The Military Decision Making Process
The Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) is a decision-making model to assist military members in making sound military decisions and to compile operation orders. This paper will describe MDMP and apply it to a recent job-related decision of the author; preparation for a combat logistics patrol (CLP) while deployed in Iraq. The paper will identify the steps in the model and describe how critical thinking impacted the decision.
The Steps of the Military Decision Making Process Step 1: receipt of the mission.
"The first step of the MDMP is to receive the mission from higher headquarters, usually in the form of a written order" (An artillerization of the military decision making process (MDMP), …show more content…

Once the staff chooses a COA, it is presented to the commander in the next step.
Step 6: COA approval.
After the staff has chosen a COA, the leader (usually the highest-ranking officer) of the staff presents them to the commander.
The commander must decide to select the staff's recommended COA, modify a COA, or reject all proposed COAs. If the commander rejects all proposed COAs, the staff must revisit mission analysis and start COA development over again. Likewise, if the commander modifies a COA, the staff must war-game the modifications (Artillerization, n.d., "Step 6: Course of Action Approval" section, ¶ 1).
Once the COA is approved by the commander, it is taken back to the staff for the next step, production of orders.
Step 7: orders production.
During this step, the staff prepares the orders and the briefings to be given to the unit. The staff members must fully brief their areas of expertise within the operation. The author, being the communications officer, was responsible for ensuring that all members of the unit were trained on any equipment to be used in the execution of the mission as well as any programming or frequency assignments for communication devices.
Step 8: rehearsal.
During this step, the members of the unit practice the execution of the mission. As much