The Field Office

[22F]

Cross-posted from Farcebook for prosperity.


The Field Office:
A recent discussion amongst Primary and Secondary moderators had us comparing notebook sizes.

One of the lads had a fairly decent collection of Australian issue Field Notebooks that he acquired whilst deployed and co-located with Australian troops.
It reminded me of my field notebook setup.

The old green field notebook was sized to comfortably sit in a breast pocket.
It’s a good size to write on.
It’s pages are perforated at the top and grid-lined.

Also commonly used in conjunction with the field notebook was what we called a vuee-tuee in the ADF. A hard-covered plastic booklet with clear view plastic sleeves to carry all our reports and returns proforma’s.
As a junior NCO (Non Commissioned Officer) my vuee tuee would contain:
- My orders for a tasking
- Radio report proforma (casualty evacuation, hand over report, contact report, resupply request, call for fire, amongst others)
- Clothing and boot sizes for my patrol members
- Controlled stores list (serial numbers for weapons, optics, radios and other equipment)
- Small personal morale pictures.

To carry all this in a neat little package, a lot of blokes would buy a cordura field notebook wallet. There were a few designs from different suppliers that were popular. They were all designed to carry writing implements and other sundry items as well.
Mine had:
- A mechanical pencil
- Ball point pen
- Map marking permanent marker
- Red and blue chinagraph pencils
- Protractor
- OFOF or RoE cards
- Range card

The back of my range card was covered in luminous glow-in-the-dark tape to make writing at night easier. I would charge up my card during the day in full sunlight, and then place it under the page I was writing on to give some form of illumination without having to hold a torch in my teeth.
It could also be used for IFF purposes in dark when marrying up with our mounted callsigns.

I generally didn’t bother carrying too many map marking pens, because our vehicle crews would have a more complete set than I could carry.

And of course, everything is stored in a plastic bag (an old 200rd bag for 5.56mm link in this case) to prevent it all getting wet.

It all fits comfortably in a pants map pocket or in a kidney pouch in my belt webbing.

What are your field admin solutions?