Reprinted from Maple Leaf, 23 February 2005, Vol. 8 No. 8
By Gloria Kelly

12723 Colonel Pat Stogran

For their commander, Colonel Pat Stogran, who has “been there and done that” in terms of on the ground operations, the move to the CFJOG was a real eye-opener.

“Throughout my life in the Army I’ve spent every waking hour and most of my career training for operations,” said Col Stogran.  “Here it’s a complete reversal.  Here operations come first and we fit the training in around those commitments whenever we can.”

“We are operations first and foremost. It’s a continual revolving door.  As we drawdown or close out one operation, we are planning for another and at the same time have to be prepared for something like the DART deployment that happened just after Christmas.”

Col Stogran says he personally could not have asked for a better job than this posting to the CFJOG.  “My personal mandate is to raise the profile of this organization,” he said.  “I had no idea of the challenge the job represents, the caliber of people here and the depth of their operational experience.  These people have been on the forefront of every recent operation that has been stood up within the CF.”

“We have here a joint headquarters at the operation level that is a hugely powerful planning tool for National Defence Headquarters.

“I’ve spent eight months in this job watching and learning and listening to the things going on here and we are now trying to work with the joint planning staff at NDHQ to really exploit the full potential of the men and women from all disciplines who are here in the joint headquarters.”

Col Stogran is quick to point out that the working relationship between CFJOG and NDHQ is not well defined.  “It’s not through any fault of anybody, but a joint operating concept has more or less morphed along every time the CF deploys on another operation,” he said.  Despite this the CF continues to demonstrate a great deal of competence in getting troops overseas.

So the CFJOG is in the process of writing what they call the Joint Operations Concept.  They are capturing anecdotal experiences of anyone who has been on the planning staff, deployment staff or on operations to come up with a “play-book” of how the operational level fits into the process in Canada.

“We are not inventing anything new here,” said Col Stogran.  “We are taking the knowledge and experiences of people across the spectrum and melding them into a body of knowledge that brings together all experiences in the realm of

He has come to believe the CFJOG —as an operational level headquarters—can be exploited much more fully than it has been to date and is not shy about saying so.  He sees the CFJOG as a place with significant growth potential—“an uncut diamond”.

Just when the CFJOG moves into high gear on any operation varies depending on the planning taking place at NDHQ.  Col Stogran believes there is a greater role for the team at CFJOG to play and in fact they have been biting off a little bit more of that process as the trust being fostered develops and grows.

“The J-staff at NDHQ has a huge challenge looking after day to day issues.  We could take some of the pressure off them by being more engaged in the planning of operations on behalf of the DCDS J3 staff,” he says.  “I would like to see the CFJOG joint headquarters exploited more.  The beauty of the CFJOG standing up in Kingston is that the team has the potential to have a briefing team at NDHQ in a short period of time to be part of any planning process when the need arises.”

“There is limitless potential to what we do,” said Col Stogran.  “The CFJOG has been very successful in deploying joint operations for a long time now.  Our people have been on the front end of operations and they know how to get the job done.  We need to exploit every bit of the potential that exists in the joint headquarters.”

Col Stogran believes the world of joint operations and co-operation can only grow and improve as the “joint culture” grows and the next generation on the CF comes of age, rising to the challenges of a changing world and demands on the military community.  He sees this as a good thing because every operation that takes members of the CF into an operational arena is a joint undertaking.

“Really the Army, Navy and Air Force are the force generators for the operational end of what we do.  They recruit them, take them in, train them and retain them.  Once they are deployed operationally, they become part of a cohesive joint team.  Soldiers, sailors and Air Force personnel are all key parts of the overall puzzle in getting the job done once they get into the fight.”

Looking ahead Col Stogran sees positive things for his team.  He believes a raised visibility and understanding of the work that is done and can continue to be done by his professional team at the CFJOG, can only yield positive results for the CF as a whole.