Those little spy's are just looking for a way to use your hide to get a promossion. Hide 'em, loose 'em in the field, even kill them if you must, but get those political toadies out of your unit, before they decide that you aren't acting "in the proper Imperial Manner", and get you a free firing squad.
While the COMPForce Assault units get the big press, almost every Imperial agency, organization, or bureaucracy that issues it's people weapons has a COMPForce Observer assigned to it. About the only ones who seem to be immune from the infiltration of these political officers are the ISTC and Imperial Intelligence. Almost all ships in the Navy and Army battalion has one, and the numbers of them increase as the size of the command goes up. A garrison base has five of them, and an ISD ten. Even the Sector Rangers, Space Rescue Corp and non-combat branches of the Army and Navy have them.
The much of thier time is spent providing the troops with political education, and advising the commanders. They also provide a means of communication between the various branches of the Imperial armed forces, due to thier saturation through the ranks.
At least that is what the manuals say. In reality, about the only thing that agrees with manual is political education. For three hours per week, Imperial military and para-military personnel are to study Political Theory and Application. This consists of lectures on why humans are superior, why the Imperial way of life will spread through the galaxy, and how to improve yourself as a New Imperial Man, along with confessions before the group (which are recorded) of any violations of "proper Imperial conduct". Needless to say, confessions are few and far between. The performance of the individual enlisted men and officers are used by the Observer to make his reviews of the troops at the end of each month. These reports can determine a man's destiny with a few key strokes, placing him on the track to becoming a General, or a member of "Imperial Spice Miner's Union" (a uephemism for slaves on Kessel, Sevarcos, and a handful of other prison planets.
In thier role as advisor's to commanding officers, they are generally considered equal in rank to the second officer. Officially, the commander is the Observer's superior officer, but not always. Often, they are right next to, or monitoring constantly, the commanding officer, so that they may "advise" him. In reality, this advise is generally an order, as a bad review by the Observer can lead to demotion in rank, expulsion from the service, and even a court marshal. Only in units where the political reliability of the commanding officer is known and considered high enough, are you not to likely to find an COMPNOR flunky giving orders to his superior. Almost none of the Observers have actually had realistic and complete training in the capabilities of the unit they are assigned to, which has lead things like using an Imperial Star Destroyer to hunt down a single pirate corvette and using Army scouts to assault underground emplacements, all of which has dulled edge of the Imperial sword and in many cases utterly destroyed the moral of a unit (and the careers and lives of some particularly fine officers).
The average COMPForce Observer remains with a unit or ship for a quarter year, after which time they rotate to a new unit after making a report to thier superiors at COMPNOR. This policy was implemented to keep the Observers from becoming to familiar with any crew members. While it might prevent security leaks, it compounds the inadequate education that they have received, as the type of units they are posted to vary. A man may leave a garrison, and be sent to an artillery unit, then to a starfighter wing. Most Observers spend four or five years in this position before leaving, usually to pursue a career in another COMPNOR branch, often the ISB, or to a similar job at Progress, making sure that schools, museums and performers are free from unimperial influences.
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