CRITIQUE OF THE BASIC OPERATIONS COURSE (1/72)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-06210A000200030027-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 1999
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: January 20, 1972
• Content Type: MEMO

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20 January 1972
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MEMO ?ANDUM
TO : Chief, Office of Training
FROM SUBJECT: Critique of the Basic Operations Course (1 /72)
1. It is a credit to the instructor staff at that
the majority of problems and difficulties which were encountered
during the running of the course, both substantive and administrative,
were handled on the spot with tact and concern. What follows is
a list of comments and receommendati.ons which for one reason or
another were not raised at the time at which they developed or
are merely afterthoughts.
2. At the beginning of the course it would be useful if a
presentation were given on the structure of-the DDP. A plumbing
chart of the DDP could be presented and included would-be the
names and a little background information on all personnel from
division chief on up. This type of presentation would be of
particular value to CT's who have as yet not made up their minds
as to what division or staff they would like to apply for as
a first assignment. Additionally, a "welcome aboard" speech by
a high-level DDP officer would give our subsequent training
a greater sense of urgency and importance. I realize that
men of great responsibility are pressed for time, but an appear-
ence at the start of the course by one of the "gods" would
provide. professional. inspiration.
3. presentation concerning internal Soviet
operations gave the class more useful instruction on the
mechanics and precautions necessary in employing good tradecraft
than was contained in the rest of the course material.
4. The course should contain more coverage and individual
exercises on rapid nonscheduled agent communications. I do not
mean any of the technical means, but the emergency commo that
is laid on with an agent to provide a means of two-way contact
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24-hours a day, seven days a week. I think most students had
continual difficulty with commo plans. 00's were very helpful
in this area, but often there was too much reliance on 00's to
come up with a workable eominno plan. I think this subject is
very important in good agent operations not only in a functional
sense, but a good sound commo plan will impress an agent with
his handler's professionalism and competence.
5. The scheduling of hand-gun training and qualifying was
miserable. I realize there are administrative considerations here,
but there certainly must have been more flexibility in the
scheduling of this activity. Late Friday afternoon is the worst
possible time, and yet, it was the only time hand-gun training
was available.
6. All of the technical training provided in the course was
outstanding. I was impressed by the enthusiasm and concern of
all the instructors involved. The photography instruction was
without equal.
25X1A2g was a fine start to the course. It set the stage
g for what was to come, I do think that it would be more effective
if students with little operational experience were briefed as
to the difference between a staff officer (case officer), a staff
agent, and a contract agent (former staff-officer or staff agent).
25X1A2g The scenerio was a bit confusing because was not a
true NOC staffer, but a retired staffer who is now under contract.
25X1A2g 8. was very simplistic and often boring, but the
lessons it taught were very important. This exercise was the
basis of all later casings, but could be jazzed up a little to
hold student interest.
25X1A2g 9. _ was the heart of the course for me. Most of what
I will take away from this course is connected to this exercise.
Its position in the schedule (middle of the course) made it
pivotal in terms of what was to be gotten out of the course as
a whole. I have two main criticisms of this exercise. First,
25X1A9a the instructor's cables were way below the minimum standards
set by and his branch. Inadequate, poorly written
cables from instructors were less'than inspiring to students
who were under pressure to get it right the first time.
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I recognize that vagueness was necessary in some cases so that
students would have to make their own decisions, but there was
no excuse for consistantly incorrect format and sloppy grammar.
Secondly, rather than continue with the present system. I
would reccommend that the students copy of the written work in
and all other exercises be a burned copy of the
original turned in to the 00 with the 00's comments included.
In all cases the graded or critiqued paper work was retained
by the 00 and there was never enough time to cover all the
red pencil comments. Further, a copy of corrected work would make
an excellent guide for subsequent work. As it was, the same
mistakes were often made again and again because a student can not
remember~,a1i critical comments, nor does he have time to take
comprehensive notes.
10. - was useful and productive in o.:-ay one respect.
The student did not know what was to be expected from him at
the conclusion of the exercise so he took it somewhat seriously
and
as a- result a frame of mind was developed t
This proach to meeting new people made the. ~a meaningless
exercise meaningful and productive. It made, "Hi there,
glad to meet you," synonymous with
11. - was a good follow-on exercise to _ and
has many training possibilities. This exercise was the most
realistic of all the exercises and in con un tion with the
political sensitization problem and made the waxiing.
weeks of the course stimulating.
12. 1 suppose is necessary, but it is so unrealistic
that I doubt that i accomplishes very much. A one hour lecture
in arena B would probably be as useful. A definite improvement
in the exercise would be to give the students a guest list prior
to the party so that they would have some idea of who is attending
and would be able to find other identities to talk to besides
their targets.
13. After two days of critiques and a week of actual involvement,
I am emotionally unable to go into a long discussion of the
exercise called I was very disappointed with this
exercise for many personal, administrative and substantive reasons,
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No matter how structured or how led, the team effort will always
be less than that of any of the individuals, if operating alone.
The team concept breeds inefficiency, disorganization and ultimately
frustration with the exercise and the course. This should not
be the effect of a final problem. Students are just not going
to sacrifice valuable friendships with fellow students in order
to whip a team in shape for the sake of one problem in one course.
For sound administrative reasons there are so many unrealistic
aspects to this problem that students are unwilling to take the
scenerio seriously and forget that when you criticize a teammate
you are criticizing a fellow CT or other student. The problem
is just not worth going all out. There are good, instructive
aspects to But if the structure and administration
of the problem creates an atmosphere of frustration and
apathy what good are the benf icial aspects? Some students do
not believe in "telling it like it is" to the "administration"
and I think this is very unfortunate. I think the instructor
staff would be quite surprised if they knew that a majority
of the students were very disappointed with and
unavoidably lost enthusiasm for this problem in a very short
time. I question whether the team concept is that im1portant or
whether the administrative necessities of a field exercise
require that students be Limped together a little groups because
there are not enough role-playing instructorsto go around.
If the }team concept is not critical I reccommend that serious
consideration be given to some administratively feasible scenerio
which provides for independent and individual operational
resonpsbility. The team concept as it works out at present means
that one or two members do all the important work and feel like
martyrs, while the rest of the members do very little and feel
quilty.
14. I reccommend that the special, exclusive dining room
be abolished and that when guest speakers take meals at
they sit right down with the students. If no students cor o
the special. dining room a guest feels hurt, if he auto?iaticly
eats with the students, those interested will seek him out.
If none are interested he will never know that he would have
had to eat with the course coordinator alone.
15. I enjoyed the BOC very much. It was a great improvement
over the OFC and my overall feelings are those of appreciation
and respect for the instructors and support staff who worked
very hard to teach me what I must know to begin my career
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