CR 7: Above the Line

That title dates me, I know. I'm not sure if Planning and Preparation is still Critical Requirement Number 7, or even if the Basic Officer Training Course still uses the CR assessment system. I only remember such a trivial detail myself because CR7 was the bane of my first leadership experience, and because my platoon WO swore he would beat planning and prep into me if it was the last thing he did.

But whatever you call it, LCol Omer Lavoie obviously got it squared away a long time ago.

"The posturing of our forces was very deliberate. The way we postured the forces was based on a high expectation of how we thought the enemy would react to the posture itself," said Lavoie, who crafted the plan while working beside Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, the battle group commander he replaced in the hours leading up to the fighting.

"They acted the way that we expected they would act and became decisively engaged and had insurmountable difficulties breaking contact with us."

NATO officials estimate the Taliban's strength in the south at about 1,000 fighters, which, if accurate, would mean nearly 10 per cent of its force was felled in the fighting that continued in "troughs and crests," according to Lavoie into the dark and early hours of Sunday morning.

Nice turn of phrase, that: "insurmountable difficulties breaking contact with us." CF units literally decimated the Taliban strength in the area, and suffered no casualties, according to the report.

Of course, that was precisely the commander's intent:

The fact there were no Canadian casualties had nothing to do with "luck at all" and everything to do with the rigorous planning that preceded the operation, Lavoie said.

"I planned that operation to the level of detail, not as if I was sending out a faceless, nameless soldier. I planned that operation to the same level of detail as if I was sending out my 17-year-old daughter or my brother who is also in the army," he said. "The result speaks for itself."

WO Pollack finally did get me up to snuff on CR7 - just barely - partly by having me repeat this mantra back to him until he felt I understood it: "A fair fight is one you didn't plan well enough."

LCol Lavoie and the soldiers of 1RCR proved that phrase is as true today as it ever was. Pro Patria, gents.