FOR OFFICERS
planning expertise MAKES THE OFFICER.
Combat Leaders Must Master Combat Planning
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THE WORK THAT MAKES THE OFFICER.
The TLPs and OPORD production are a pivotal part of BOLC. They are also far more detailed and challenging than most LTs expect when they arrive. The officers who walk in without a foundation spend the course trying to catch up. The ones who do not catch up carry that gap into Ranger School and into their first unit, where the briefs they give shape how their platoon, their NCOs, and their Commander see them.
The officers who get it right come to BOLC with a foundation. They sharpen it throughout the course, at Ranger, and during their first PL time. They stay sharp at their unit, and they use the same material to train their platoon to the standard their unit deserves. When MCCC comes, the material remains on hand.
This is not a school requirement. It is the work of the officer. It is what you contribute to the fight.
FROM COMMISSIONING TO COMMAND
The skills for EVERY STAGE OF YOUR CAREER.
TLPs show up at every level of an officer's career. They are taught in school at BOLC and refined at MCCC. They are tested under pressure at Ranger School. And they are executed for real as a Platoon Leader and as a Company Commander, where the training exercises, deployments, and decisions carry the highest consequences.
The officers who treat this skill as career-long get better at every stage. The officers who treat it as a school requirement stay where school left them.
The Blue Book is built to follow you across every one of those stages. It is the complete reference written for the full arc of an officer's career.
COMMISSIONING
Day one as an officer.
BOLC
YOU ARE HERE
Where you learn it independetly.
RANGER SCHOOL
Where it is tested under stress, working alongside a platoon.
AIRBORNE school
In the pipeline. Earning your way to the line.
PLATOON LEADER
Planning expertise is what you bring to the fight..
MCCC
Building upon the small unit basics.
COMPANY COMMANDER
Where you lead with it at the higher echelon, and mentor those below you.
WHY THE BLUE BOOK?
REVIEWED BY THOSE WHO TEACH IT
The B/G team worked with professionals from across the Army to ensure accuracy and relevance. That includes conventional and non-conventional forces, Officers and NCOs, and instructors from Ranger School, RSLC, BOLC, and CCC. The result is a guide reviewed by the people who teach TLPs and OPORDs to officers every day, paired with the relevant experience from those have done it overseas where it matters most.
the guide we wish we had
This was built by considering what would best support officers from ROTC, to BOLC, to Ranger, to being a Platoon Leader, to MCCC, and Company Command. It is the material we wish we had when we were there. We broke down the concepts scattered across the doctrine and the hundreds of handouts and slide shows, and turned them into a guide that lets you spend your time leading, not deciphering. When you have a question, our team answers.
THE BRIDGE FROM SCHOOLHOUSE TO UNIT.
BOLC teaches you the structure. Ranger tests you on it under pressure. The Blue Book is what carries that knowledge across to your unit, where there is no instructor watching, no graded sheet, and no script. It translates schoolhouse concepts into the methodology that drives real operational planning, so the skill works when it actually matters. This is where most officers lose the thread. It is also where the Blue Book matters most.
THE OFFICER'S REFERENCE.
IS THIS FOR YOU?
THIS IS FOR YOU IF
✓
You are a maneuver officer, headed to or currently attending BOLC, CCC, Ranger School, or SFQC.
✓
You are a Platoon Leader who knows they need to stay sharp with their planning skills to become a highly rated officer in your battalion.
✓
You recognize that bridging the planning gap between school and the operational force is what makes the TLPs actually work for your platoon.
✓
You take the responsibility of leading planning seriously and know this is what you bring to the fight as an officer.
THIS IS NOT FOR YOU IF
×
You believe what you got at IBOLC alone is enough to successfully plan and lead during overseas combat operations.
×
You're already comfortable with resources available including doctrine.
×
You are looking for a shortcut that lets you avoid mastering the fundamentals.
×
You are an officer in a non-maneuver branch where TLPs are not central to your role.
START LEARNING NOW
Six articles from our team on the topics every officer is expected to know. They give you a feel for how the Blue Book teaches and what it covers.
QUESTIONS OFFICERS ASK BEFORE THEY BUY.
The classroom material is enough for some officers. For others, it is not. And you are not just preparing to pass the graded OPORDs at BOLC. You are preparing to lead with excellence as a Platoon Leader, then as a Company Commander. What is enough for the classroom is not enough for the modern battlefield. The Blue Book serves as a primer before BOLC, a reliable reference during it, and on-hand material to keep you sharp at your unit and through MCCC.
The Blue Book was made and reviewed by instructors from IBOLC, MCCC, Ranger School, and RSLC. There will be small variations between any reference and any specific instructor, as there always are inside the Army. Between the expert review board and the explicit use of current doctrine, we are confident the Blue Book is rooted in what you will see in the schoolhouse and what actually matters in the operational force.
Officers at Ranger School are most likely to be made Platoon Leader during graded lanes. That means leading the planning and briefing of the OPORD. The Blue Book includes a full chapter on Ranger School specific planning, written with the support of actual Ranger Instructors. It covers how to bridge the gap between BOLC and Ranger, how to deal with limited planning time, how to enable the team around you to actually work together, and the common mistakes officers make on graded lanes.
No. Most officers learn TLPs at BOLC, do a few at Ranger School, and don't refine and improve on them until MCCC. The Blue Book is the reference Platoon Leaders, MCCC students, and Company Commanders use to bring the skill back up to standard and produce orders at the level their unit deserves. It is useful for far more than just BOLC.
The Ranger Handbook and doctrine are the sources of truth. They absolutely should be used. The problem is not those sources, it's distilling that information, spread across countless publications, to make it relevant towards what you need. Our material does that work for you, and lists the publication name so when you need to go deeper, you can. We also work to smooth out language that sometimes isn't clear or specifically relevant.
The earlier the better. Reading the Blue Book before BOLC means you arrive understanding the framework, which lets you focus on application instead of structure. If you are already at BOLC, the Blue Book accelerates your in-class learning and acts like the textbook to help you outside of the classes. After BOLC, it remains useful for your Platoon Leader time, preparing for and performing well at MCCC, then serving as a company commander. If you are a company commander or anything before that, it is useful. If you are beyond that, it can be a helpful tool for you to use to mentor your subordinate officers.
WRITTEN, PRODUCED, AND PRINTED IN AMERICA.
American materials. American printing. American team. We make it here because the officers who use it serve here.
THE TLP's
COMES FIRST.
The officers who lead well start by mastering how they communicate intent. Start there.
GET THE BLUE BOOK