The Operations Section Chief - (OPS), a member of the General Staff, is responsible for the management of all operations directly applicable to the primary mission.

The OPS activates and supervises organization elements in accordance with the Incident Action Plan (IAP) and directs its execution. The OPS also directs the preparation of Unit operational plans, requests or releases resources, makes expedient changes to the IAP, as necessary; and reports such to the Incident Command (IC). The major responsibilities of the Operations Section Chief are:

• Review Common Responsibilities
  
  
• Develop operations portion of IAP.
  
  
• Brief and assign Operations Section personnel in accordance with the IAP.
  
  
• Supervise Operations Section.
  
  
• Determine need and request additional resources.
  
  
• Review suggested list of resources to be released and initiate recommendation for release of resources.
  
  
• Assemble and disassemble strike teams assigned to the Operations Section.
  
  
• Report information about special activities, events, and occurrences to the IC.
  
  
• Respond to resource requests in support of Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDAR) activities.
  
  
• Maintain Unit/Activity Log (ICS Form 214, 5 KB PDF^*).