ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Forward Operating Site

Okay, so imagine you're playing hide and seek. You and your friends are all playing in a big park, but you don't want to stay in one spot because that would make it too easy for the person who's "it" to find you. So, you and your friends decide to go to different parts of the park to hide.

Now, let's say that one of your friends, let's call him Joe, decides to go to a spot that's really far away from where everyone else is hiding. This spot might be hard for "it" to find, but it's also hard for Joe to get back to home base if he needs to. So, Joe decides to set up a little home base of his own in this spot. He builds a little fort out of sticks and leaves, and he starts collecting food and water so he can survive there for a while.

This little fort that Joe built is kind of like a forward operating site. In real life, a forward operating site is a place that military troops set up in order to be closer to where they need to be in order to do their job. It's like a mini-base that's set up in a strategic location. The troops who are stationed there have everything they need to survive and do their job, like food, water, medicine, and communication tools.

But, just like Joe's fort, a forward operating site is usually set up in a spot that's far away from the main base. This is so that the troops can be closer to where they need to be in order to do their mission. This might be in a dangerous area where there's fighting going on, or it might be in a remote area where there aren't any other bases nearby.

So, that's the basic idea of a forward operating site. It's like a little fort that troops set up in order to be closer to where they need to be. It has everything they need to survive and do their job, but it's usually in a far away and sometimes dangerous location.