can assure you
that the combat focused teams of Stormtroopers are professional and
deadly. The issue that revolves around poor marksmanship and battlefield
prowess is nested within the duality of missions for Imperial Security
forces. Long periods of security and policing functions or guard duty on
Imperial Vessels and installations lead to issues of combat
effectiveness. Much of Stormtrooper training occurs against drone or
robotic targets. Due to experiences from the Clone Wars, these training
targets are highly mobile and deadly but lack an issue that I’ve
observed in Stormtrooper engagements. All of the training and
conditioning at the academies fail to account for the issue of engaging
and killing fellow humans. I’ve seen less of an issue with engaging
non-humanoids but have seen a reluctance of human Stormtroopers to
engage fellow Humans…aliens don’t seem to cause as much of an issue.
Additionally, recurring training of small arms and combat shooting is
vital.
Luckily, within my Strike Force we
maintained duty rotations that allowed for increased combat ability with
a focus on search and destroy and responding to galactic flare ups.
Anyway, back to training, while most Troopers would rotate off of combat
training/campaigns to periods of guard duty or police operations before
being trained back up to full combat operations. Our group was able to
maintain a focus on recurring combat operations instead of
counter-insurgency. Despite the excellent training of our Stormtrooper
Corps, skills atrophy in certain environments and must be acknowledged.
Too often troopers are ad hoc grabbed from various duties to quick
deployment to combat operations; these additions to trained Stormtrooper
teams too often result in tactical mistake. Furthermore, Imperial Navy
or Stormtrooper corps officers bear a heavy burden of casualties and are
often not present for tactical fights resulting in a lack of command
and control during engagements.
2. Lack of resources for combat
training: As mentioned, due to assignment of Stormtroopers to menial
security duties, too often combat readiness atrophies as troops get
comfortable in assignments. The Rebels and other forces have taken
advantage of these lapses in readiness, attacking troopers patrolling
cantinas and in other assignments. In Strike Force 2, we were fortunate
to have multiple combined arms exercises on the Outer Rim prior to major
engagements. If Imperial Officers don’t divert resources to allow for
collective training, then various duties will take hold over combat
readiness of ground forces. In certain quiet sectors, troopers are not
engaged in individual task or collective task training ensuring combat
readiness. They may look the part with spit polished armor, but I assure
you that these troopers are not ready for engaging with hostile forces
in a recurring expeditionary manner. This is particularly evident in
poor performance of combined arms teams utilizing space and armored
support. If the first time you integrate TIE Fighter and AT-AT support
is in combat, chances are it’s not going to go well. With these crews
available within our fleets, it’s only through a lack of advocating for
resources that we don’t train with our other forces. We would routinely
“search” for rebel forces on less than inhabited worlds with a robust
task force to exercise these relationships. They might spend a lot of
time covered in grease, but a Naval officer can gain a lot of luck
through a bottle of Corellian whiskey and some time spent in their
maintenance bays.
3. There is a recurring trend in my note, one that you as mid level
officers in the Imperial Forces can help fix. There is a tendency to
view ground force and strike force assignments as less preferable to
ship staff, flight assignments, and ship engineering assignments. I
routinely see Naval officers who are inexperienced with the capacity of
Stormtrooper corps implementing and directing poor tactical utilization
of ground forces often due to hubris or arrogance. Due to a mindset that
focuses on polish over substance, I routinely saw other groups of
Stormtroopers led by Imperial officers in the wrong armor and camouflage
for a particular environment. They make about 6 variants and everyone
is trying to rock whites all the time. With all of the various equipment
modifications and intelligence on planetary conditions that we have
available, deploying with the equipment for the wrong planetary
environment is just inexcusable. I once saw a team land in a forest in
polished white armor while we were hanging out in the bush with our
reactive dark armor; thankfully no indigenous personnel made Bantha
fodder out of them. Our tendency towards equipping Stormtroopers with
lightweight weaponry that aids to guard duty and security patrolling,
fails to reach out and touch Rebels the way a proper laser rifle will.
The E-11 is great in close confines of a ship, but fails to work the way
an A280 would on-planet. Officers unfamiliar with operations on planet
too often dictate equipment based on their experiences in simulations at
the Academy or on-ship.
I’m hoping to spend the holiday back
home on Drall, but have to attend mandatory reintegration training at
the Academy before a period of leave. Found that after I’m done
cavorting -I mean studying – at Coruscant that I’m off to the Executor. I
know a few of you are out in the fleet, so hope to link up with a few
of you over a pint of Corellian ale in one of the messes in our Task
Force.
Hail the Empire,
Hale Dorgan
Junior Commander
Fleet Strike Force 2
Now that is funny! :-)
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