B Company, 3-41 Infantry Battalion, learns cultural awareness

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Sinthia Rosario | Soldiers assigned to Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 41st Infantry Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, carry simulated wounded soldier during exercise Iron Focus at Fort Bliss, Texas, May 10, 2012. A role-playing Afghan suicide bomber, who detonated in Kamal Jabour village after Key Leader Engagement, wounded the soldier.  

FORT BLISS, TX, UNITED STATES

05.10.2012

Story by Sgt. Sinthia Rosario 

24th Theater Public Affairs Support Element

FORT BLISS, Texas - Soldiers assigned to Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 41st Infantry Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division learn cultural awareness during exercise Iron Focus, on Fort Bliss, Texas, May 10, 2012.

“I think that the Brigade and Division with the training assets that they’ve brought in, from the civilian role-players to the kits that show realistic wounds and stuff like that, I think it’s one of the best units that I’ve actually seen with that kind of stuff,” said B Company, 3-41 Inf. Bn., 1-1AD, 1st Sgt. Jason H. Pitman.

It’s been very realistic to the soldiers. The training especially with the casualties, the direct involvement with the actual Afghan people that are the role-players was beneficial to them. The soldiers learn to switch roles like helping out the civilians, doing the Key Leaders Engagements and then automatically going into kinetic, stated Pitman.

“Its valuable to everybody that’s in the unit that go through the process, because many of the guys that are going through the process, most of this is pre-deployment training,” said Thomas W. Lewis, site coordinator for Lexicon.

Many of the soldiers will be deploying to Afghanistan and this will better prepare them. Cultural and Linguistic is a part of the training that gives them the chance to see real Afghanis who’ve lived there, to see how they act culturally and when the soldiers go there it won’t be quite a shock. The soldiers get a taste of what the soldiers are going to be dealing with once they’re in Afghanistan.

This kind of gives them the feeling of “Hey I’ve done this before" and makes it a little more comfortable to be in the situations that they’re in, said Lewis.

“I expect [the soldiers] to use their strength, but at the same time be aggressive in the way they posture themselves and in the way they handle the Taliban,” said Capt. Aaron J. Daniele, Company Commander of B Company, 3-41 Inf. Bn, 1-1AD. “It’s really good counter-insurgency training.”

Daniele’s biggest expectations of his soldiers are to make the right decisions. If they get into a fight and have a casualty, he doesn’t want them to go to the next village and take revenge out on them or be uptight were they end up hurting themselves or someone else because that has far reaching negative consequences that can show up in the media.

Daniele also stated that it doesn’t help the mission, what the soldiers are all about and what they are there for in Afghanistan. They are there to put the Afghan forces in charge and make sure that the Afghan forces are the ones being presented as the legitimate military force.

• Date Taken: 05.10.2012
• Date Posted: 05.22.2012 16:21
• Story ID: 88821
• Location: FORT BLISS, TX, US