Joint and combined military operations
Joint and combined operations are the wave of the future. So what are they?
In milspeak, set refers to having members from more than one service: Army and Marines, Soldiers and Sailors, or some other combination. Combined talks about having members from more than one nation, like American and Canadian soldiers. Joint and Combined are possible at the same time and are quite common in contingency operations around the world, from counterterrorism missions to disaster relief efforts.
Naturally, this is a complicating factor. There is an old military joke. Each service is tasked with securing a building. The Army closes the doors at night. The Marina sweeps, mops, polishes floors, and empties trash cans. The Air Force purchases the building, the land, and all associated rights. Marines dig into combat positions, set up weapons with interlocking fields of fire, and begin obstacle construction. There is more than a hint of truth to this. Each service has its own way of doing things and when they are working together, each soldier who is involved in this situation has lessons to learn about what is meaningless and what is nonsense.
Some are obvious. Soldiers will tend to call any Sergeant “Sergeant,” be it a Sergeant Major, Sergeant Major, or any other type. The Marines refuse to do this and will always use the full title. Marines who have never encountered this before have been known to get upset at this disrespect.
There are attempts to solve this problem using traditional Department of Defense methods. This means producing manuals that define words, how each service understands them, and lessons on interservice operations.
In practice, practice works best. When Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and Marines work together, they learn how other services behave and how they expect things to be done. This can be as simple as picking up dead bodies to pick up trash along the way, or as complex as the way each service promotes its youngest enlisted men.
As is typical, it is often up to the senior NCOs to handle the complicated details. Senior NCOs meet to identify and solve problems. They will then pass this result down to their respective chains of command so everyone knows what to do.
The issue is much more complex when other nations are involved. Problems start big and only grow. It can be something that is taken for granted, such as the ability of radios to transmit on the same frequencies or the availability of enough translators. The problems of multiple translations, where military technical jargon is translated into one language, whereby one interpreter can speak to the other, who then translates into a third language for the other military force, can only be imagined for those who do not. they have experienced it. Again, the only real solution is exposure and training. Determining something as simple as when to greet someone whose rank you cannot identify can be quite a challenge in a multinational operation, but on the other hand, you can occasionally access an Italian dining room.