Photo By Maj. Sarah Mobilio | U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Patrick Cochrane, combined anti-armor team platoon sergeant...... read more read more
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VAZIANI Training Area, Georgia – Following the two-week Exercise Agile Spirit, 27 Georgian soldiers attended a noncommissioned officer development seminar July 24 at Vaziani Training Area, Georgia.
The seminar was focused on empowering the Georgian mid-level enlisted leaders to lead their junior soldiers with strong decision making and a warrior mentality.
“We have NCOs, staff noncommissioned officers and a couple of officers here to engage with their counterparts. The NCOs will engage with the (Georgian) NCOs about leading the troops, the SNCOs will engage with (Georgian) SNCOs about how to allow their NCOs to do their jobs and the officers will talk about how to pass off some of their responsibility in order to develop the more junior ranks,” explained Cpl. Jonathan Samson, company clerk with Weapons Company, Black Sea Rotational Force and native of Burnt Hills, N.Y.
“This is very interesting for us. We are exchanging information and learning from each other,” said Georgian Cpl. David Ivanidze, a communications soldier and interpreter with the Georgian Armed Forces. “We are learning from you (the U.S. Marines) now, and it is very helpful because we have been working alongside and learning from each other for many years and will continue to do so in the future.”
An especially interesting discussion revolved around decision making – both analytical and intuitive. When the topic of intuitive decision making came up, the Georgian soldiers vocalized their understanding in response to the description given to them.
“Intuitive decision making comes from experience. With that experience you all have, that is how we make our standard operating procedures,” Gunnery Sgt. Patrick Cochrane, combined anti-armor team platoon sergeant with Weapons Company, Black Sea Rotational Force said to the group of Georgian soldiers. “We can also develop our subordinates by making up training scenarios to work on their intuitive decision making skills.”
Georgian heads nodded in agreement, most remembering their past experiences operating in Afghanistan and Iraq with U.S. troops throughout the past several years.
Other topics included describing the warrior mentality, leader’s set of values, training NCOs, the moral compass, having a 24/7 mentality, maneuver warfare, maintaining the initiative with shaping actions and decisive actions, the philosophy of command and the decision making process.
The 12 U.S. Marines with Black Sea Rotational Force who engaged with the Georgian soldiers at the seminar also trained with them at Exercise Agile Spirit, a NATO-linked exercise challenging Georgian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Latvian and Lithuanian soldiers and U.S. Marines during a command post exercise and field training exercise. Black Sea Rotational Force worked alongside Georgians, Bulgarians and Romanians during the field training exercise in the use of anti-armor weapon systems and infantry tactics aimed at increasing the Allies’ and partner nations' capabilities in a combat environment.
“We are here to become more interoperable, so that if they do end up joining NATO, our forces can combine much more easily should we ever have to fight together in the future,” said Samson.
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 07.25.2015 10:30 |
| Story ID: | 171099 |
| Location: | VAZIANI TRAINING AREA, GE |
| Hometown: | BURNT HILLS, NY, US |
| Hometown: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 77 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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