MCDP 6
Operation VERBAL IMAGE
"No, that's all right. We're just going to try to piece this
picture together, and I want everybody to share the same im-
age. Are you looking at the same thing we are?"
"Yessir, he is," Davis said, meaning that the screen in the
division command post would depict the same information
and images that were being called up on the wing situation
map.
Davis had logged into the theater data base and could "pull
down" almost instantaneously any individual piece of data, or
complete or partial package of information, that had been en-
tered into the system anytime, anywhere, by any means. He
had access to text, imagery, and live or prerecorded video-and
audio, which he could call up by opening additional windows
on the screen. Through the theater data base, he had access to
State Department reports, Defense Intelligence Agency sum-
maries, Central Intelligence Agency accounts, and National
Imagery and Mapping Agency charts. Likewise, he could call
up the latest tactical reports and analyses by a variety of cate-
gories—time, unit, contents, location, reliability—and could
specify the level of information resolution— "granularity,"
they called it. Any time he asked for tactical reports over a
period of time, the software would automatically "crunch
out" a trend analysis, both in picture and bullet form. With a
little manipulation, he could get direct feeds from satellites or
aerial reconnaissance drones. (This procedure was not taught
in the classroom; it was an unauthorized "back door" gate-
way, but nobody complained when Davis pulled it off.) Per-
haps most important of all, he could access the Cable News
Network for the latest-breaking developments. There was no
13