Page 42 - Cormorant 2019

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CJEX Rome
Wg Cdr Elaine Rutland
IN EARLY MAY, 20 intrepid ACSC students deployed to the ‘Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa’ in Rome to undertake a combined joint planning
exercise with students from our sister colleges in Spain, Germany and Italy. The Italians gave us an outstanding welcome with
canapes, prosecco and aperol spritz. It became evident early on that it was highly likely that the Rome contingent would be the ‘winning CJEX’!
Individual component briefs followed first night ‘acclimatisation’ before the students started planning operations in the fictional region surrounding Molowelo in earnest. A free weekend gave ample opportunity for sightseeing, DRP writing (for those
of us who work best under pressure), and sampling
the local culture with a behind the scenes visit to the Vatican and St Peter’s Basilica.
Monday brought the team back to operational planning and the vital opportunity to get to know students from other divisions, form relationships with our fellow international students, breach the language barrier and better understand different European planning approaches. We also had to get to grips with the NATO COPD as opposed to the OLPP that we were more used to using.
Through the week we understood the situation, analysed the mission and developed COAs in our multi-national JOPGs. Those Molowelans wouldn’t stand a chance, mainly due to the German efficiency of being able to take inspiration from previous products (from 2018, 17 and 16) and smash them together to produce a wholly innovative and unique operational design framework.
The final COA briefs to the Italian General afforded the opportunity to develop our individual briefing styles, and brought out some interesting and thought provoking points which assisted the team
in deepening their knowledge, especially in strategic details such as the specific differences between Role 2 and Role 2+ hospitals.
The final reception demonstrated the benefit of developing interoperability with our European colleagues as the multi-national relationships were developed long into the night. The final revelation came when the photo of the centre-piece spit
roast buffet was on the Bored Cormorant Twitter feed within seconds of us arriving; leading to the conclusion that the Bored Cormorant may well have been amongst us!