BOHICA Blues Today: "The OIC Arrives" (Patreon)

So, the OIC: the "Officer In Charge" -- of the Intelligence section arrives. Who exactly is an OIC, and where do they stand in the hierarchy?

Well, a Battalion has anywhere from 400 to maybe even up to 1000 soldiers, give or take. A lot depends on what type of Battalion it is, so it is not a set number. Every Battalion will have three or four "line" companies (the front-line troops) and one "headquarters" company.

Headquarters companies have "staff sections", and I've mentioned them before: there's "S-1", which is basically the "personnel" section; then there's S-2, the "intelligence" section, and S-3, the "training and operations" section, and others (S-4, "supply", for example).

So Juni, Emma, and Ken are in the S-2, "Intelligence" section. An S-2 section will have an overall officer in charge from the Battalion, and that officer is picked from the leaders that carry out the Battalions primary mission: so an Infantry Battalion would have an Infantry officer in charge, and an Armor Battalion would have an Army officer, and so on.

Since the 813th is a Helicopter Aviation Battalion, then we have Captain Jacqueline "Pepperjack" Tracz, a helicopter aviation officer, in charge of the overall section.

Technically, an Intelligence section is also supposed to have an other officer, a dedicated Intelligence officer, who is a lieutenant and subordinate to the Officer In Charge.

Why not make the Intelligence officer in charge of the Intelligence section? makes sense, right? Maybe, but an Intelligence officer will always look at things through the Intelligence lens first. But the OIC needs to be a member of the Battalion to keep the S-2 section focused on the needs of the Battalion they serve. In this case, they have to stay focused on supporting the helicopter aviation mission first.

Captain Tracz has Mexican, Ecuadoran, and Polish heritage. She loves to take passengers for rides in her helicopter, but she also feels personally challenged to see if she can get them to barf while in flight.

As an aside: some people may note an unusual number of female soldiers in the S-2 section in the comic. This represents a statistically interesting fact in the Army that "Intelligence" is the job that has the highest percentage of female participation. In fact, as I prepare to deploy, I am the only guy on a team of three, with my two comrades in arms deploying with me being women. They are very professional and great to work with.

That said, remember that I rarely ever use actual people in my comic. Certain aspects of real people are represented in bits or pieces, or even divided up among different characters, but no single, actual person is represented in this series.