WATERTOWN, N.Y. - Approximately 80 soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, participated in Company Intelligence Support Teams training Aug 27-30 at the Brigade headquarters on Fort Drum.
Intelligence teams are designed to analyze the effects of weather, terrain, enemy activity and local population on friendly operations; reducing uncertainty and aiding in decision making at the company level.
“COISTs are relatively new to the Army. They were integrated into our training plans around 2009,” said Chief Warrant Officer 1 Glen Gleason, an all source intelligence technician, assigned to 2nd BCT. “To my knowledge this is the first small scale COIST training event 2BCT has executed.”
During the four days, soldiers rotated through the training; familiarizing themselves with the systems used to communicate the information they have gathered to other companies.
“These soldiers are broken down in three to five man teams, with about four teams per battalion,” Gleason said. “What’s interesting is that most of them are infantrymen, not guys with a background in intelligence.”
In a deployed environment the teams would be assigned to different forward operating bases in 2nd BCT’s area of operation; each team being responsible for gathering information in their AO and passing the information to their leadership and key personnel.
“This concept [will] provide the lowest level commanders with the lowest level of intelligence, assisting them with daily decision making and providing higher commands with accurate intelligence,” Gleason continued.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nathaniel Ellis, an intelligence system maintenance officer, assigned to Bravo Company, 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion hopes the Soldiers learned a lot from the training.
“We hope that the soldiers who attended the training will have a better understanding of the systems and what problems are specific to them,” he said.