Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Shane Hamann | Lt. Col. Les White, the senior intelligence officer of 66th Troop Command, Mississippi...... read more read more
Subscribe
HOHENFELS, Germany – Though not on a deployment, some Soldiers of the Mississippi National Guard are far from home. They aren’t enduring the hardships of a foreign war and they’re not where you would expect to find these so called “weekend warriors.
The 66th Troop Command, Mississippi Army National Guard from Jackson, Mississippi, is taking part in the NATO interoperability exercise Allied Spirit I Jan. 11-28 at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany.
The unit’s mission is to serve as the high command and control, or HICON in army jargon, for a multinational brigade of NATO allies and partners consisting of the US Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment, augmented by units and military representatives from Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
“We’re here to facilitate the information flow from all the different
staff sections,” said Lt. Col. Jeffery J. Files from Madison, Mississippi, the acting commander of Troop Command during the
exercise .
“There always has to be a HICON so there is another level of staff and command that force those functions at the subordinate, training audience staff,” said Maj. Michael E. Fisher, the Fires Observer, Coach and Trainer for the JMRC.
The 66th Troop Command has many subordinate units at home in Mississippi such as a theater aviation brigade, Military Police Battalion and a Special Forces Battalion. The unit brought many full-time military employees as well as the unit’s traditional, part-time staff to perform this mission.
“The good thing about Troop Command is that we have representatives that do some level of the same work, that we do here, back in the States,” said Files.
The 66th Troop Command brought many people who work in these areas of expertise at home and were able to work with the JMRC in identifying how to stress the rotational training units to help them continue to develop as a staff, said Fisher.
The National Guard not only brings their Military Occupational Specialty but their civilian skill and training as well which is a big combat multiplier in an operation like this, said Files.
The exercise also gave the 66th Troop Command the opportunity to develop because they were tasked with additional duties once they arrived.
“I’m never surprised by the professionalism of the military,” said Files. “We were faced with some unexpected tasks that we were unprepared to do because we didn’t know we were going to have to do them, but everybody just put their complaints aside and made stuff happen.”
“The whole environment is a little dynamic and it requires people to be flexible because requirements change,” said Fisher. “66th Troop Command did a great job of being flexible and adjusting to the missions so that we could make this a successful training event.”
Although, adapting to this particular mission wasn’t much of a stretch for the unit in that it also provided a great opportunity for them to practice for their state mission, which is responding to emergencies.
“It relates to our mission at home,” said Files. “ We gain good knowledge acting as a conduit between a higher level and a lower level unit which is the same thing Troop Command would do at hurricane operations.”
“It was a great opportunity for us,” said Files. “We pulled it out really good and it’s just a testament to the experience level that we have.”
| Date Taken: | 01.27.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 01.27.2015 11:09 |
| Story ID: | 152836 |
| Location: | HOHENFELS, BW, DE |
| Hometown: | JACKSON, MS, US |
| Hometown: | MADISON, MS, US |
| Web Views: | 322 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Mississippi National Guard Assists in NATO exercise, by SFC Shane Hamann, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT