Force Tracking During Operation Iraqi Freedom All excerpts in quotations are direct quotes from conversations with battle leaders unless otherwise noted. The basic question was simple –How did you use Blue Force Tracking and how did it work? Battle Tracking: 2–7) Used it to supplement battle tracking, which was still done with paper maps, but to do so they did not have to use radios for that purpose. They tracked the whole battle order, even assets from other Brigades or Divisions. (A2-69) Used it to anticipate the arrival of specific vehicles into visual range in specific locations. (A-2-69) Tracked battles at night in zero illumination, zero visibility. (3ID Ops) Used extensively. Said it cleared the command net so they could do maneuvers. (3–7) My Executive Officer and Operations Officer used it to track the battle and identify an approximate frontline trace. "I'm the lead company of the lead task force of the lead brigade. That was my mission throughout this entire war. I led third brigade. There was nobody to my front. ... I was able to look on my screen and see where my friendly units were to my left, to my right, to my front, to my rear and able to pass that information immediately down to my platoons, so fratricide was basically eliminated." – CPT Stewart James, Team Assassin Commander, 2–69 Armor "We could look at that thing, call the boss next door and say, 'Okay I'm tracking third brigade. Lead elements of third brigade are about 15 kilometers and are right behind us and they're moving up right now.' And then I could call units and I could say, 'Okay, we got, it looks like third brigade we'll be up in our Area of Operations (AO) in about ten minutes or fifteen minutes.'" – MAJ Brad Gavel, Operations Officer, 3rd Squadron 7th Cavalry Regiment "We used it to coordinate units passing through us on the move. We'd get an e-mail saying 'We're coming up behind you. What's going on up there, you tell them before you can talk to him Frequency Modulation (FM), send him that Situation Report (SITREP). Or even, 'My idea is this.' 'Meet me here.' 'When I get close give me a call.' Just little stuff like that." – MAJ John Keith, Executive Officer, 3rd Squadron 7th Cavalry Regiment Operational details The primary difference between FBCB2 and Blue Force Tracking (BFT) is in