CAMP NOVO SELO, Kosovo – The Forward Command Post’s Turkish and French coys tested their quick reaction capabilities at Camp Novo Selo, Sept. 28.
The training assessed the quick reaction forces’ ability to move from their base camp to another location while responding to a call for assistance, testing their preparation to move on short notice and ability to coordinate with other coys in the event they had to respond to a civil disturbance.
U.S. Army Maj. Jace Neuenschwander, the FCP operations officer, said though the coys are trained on crowd and riot control and have practiced alerting their quick reaction forces, this training was the first time that they were able to combine both into one scenario.
"It's a great time to exercise all the pieces and the enablers, as well as all the little things we don't think of,” Neuenschwander said. “The staff communications, working through the liaison officer to countries to countries whose primary language is not English, receiving instructions and exercising those instructions, and finding the parts of the plan we haven't accounted for.”
The coy‘s had 15 minutes from being notified to be enroute to their destination. Upon arriving to Camp Novo Selo, the coys were given two different objectives. The Turkish coy had to quickly react to a civil disturbance before it could become violent while the French coy learned how to cordon off an area under protest while allowing peaceful civilians to pass.
The training served as a build-up to the upcoming Silver Saber training exercise, an annual large-scale event involving all of KFOR in a civil disturbance situation.