FORT POLK, La. - This month, Soldiers from 21 National Guard units in addition to Active and Reserve Army units are participating in a “Decisive Action Training Environment” rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. Led by the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) headquartered in Vermont, this exercise will educate the Soldiers on what might happen when working with a host nation in large numbers.
“We are very impressed with what we have seen thus far, and feel we can add to it,” said Col. Mark Haseman, Division Chief for Stability Operations and Joint Prepotency at the PKSOI. He brings his position and experience in order to assist both trainer and trained at JRTC. As an observer, Haseman can give direct counsel to those in the leadership at JRTC. His knowledge of the current policies and tactics in stability can lead to a more realistic and informative rotation for the Soldiers.
“We have some expertise in certain areas like mass atrocities, and other possible dilemmas that we can add to the scenario,” said Haseman.
As a member of the PKSOI, Haseman and his team also role-play here, lending a significant advantage in dealings with brigade leadership and those playing the roles of authority within the training environment.
“You have such a great training environment that it’s a lost opportunity for our inner-agency partners not to have some reps out here to help with it,” said Mike Spangler, the Senior State Department representative at the PKSOI. The world is more dangerous than ever, and his team is here to understand the current preparation levels of the Soldiers.
“This exercise addresses the question; are our Soldiers ready to meet these challenges? Is this exercise doing the right thing to help prepare them to save not only their lives, but also the lives of others as directed by their commander-in-chief? So far, I think it’s a good exercise.”
At JRTC, Soldiers will benefit from the advisement and preparation this team has brought in the form of training exercises meant to emulate real-world scenarios. For example, the Soldiers later in the rotation will discover a mock mass atrocity, and it will be of great interest to the PKSOI to see how it is handled.
“The world is still full of mass atrocities,” said Spangler. “[Discovering the mass atrocity] be a difficult, complicated event for them to handle. All the factors of respect for the host nation are taken into account. It’s their country, after all. But on the other hand, the Soldiers will be the first on the scene for this, so we’ll see how they handle that. That’s a pretty complicated issue to throw at them.”
So far, the brigade has exceeded the expectations of the team from the PKSOI. Understanding the role they play in another’s nation is key. As the world changes, so must the tactics of communication between leadership.
“I think the emphasis on the inter-agency interaction with the brigade is what stands out to me,” said Haseman. “We’ve been in an environment in Afghanistan and Iraq where brigade commanders were battle space owners. They pretty much have the ability to decide what needs to be done and execute.”
In this rotation, the role of the brigade is different. Rapid movement from an autonomous role to a support one can be a challenge, yet the 86th IBCT (MTN) is retaining the aspects of teamwork in this scenario.
“Here, from the very start, [the brigade command] was very differential to the [leadership],” said Haseman. “We’re here to assist. I think that’s a very valuable lesson to learn.”
| Date Taken: | 06.17.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 06.19.2014 17:46 |
| Story ID: | 133714 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LA, US |
| Web Views: | 79 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Peacekeeping Support Comes to JRTC, by SPC Roy Mercon, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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