Four Weeks, Twelve Hours a Week, and Two METL Tasks
You are SSG Nakamura, platoon sergeant of a 32-Soldier platoon. The company commander gives you four weeks and 12 available training hours per week before an external evaluation on two METL tasks: "Conduct a squad attack" and "Establish a hasty defense." The only lane availability is Tuesday, 0800-1200. Two Soldiers are flagged and non-deployable, three are on profile (one no lifting over 20 pounds, one no ruck marching), and the record ACFT is scheduled for week 3. Your last internal evaluation found 6 of 8 squads failed to emplace fighting positions within 40 minutes, and 3 of 8 squad leaders could not issue a fragmentary order without a template.
1. Build the training plan using the 8-step training model. Where do you spend the Tuesday lane time, and why?
Read the worked answer
The 8 steps: plan, train the trainers, recon the site, issue the order, rehearse, execute, evaluate, retrain. Most platoons skip steps 2, 3, 5, and 8 - which is exactly why 3 of 8 squad leaders can't issue a FRAGO.
Diagnosis first. The failures are not effort failures: six of eight squads miss a 40-minute emplacement time, and three squad leaders cannot write an order. Those are two different problems with two different fixes.
Where Tuesday goes: the lane is the scarce, non-substitutable resource. Spend it on the squad attack - maneuver, live/blank integration, and the decision-making under noise that cannot be replicated in a parking lot. Run it twice, with the second iteration after retraining, so the lane buys a correction, not just a repetition.
What does not need a lane: emplacing fighting positions requires sandbags, marking tape, and a stopwatch behind the barracks. Standardize a checklist with a T&EO, put an evaluator with each squad, enforce the 40-minute standard, and retrain on the spot when it slips.
Sequencing: week 1 - train the trainers (squad leaders write FRAGOs without a template, repeatedly, to a time standard) and validate the position checklist. Weeks 2-3 - squad-level repetitions and evaluations with the lane. Week 4 - full external-evaluation rehearsal, squad leaders as primary evaluators of each other.
2. Two Soldiers are flagged and three are on profile. How do you handle them inside the training plan?
Read the worked answer
A flag is not a training restriction. Under AR 600-8-2 a flag suspends favorable actions - promotions, some schools, some awards. It does not remove a Soldier from the formation, from duty, or from training. A flagged Soldier who is left out of training becomes a future readiness problem on top of a current administrative one.
A profile is a medical limitation, not an excuse. Read the specific profile, do not exceed it, and then find the work:
- No lifting over 20 pounds: RTO, evaluator, OPFOR, ammunition handler within limits, planning cell.
- No ruck marching: dismounted tactical movement without a ruck, weapons handling, range safety, driving, casualty play.
Keep them in the formation. Use them as assistant instructors and evaluators - a Soldier who cannot perform a task can still grade it against a T&EO, and grading it will teach him the standard.
Escalate the real question to the commander: which METL tasks can a profiled Soldier still be evaluated on, and does the profile make him non-deployable. That is a commander's call. Lowering the standard so a profiled Soldier can pass is not a call you are authorized to make.
3. The record ACFT falls in week 3 and the external evaluation in week 4. What is your readiness and risk plan, and what do you do with Soldiers who fail?
Read the worked answer
Reverse-plan the calendar. Hard, load-bearing field work early in each week; taper into the ACFT - no heavy ruck or long-distance work in the 48 hours before it. Do not spend the ACFT week's training hours on the ACFT; it is a two-hour event, and the evaluation is seven days away.
Risk management, not a risk form:
- Heat or cold category checked the morning of every event, and a hydration and work-rest plan briefed.
- Sleep protected in the 48 hours before the ACFT.
- Vehicle movement and driver fatigue on the Tuesday lane.
- A medic and a casualty evacuation plan on site, every time.
- Profiles reviewed before each event, not once at the start.
- Complete the risk assessment, then supervise the controls - the assessment is worthless if the brief never reaches the lowest Soldier.
When a Soldier fails the ACFT: a failure is a readiness problem to fix, not a character flaw to punish. Counsel the same day, start remedial training with a re-test date, and verify the administrative consequences under AR 600-8-2 (a record ACFT failure affects favorable actions - confirm the current specifics before you tell the Soldier anything). Keep the failure separate from the evaluation in your mind and in your calendar: the platoon still has to be evaluated next week, and the Soldier can still be in the formation.