SUMMARY: In October of 2017 Agents from the Merced Area Gang and Narcotic Enforcement Team (M.A.G.N.E.T) began an investigation into several Westside Norteno Gang members who operate in the Dos Palos and Los Banos area. While talking to a confidential informant (CI) it was determined that Pete GAONA is an active Norteno gang member operating a tattoo shop in Los Banos. As part of my investigation in this case I looked at GAONA’s Facebook account and saw that he had posted several photographs of what I believed to be firearms. In the comments of the photographs of the rifles GAONA talks about hunting small game and admits to using his rifle(s).…
Candidate Hills provided a thorough five paragraph order. Candidate Hills briefed with confidence, placing great emphasis on mission accomplishment, and briefing tasking statements with good detail and purpose, ensuring each member understood their purpose. However, Candidate Hills somehow became disoriented during the execution of movement to contact; he began walking in a 45 degree angle from his direction of attack and had to be guided back onto the correct azimuth by his fire team on at least two occasions before taking a casualty in the scenario. Candidate Hills' emphasis on mission accomplishment, and detailed tasking statements, played out well as he became the casualty requiring his fire team to quickly adapt to the newly developed…
9… Candidate Allison lacked command presence when she issued her order to her fire team. SNC was visibly uncomfortable with the five paragraph order and stumbled through the order. SNC did not brief the Admin and Logistics paragraph nor the Command and Signal paragraph. SNC made references that alluded to sections within the five paragraph order, but there was no connection as to the five paragraph order itself.…
Candidate Bills delivered a very thorough and in depth five paragraph order. SNC was very diligent in ensuring that all information and additional information was passed to the fire team, at one point causing SNC to stumble over his thought process, and pause for a length of time to recoup his thoughts before moving on. This visibly flustered SNC. SNC lacked a sense of urgency by taking up a substantial amount of time to deliver the order. Upon completing the brief SNC took more time to square himself away failing to give any guidance to the fire team resulting in zero productivity.…
Candidate Lockard touched on all elements of the five paragraph order, but he jumped around often. His tasking statements were detailed, but became long-winded and the brief ran long. Although detailed and long-winded, he wasn't confident with his own order. However, once the order to move was given and he began to execute his mission SNC quickly adapted giving an effective combination of verbal and non-verbal communications as the fire team approached the objective.…
8. SNC provided the bare minimum information required for his five paragraph order. He lacked in confidence and when he was not sure of his azimuth he guessed a number and gave it to his fire team member responsible for the navigation. This decision would have gotten his fire team lost, but his fire team member corrected him. SNC was able to generate a plan and make decisions but they were not confident and well thought out decisions.…
Candidate Marsenison delivered his brief with confidence and command presence. SNC did not address the Admin and Logistics or the Command and Signal paragraph. SNC began to individually task each member of his team and posted security. He then attempted to devise a scheme of maneuver and stopped mid-sentence by stating “we will figure that out later” showing that he did no fully have an initial plan before addressing his team. Once the team started, SNC showed he was confident giving orders to subordinates.…
Candidate Patton showed he had a limited understanding of the importance of the 5 paragraph order. SNC briefed all the paragraphs; however, he was unsure of how they all connected together within the order which caused the order to not make sense. SNC showed a lack of confidence by using many filler words like “um” and “uh”. His lack of confidence would be evident throughout the duration of the problem. He did give specific sectors of fire to the security elements.…
While briefing, SNC appeared nervous and was physically shaking during his order and much of the execution. SNC did not adapt well to the situation and did not execute in a timely manner. When his initial plan was clearly not working, he became fixated on continuing to attempt the same thing over and over and did not adjust his plan until it was too late to…
The content of the order made since but was stated out of order and missing some minor supporting elements. During the brief the SNC stumbled over words and stuttered because he was unsure or was developing his plan as he briefed. This showed a lack of preparation and initial plan. SNC lacked fluidity and confidence during his transition that slowed down forward movement. SNC did not establish a basic level of security.…
SNC established security prior to brief. SNC was unable to provide the accurate Azimuth in the allotted time. SNC provided a disjointed and incomplete order. SNC started with a vague Orientation. SNC confused the fire team leaders when he blended the information together and failing to state, "Concept of Operations, Scheme of Maneuver, and Tasks".…
Candidate Riffe displayed confidence during his brief but after several repeats or stumbles, it became apparent he was not familiar with the order. His confidence did not transition to the execution phase. The execution paragraph was poorly organized. Information that was coordinating instructions was briefed as part of the scheme of manuever. His tasks lacked detail and provided minimal guidance.…
Candidate Albright demonstrated he had no understanding of how to brief a five paragraph order. SNC explained the basic aspects of the order but did not state the Command and Signal paragraph. SNC was not very detailed with his scheme of maneuver and in turn his team was confused as to what the initial plan was. SNC was indecisive from the beginning which caused his team to lose confidence in him. As they approached points of friction, SNC allowed the rest of the team to make the decisions.…
SNC did not post security for his brief. He spoke loudly and assertively, and went through the skeleton of the five paragraph order. He provided a good detailed description of the enemy situation. However, he did not brief an effective initial plan, but rather it sounded more like a rewording of the mission statement.…
SNC delivered the five paragraph order out of sequence but did retain the attention of his team while briefing. SNC did not task his team members because he did not have an initial plan other than posting security. As SNC approached the obstacle he asked for suggestions from the team and they began to engage the obstacle as the team developed a plan. SNC did communicate with the team but not direct in any manner. SNC used words such as "Do you think we," "If you can could you" and “If you want to."…