Photo By Sgt. Joshua Laidacker | Company A, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team,...... read more read more
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HUNTER ARMY AIRFIELD, Ga. – Company A, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, deployed from Hunter Army Airfield to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Aug. 14, 2015, in support of U.S. Africa Command.
The company will fall under the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, which helps to protect U.S. interests through military engagement and by providing military support to East African partner nations.
“Our mission is basically on a [quick reaction force] status, so we could get called up at any time to go to any of the various countries that we will be covering, 10 different nations, where we have any U.S. interest in,” said Capt. Reamer Argo, commander of Company A, 3-15 Inf. “If, for any reason there’s a civil war, civil conflict, something that it’s determined that we need to bring our U.S. interest out of that country, we’re then there to help assist in that capacity.”
U.S. interests refers to United States military, diplomatic, and civilian personnel and facilities.
The company will be supporting CJTF-HOA in the role of East Africa Response Force based at the camp. The task force works closely with our East African partner nations to conduct missions or operations that support and further our mutual security goals and objectives in Africa, but maintains Africans are best able to address African security challenges.
Company A has been preparing for months to support these missions in their assigned region.
“We put together schools, we got the joint doctrine, we wrote out our training, and then we sat down and we went through the validation exercise with our battalion two weeks ago and I think our guys looked really good out there,” Argo said. “So, I’d definitely say that they’re definitely ready for this.”
The companies of 3-15 Inf., or the China Battalion, who were designated for the mission, participated in a validation exercise which tested the companies’ abilities to perform specific missions such embassy defense, target discrimination and personnel extraction.
Although the soldiers have been preparing for months for this mission, the leaders still expect there to be challenges.
“The hardest part about deployments, really, is the unknown,” said 1st Sgt. Aaron Bullard, first sergeant of Company A, 3-15 Inf. “The experienced Soldiers that have deployed, they can help alleviate some of that stress because they’ve already been down that road.”
Sgt. 1st Class Robles, an infantry platoon sergeant with Company A, 3-15 Infantry, is one of those experienced soldiers who deployed to Djibouti previously in a civil affairs unit.
“We built hospitals and wells to help people and maintain stability in the area,” Robles said. “At the same time, we built confidence in the United States that we are there to support and help them, creating new allies.”
Robles said his experience leads him to continue educating his soldiers on the rules and regulations of each region. The rules change for each area they may operate in.
“This mission is a little different but it still has the goal of regional stability that we were trying to start from the humanitarian aspect,” Robles said.
Robles added this mission is not only different for him, but for most other leaders with deployment experience.
“Most deployments an infantry company goes on you’re going out on patrols and doing night time missions,” Bullard said. “It’s not a proactive thing we’re going to be doing.”
Waiting for events requiring a reaction is the nature of response force responsibility. Argo says he expects to have a lot of time between missions to accomplish other important goals, such as training and building relations with foreign allies through partnerships.
“When we’re over there, we’re going to train as much as we can; staying up to date, staying prepared and ready for the mission,” Argo said.
Argo says he will attempt joint exercises in addition to maintaining readiness through training.
“The French are located over there in Djibouti,” Argo said. “We’re going to try to do our best to partner with them, try to work them into some of our different exercises and they have a couple different schools we’re going to try to get Soldiers to do.”
Robles said last time he was in Djibouti he sent nine soldiers to the French Desert Survival Training course.
“That’s one of my priorities for training,” Robles said, adding that building relations with foreign allies is very important.
“Especially with the French because of location,” Robles said. “We do not get to train with them too much. Opportunities like this don’t come around the corner too often.”
| Date Taken: | 08.14.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 08.21.2015 17:42 |
| Story ID: | 173945 |
| Location: | HUNTER ARMY AIRFIELD, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 208 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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