Experienced role players improve JRTC training

Photo By Sgt. Bob Timney | Wali Hameed (right), and Mujeeb Ur-Rahman Bosheezada take a break from being interpreters here at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., where communicating with Afghan nationals is essential to recreating a realistic scenario of what U.S. soldiers will encounter when deployed. Both have been interpreting here for over five years, are U.S. citizens and do what they can to help their new country and their country of heritage at the same time.  

FORT POLK, LA, UNITED STATES

03.29.2012

Story by Sgt. Bob Timney 

354th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

FORT POLK, La. – In its largest training rotation ever, the Joint Readiness Training Center trained dozens of newly created Security Force Assistance Teams. These highly specialized teams will be deployed as the next step in the diminishing role—and eventual withdrawal—of coalition forces from Afghanistan. These teams allow Afghan National Security Forces to take the lead in security while U.S. security teams move to the role of advisors.

In order to provide the most realistic scenario-based training possible, JRTC uses mock Afghanistan cities and approximately 1,000 role players, which are like supporting "actors” in the training. SFAT soldiers prepared for role player interaction with pre-training classes on cultural awareness, language skills and understanding their role as advisors.

There are different types of role-players used to populate the villages to include Afghan citizens, political figures, Afghan Security Forces, interpreters, media, and of course, Taliban insurgents.

“Role players are vital in providing the highest level of JRTC training,” said Maj. Joseph P. Johnson, JRTC rotational planner. “They bring a cultural awareness, understanding and realism to the training scenario that units cannot get anywhere else.”

The experiences of the role players vary greatly. Ranging from local Fort Polk and surrounding area residents having limited knowledge of the Afghan culture, to U.S. soldiers with deployment experience, to natives of Afghanistan.

Spc. Brandon Gore, infantryman for A Company, 1st Battalion, 509th Airborne Infantry Regiment, found a way to make good use of his deployed combat experiences by role-playing the executive officer for the 1st Brigade “Thunder Corps” of the ANA at JRTC.

“My exposure to the Afghanistan army and police helped me qualify for this assignment,” said Gore, “in addition to my advanced communications knowledge and general soldiering skills.”

At a higher level of experience, JRTC also uses cultural role players, or CRPs, who are Afghan natives. Many of these serve as interpreters, which are an integral part of the overall experience, as they are needed at every level of the training scenario. While some CRPs live in the U.S., others still live in or have family in Afghanistan.

But according to Johnson, the role players with the most significant impact on training were the CRPs with actual experience in the Afghan army or police. They filled many gaps in both cultural and operational knowledge.

Gholam Dastagir Habibi, formerly an ANA colonel, played the role of a lieutenant colonel in the ANA at JRTC. His insight has already shown to be invaluable to his counterpart for training, Capt. Adam Dortona, commander for a battalion-level SFAT with the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment.

“The experience of Gholam Dastagir and the rest of the Afghanistan team here is immeasurable,” Dortona said. “He is a wealth of knowledge and information and it is obvious that he cares about the completeness of our training the way he shares it so freely, far beyond what I ask of him. He is saving American and Afghanistan lives by doing this. They let us know when we make mistakes that otherwise we would not know until we were deployed. Mistakes made here in a safe scenario that we can learn from and then try again, as opposed to making them while deployed, where it might mean someone’s life.”

U.S. forces use interpreters to communicate with Afghanistan role players who do not speak English, but Dortona doesn’t always need one. One reason is because Habibi speaks some English, but surprisingly enough, Dortona also speaks some Dari. He said he has been learning more and more each day from the interpreters and the valuable time spent with his ANA counterpart Habibi.

“The effect of my being able to speak Dari is immediately evident when I start a conversation with an Afghan. It starts me at a higher level of trust and acceptance from the beginning,” Dortona said. “It is just one more added benefit of having cultural role players of this caliper.”

• Date Taken: 03.29.2012
• Date Posted: 03.29.2012 11:16
• Story ID: 85957
• Location: FORT POLK, LA, US