Tactics Crossing a Linear Danger Area LDA and Open Danger Area ODA — Transcript

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1. 0:07hi
2. 0:08captain justin deleon here from the
3. 0:09university of iowa
4. 0:11apms here at iowa and also the ms3
5. 0:14instructor today what we're going to
6. 0:16talk about is
7. 0:17linear danger areas and open danger
8. 0:19areas
9. 0:20also known as ldas and odas we're going
10. 0:23to talk about specific ways to cross
11. 0:24them or bypass them
12. 0:26according to omnidoctrine so first of
13. 0:29all we have atp as references we have
14. 0:31atp
15. 0:323-21.8 infantry platoon and squad
16. 0:35and then we also have the ranger
17. 0:37handbook tc3
18. 0:4021.76 and those are what we're going to
19. 0:43use today so
20. 0:45first of all what is an lda so linder
21. 0:48danger area is something that is
22. 0:49linear or extends over a length of
23. 0:52distance
24. 0:53all right as anything that the platoon
25. 0:55leader decides that
26. 0:56gives the enemy a potential or an
27. 0:59advantage to observe
28. 1:01from the elements or fire upon from the
29. 1:03elements and if we look at
30. 1:04a row or a trail or like a fire break
31. 1:08something that has length and distance
32. 1:10that you can see down it
33. 1:12is usually what designates a linear
34. 1:13danger area so road's a great example
35. 1:15where
36. 1:16looking this way if i'm looking across
37. 1:18the road this way i can see what you
38. 1:19know
39. 1:20five to ten meters where however long
40. 1:22the road is but if i have someone
41. 1:24on this road looking down this direction
42. 1:27they can see quite a long ways um you
43. 1:30know obviously they can see a couple
44. 1:31hundred meters but let's say this is
45. 1:33we're on some type of elevated terrain
46. 1:35here looking that way i might be able to
47. 1:36see up to a mile
48. 1:38so it's a very very dangerous thing
49. 1:40across ldas
50. 1:42we don't want to cross ldas whenever
51. 1:44possible if possible we want to bypass
52. 1:46but sometimes
53. 1:47uh you know with the mission parameters
54. 1:49and maybe the timeline parameters
55. 1:51we have to cross ldas that's the way it
56. 1:53goes so what we got to do though is we
57. 1:55want to make sure that we do this as
58. 1:56safely and securely as possible
59. 1:58to limit our risk and mitigate that risk
60. 2:01as we cross
61. 2:02and we're open to observation also open
62. 2:04to some type of machine gun fire
63. 2:06anything that's going to infiltrate fire
64. 2:07down that
65. 2:08um that danger area so
66. 2:11the doctrinal way there's one doctrinal
67. 2:13way that's across an lda
68. 2:16according to the ranger handbook all
69. 2:17right and that's called let's go through
70. 2:19that so
71. 2:19what it looks like is we come up here we
72. 2:22are in our platoon column
73. 2:24uh we have our lead squad our center
74. 2:26squad our rear squad
75. 2:27we also have our continued headquarter
76. 2:29headquarters element with the machine
77. 2:30gun team
78. 2:31we also got a platoon sergeant in his
79. 2:34headquarters element with his machine
80. 2:35gun team in the center there
81. 2:37so as we travel along we identify that
82. 2:39we're at lda
83. 2:41point man alpha team leader here from
84. 2:43the security squad
85. 2:45calls a short haul calls a halt his
86. 2:47squad leader moves up
87. 2:48and also the platoon leaders should move
88. 2:50up and they're going to identify that
89. 2:52yes they are an lda
90. 2:54what we try not to do is we don't want
91. 2:56our alpha team leader just to identify
92. 2:58the lda
93. 2:58and then immediately send back the
94. 3:00signal and get things in motion
95. 3:01that can be efficient however it's much
96. 3:04more valuable and much more efficient if
97. 3:06the pl goes up
98. 3:08and does it himself and identifies
99. 3:09because sometimes the pl
100. 3:12might decide hey i don't want to cross
101. 3:14at this point i want to cross 100 meters
102. 3:16down
103. 3:17or whatever so what we don't want to do
104. 3:19is set the crossing
105. 3:21in motion without the pl identifying and
106. 3:24validating it yes this is the lda
107. 3:26one and two this is where i want to
108. 3:28cross it so once the pl moves forward
109. 3:31and confirms that yes this is the lda
110. 3:33and that's we want to cross it
111. 3:34he's going to send back that signal and
112. 3:36then the motions for crossing are going
113. 3:38to begin
114. 3:39so first of all the main thing that we
115. 3:40need that's going to happen is
116. 3:42this rear squad is responsible for
117. 3:44establishing near side security
118. 3:47on the road again near side is the side
119. 3:49close to us
120. 3:50far side will be the side furthest away
121. 3:52from us
122. 3:53so that rear squad is responsible and
123. 3:55typically it just looks like something
124. 3:56like the bravo team going up
125. 3:58so we've got at least two soldiers
126. 4:02from the rear moving up and pulling
127. 4:04nearside security to the left
128. 4:06and we have two other soldiers from the
129. 4:09rear squad
130. 4:10moving up and pulling the rear side
131. 4:12security to the right
132. 4:15once security is in place now
133. 4:18we can at least cross the road with some
134. 4:20risk mitigator that if we take fire
135. 4:22along this route we have people that can
136. 4:24fire back
137. 4:25and hopefully suppress any enemy fires
138. 4:27coming our direct fires
139. 4:30now what we want to do is the reason why
140. 4:32this is probably the best method
141. 4:34is because it's a lot more secure and
142. 4:36the way we ensure that it is more secure
143. 4:38is this forward team the point team is
144. 4:41going to now
145. 4:42move across the lda
146. 4:45there's different ways they can do it
147. 4:48you can go in buddy team rushes where
148. 4:50two men run across the other two men
149. 4:51then run across or
150. 4:53you can move in that tight wedge so
151. 4:55either way
152. 4:56anyways let's say they move this tight
153. 4:58wedge and they get across
154. 5:02so this alpha team has now moved across
155. 5:05the lda
156. 5:07the remainder of the platoon stays in
157. 5:10their platoon column and really they're
158. 5:11establishing
159. 5:12security in a cigar shape-like fashion
160. 5:16so once this team goes across they're
161. 5:17going to recon the far
162. 5:19side of the lba and they're going to be
163. 5:21recony for two main things
164. 5:23one they're recon inside obviously
165. 5:25identify that there's no enemy in the
166. 5:26area
167. 5:28a great way to do that and a great way
168. 5:30to confirm is they're going to move out
169. 5:32a safe distance from the road and get
170. 5:34into seals hall
171. 5:35so they're going to move out conduct the
172. 5:37seals hall stop look
173. 5:38listen smell make sure there's no one in
174. 5:40the area make sure they
175. 5:41have no civilians in the area make sure
176. 5:43there's nothing that can compromise
177. 5:45their mission
178. 5:46once that seals halt is complete they're
179. 5:48going to continue to cut their
180. 5:49reconnaissance
181. 5:50and the second thing that they got to
182. 5:51decide and figure out
183. 5:53is that hey is there enough space for
184. 5:56this platoon column to fit
185. 5:58on the other side of the lda well we
186. 5:59don't want it what we don't want is
187. 6:01to start crossing and all of a sudden we
188. 6:03find out 100 meters later
189. 6:05we run into a large open age area or run
190. 6:07into a town or run to some buildings
191. 6:09whatever it may be we run into something
192. 6:12that's not going to allow the entire
193. 6:13platoon to fit
194. 6:14so they got to go out read con and move
195. 6:17out
196. 6:17and identify yep the platoon can fit
197. 6:20here
198. 6:21so once they've done that once they've
199. 6:23done their seals haul and confirmed
200. 6:24there's no enemy in the area
201. 6:26and they confirm that the whole platoon
202. 6:28can move across the lda
203. 6:30and occupy safely that alpha team leader
204. 6:34is going to move back
205. 6:40and give the signal here that hey yes
206. 6:42we're good to cross
207. 6:43all right ranger handbook actually says
208. 6:45it can be a thumbs up all right but it
209. 6:47has to be some type of method
210. 6:49where they can visually tell each other
211. 6:51yep we're good to cross
212. 6:52the platoon can fit i at night maybe it
213. 6:55looks like an
214. 6:55ir kent light or actual chem light
215. 6:57whatever you want to use
216. 6:59we got to get that signal back so once
217. 7:00that alpha team leader signals back to
218. 7:02this squad leader right here the
219. 7:03security squad leader says yep
220. 7:05we're good to cross squad uh confirms
221. 7:08with the pl
222. 7:09and then we begin to cross at this time
223. 7:12so the squad leader then moves across
224. 7:14with his bravo team
225. 7:20they get across and now they begin
226. 7:23moving
227. 7:24they continue to slowly move all right
228. 7:27again
229. 7:28their movement now is probably at a
230. 7:29crawl because they got to make sure they
231. 7:31give
232. 7:32space and time for these guys the rest
233. 7:34of the platoon to get across the
234. 7:36lda but they continue to move
235. 7:39the pl his headquarters element gets
236. 7:41across and then after that
237. 7:43team by team by team just to continues
238. 7:45to get across the lda
239. 7:47all right so these guys have all moved
240. 7:50across let's say
241. 7:53the final team because they're gone
242. 7:56because they're on the edges pulling
243. 7:57security
244. 7:59the final team moves across
245. 8:04and pulls far side security so that
246. 8:07these
247. 8:07guys can move in
248. 8:11and they can all back pick up pick back
249. 8:12up and go across
250. 8:14all right we got to make sure we get
251. 8:16those last man and remember
252. 8:17the guy that's probably watching to make
253. 8:19sure we get these last two men on the
254. 8:20near side security
255. 8:21across the ova while these guys pull far
256. 8:24side security
257. 8:25is that platoon sergeant he's insuring
258. 8:27them all right so that is the doctrinal
259. 8:29way
260. 8:30to cross the lda we get that nearside
261. 8:32security
262. 8:33we conduct that recon to ensure there's
263. 8:35no ending in the area
264. 8:36and to ensure that the whole platoon can
265. 8:38fit and then the whole platoon begins to
266. 8:40move across either my buddy's team
267. 8:41or by team okay
268. 8:45that is the doctrinal way to cross an
269. 8:48lba that is the recommended way
270. 8:50especially if you're moving across
271. 8:52some type of hard hard ball surface or
272. 8:54some kind of a major lda
273. 8:56now sometimes you might come into
274. 8:58something like a trail something that
275. 9:00yes it is an lba but you're not as
276. 9:02concerned about it
277. 9:03and so there are some other ways that we
278. 9:04have come up with to cross ldas
279. 9:07that are common now again i'm going to
280. 9:09point out that these are more sop driven
281. 9:12and they are not technically doctrinal
282. 9:14but they do work
283. 9:15all right so one is scrolling the road
284. 9:18which i
285. 9:18which a lot of you are probably cringing
286. 9:20might be saying that but that is a
287. 9:22method
288. 9:22right um the method is is that we
289. 9:25basically are in a file
290. 9:27so i'm not going to draw out the entire
291. 9:28platoon but basically we have a list of
292. 9:31a line of soldiers in file obviously
293. 9:33they're at appropriate spacing
294. 9:35but they're going to just move and bulb
295. 9:38themselves as they go out
296. 9:39go around here so first guy is going to
297. 9:42come up and pull on the other side
298. 9:43security to the left
299. 9:45so he's going to go away
300. 9:49second one is going to pass him up go to
301. 9:51the far side
302. 9:52and pull security to the right and now
303. 9:55we technically have security looking
304. 9:57to the left and to the right and now as
305. 10:00we do this we're going to bump
306. 10:02what i mean by that is this guy's going
307. 10:03to physically move down
308. 10:05and bump him he's going to take his
309. 10:07position
310. 10:08this one that was on the near side
311. 10:10security he is now going to move to far
312. 10:12side security
313. 10:13and take that and bump this first guy
314. 10:16start moving and now we just keep
315. 10:19bumping
316. 10:20they bump and keep moving
317. 10:27and now we just start moving across the
318. 10:29lda alright
319. 10:30again this is a lot less secure one
320. 10:34our security is probably posturing
321. 10:35closer together because we have limited
322. 10:37observation down the road
323. 10:39two we're bumping pretty quickly it's a
324. 10:42quicker way to get across the road
325. 10:44so these guys that are pulling security
326. 10:46don't have a lot of time to actually
327. 10:47look down
328. 10:48that lda and gather their you know
329. 10:51gather their senses and gather their
330. 10:52targets and
331. 10:53uh gather some reference points uh
332. 10:56because they're continually bumping
333. 10:57and then lastly we don't on this we're
334. 10:59not connecting a recon on the far side
335. 11:01of the lda
336. 11:02so we don't know for sure there's no
337. 11:04enemy over there we also don't know for
338. 11:06sure that the platoon will fit
339. 11:08so again it is an expedited version and
340. 11:10we give up some security
341. 11:12with this but it is potentially very
342. 11:15quick
343. 11:16and it's also very very quick to do this
344. 11:17at the squad level
345. 11:20all right so last week i'm going to
346. 11:21teach there's obviously probably several
347. 11:23more ways to do this the way that we do
348. 11:26also
349. 11:27teaches a potential method this is a
350. 11:29method that
351. 11:30i personally learned in major school um
352. 11:32it i'm calling it the modify scroll
353. 11:35so the modify scroll so again what we're
354. 11:37going to do is we're going to draw out
355. 11:39a bearing for one second we're going to
356. 11:40draw out on our
357. 11:42platoon here
358. 12:02all right so we got let's get in column
359. 12:03we got our lead squad our center squad
360. 12:05our rear squad pl psg and machine gun
361. 12:07teams okay what this looks like
362. 12:10is similar there is bumping involved as
363. 12:13well
364. 12:13but it's less there's less of it so what
365. 12:15it looks like is
366. 12:17everyone that's pulling security on the
367. 12:19road is going to be an automatic rifle
368. 12:20and that's going to stay there so it's
369. 12:22basically the
370. 12:24way i like to think of it is as if i'm
371. 12:26in a road march
372. 12:27and i have my road march uh my road
373. 12:29guards on the sides of the road
374. 12:31you know telling cars to halt or
375. 12:33whatever it's a similar
376. 12:34similar mentality but except it's my
377. 12:37unmatched rifle
378. 12:38so when i do the same same thing i
379. 12:41identify as an lda
380. 12:42i uh have the squadron move up i have
381. 12:44the pl move up they confirm
382. 12:46and they say yeah we're going to do an
383. 12:47lda crossing but we're going to do a
384. 12:48modified scroll
385. 12:50and so what it looks like is when we
386. 12:52call it we have our automatic rifle to
387. 12:54move forward
388. 12:54so here's this ar let's let's mark all
389. 12:58our ars
390. 13:00again our automatic rifleman are our 249
391. 13:03solid arms
392. 13:09okay so we have these two imac riflemen
393. 13:15start pulling security down the road
394. 13:19and while these automatic rifling from
395. 13:21the lead squad are looking down the road
396. 13:23on either side
397. 13:24this squad whether it's in buddy teams
398. 13:27or it's in time modified wedge
399. 13:29they're crossing the road so now as this
400. 13:32squad
401. 13:32gets across the road it just continues
402. 13:35to move
403. 13:43and once that squad is through the next
404. 13:46squad's automatic rifleman
405. 13:49move up and bump these guys off
406. 13:58so then these automatic rifles pick up
407. 14:00and cross
408. 14:01and get back in formation
409. 14:04and now the second squad's automatic are
410. 14:06pulling for it
411. 14:08as it crosses and then again at the end
412. 14:11the third ars do the same thing
413. 14:14and the whole platoon continues to move
414. 14:17forward
415. 14:18beyond that right from just showing
416. 14:19information so i hope that wasn't too
417. 14:21confusing to understand
418. 14:22but basically those automatic riflemen
419. 14:24are the ones pulling security for their
420. 14:25squad
421. 14:26and the squad that's after them they're
422. 14:28they're automatically from the phone
423. 14:30with them
424. 14:30as we continue to move all right again
425. 14:33this
426. 14:34is a little bit more secure because i
427. 14:35like the security being further out
428. 14:37in the school of the road the element is
429. 14:39still in a tim column
430. 14:41which i think is a better formation to
431. 14:42be in rather than a large file so i like
432. 14:44this better than just regular scroll
433. 14:46however we are again not having the
434. 14:49greatest security
435. 14:50and the main reason for that is that
436. 14:52we're not doing that
437. 14:53recon of the far side of the lda so
438. 14:56we're not looking one to see if there's
439. 14:58any enemy on the other side
440. 14:59and two we're not confirming that the
441. 15:01platoon can fit in the other side
442. 15:03however the modified scroll is a good
443. 15:05technique that can
444. 15:06apply speed uh to your move if you need
445. 15:09it
446. 15:09and if you're pretty certain that um
447. 15:13there aren't anything over there and
448. 15:14it's gonna fit you know
449. 15:16but again you're taking that risk it is
450. 15:18a risk but sometimes it pays off and
451. 15:20sometimes it doesn't so
452. 15:21as the leader as the platoon leader you
453. 15:23have to be the one to make that decision
454. 15:25what method is best if you're in doubt
455. 15:27and you have time
456. 15:28always go with the deliberate action
457. 15:30it's going to pay off in the long run
458. 15:32okay lastly what i want to talk about is
459. 15:35i want to talk about
460. 15:36open dangers what that looks like
461. 15:41so an open danger area is similar to
462. 15:43linear but typically
463. 15:45we have just a square so let's say
464. 15:48all around here this is my terrible way
465. 15:51of drawing
466. 15:52vegetation basically our platoon
467. 16:03our platoon is moving towards this open
468. 16:06danger area
469. 16:07and they run into it right here all
470. 16:10right
471. 16:11there's two ways to do this all right
472. 16:13but basically
473. 16:14the easiest method to get around this is
474. 16:17well obviously the sunlight obviously we
475. 16:19do not want to cross open age area
476. 16:21why we're susceptible to ambush on the
477. 16:22other side and we're extremely
478. 16:24susceptible
479. 16:25to indirect fires basically someone can
480. 16:27easily observe us in an open field
481. 16:29uh some sort and they can lay down fire
482. 16:31on top of us whether it's direct or
483. 16:33indirect fire
484. 16:34so we don't want to go there so we won't
485. 16:36we know that we want to bypass this
486. 16:38all right and so basically we're trying
487. 16:40to find the best way to bypass it
488. 16:41the easiest way and the most the best
489. 16:44way to confirm no question
490. 16:46that you're going to stay on azimuth
491. 16:47because if you want to stay imagine
492. 16:49moving like this
493. 16:50is to move around it and special
494. 16:53technique all right
495. 16:54it's called the 90 degree i haul the 90
496. 16:56degree rule um
497. 16:58but i basically what i'll do is let's
498. 17:00say i'm moving let's take this easy i'm
499. 17:02moving due north so i'm moving
500. 17:04originally at 360 degrees
501. 17:06due north okay i want to stay on that
502. 17:10what i'm going to do is i'm going to go
503. 17:12to the
504. 17:13edge of this wood line not the exact
505. 17:15edge but basically the edge of the wood
506. 17:17line
507. 17:17and i'm going to take a 90 degree turn
508. 17:20and start moving this way to the right
509. 17:21or to the left i can go either way
510. 17:23for for this example we'll move right so
511. 17:27i'm going to stop i'm going to go 90
512. 17:30degrees
513. 17:31and i'm going to keep my pace let's say
514. 17:34it took me 100 meters
515. 17:36to move this direction so i know now
516. 17:40that i have to go back 100 meters when i
517. 17:43get to the far side
518. 17:45so i got to here here's my platoon again
519. 17:49and now i'm going to turn back 360
520. 17:52degrees
521. 17:55and i'm going to walk until i'm around
522. 17:58i'm someone past
523. 17:59an open danger so once i get past that
524. 18:02open danger area
525. 18:04i now know i need to turn to the left
526. 18:07exactly 90 degrees
527. 18:08so i'm going to go at 270 degrees
528. 18:12and walk left for 100 meters
529. 18:17once i get there i know i'm going to be
530. 18:18at exactly the same point
531. 18:21i was from the near side that i am now
532. 18:23on the far side
533. 18:24and then from there i can now continue
534. 18:26my move
535. 18:29north at 360 degrees and it's as if i
536. 18:32never even was off i had open days area
537. 18:35but this way is a great way because it
538. 18:37confirms
539. 18:38no question that i am going to be on the
540. 18:41exact same spot
541. 18:42the exact same hazmat that i was prior
542. 18:46the other way is what we call contouring
543. 18:48uh the open gauge area
544. 18:50and really what it means is i move up to
545. 18:52the edge of this wood line
546. 18:55all right i can see let's say this is
547. 18:57100 meters distance
548. 18:59i shoot my azimuth with my
549. 19:03compass and i can see from the other
550. 19:05side exactly i pick out a tree let's say
551. 19:07there's a large tree over here
552. 19:09terrible representation of the tree
553. 19:13whatever large tree over there and i
554. 19:16shoot my azimuth to it
555. 19:17and i said hey okay all i gotta do is
556. 19:19move around this open danger
557. 19:21get to that tree and then i know i'll be
558. 19:22right on azure today and so basically
559. 19:24it's way
560. 19:25that hey if it's not that big of an open
561. 19:27danger and i can fix it from the far
562. 19:29side
563. 19:29i can literally just move up and contour
564. 19:32around it get to that point
565. 19:33and then continue moving alright so this
566. 19:36way
567. 19:37on the right mathematically confirms
568. 19:39there's no question that i'm going
569. 19:41and this one on the left is a little bit
570. 19:42more feel but it works
571. 19:44if it's not that long of an open danger
572. 19:46area and i can see to the far side
573. 19:48so either way works great and again
574. 19:51these are both techniques both
575. 19:53techniques out of the ranger handbook
576. 19:54and are both absolutely doctrinal
577. 19:58okay so just a review today we'll talk
578. 20:01about linear danger areas and open
579. 20:02danger is
580. 20:03i talked about the doctrinal way to
581. 20:05cross the near danger area
582. 20:07which is uh the deliberate way and i
583. 20:09also talked about two additional ways
584. 20:11that we've come up with
585. 20:12uh scrolling the road in a modified
586. 20:14scroll again those are not actually
587. 20:15doctrinal
588. 20:16but they can work and they can add speed
589. 20:19uh to your travels if necessary
590. 20:21especially if you're crossing you know
591. 20:23eight to ten the
592. 20:24danger is your patrol that will take a
593. 20:27long time
594. 20:28if you have to do the deliberate way
595. 20:29every single time and then secondly we
596. 20:31talked about open majors and we talked
597. 20:33about the two ways
598. 20:34using the 90 degree rule to get around
599. 20:36it mathematically
600. 20:38um making sure that mathematically
601. 20:40you're going to go on the same azimuth
602. 20:41around
603. 20:42to the far side and we talked about
604. 20:44contouring where you're picking
605. 20:45something down on the far side and just
606. 20:47moving a circle around and be kicked and
607. 20:50continue to move upon azimuth
608. 20:52again thank you so much for tuning in i
609. 20:55really appreciate it i hope today was
610. 20:56useful to you
611. 20:58rangers lead the way