Photo By Col. Junel Jeffrey-Kim | Members of the 3rd (UK) Division, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry...... read more read more
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SALISBURY, England – After an already busy year involving a successful brigade rotation at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California; a joint Exportable Combat Training Center field training exercise with the Mississippi Army National Guard; the return of a battalion from Korea; and numerous events in between, Soldiers of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team “Greywolf,” 1st Cavalry Division once again left their Fort Hood, Texas, homes to embark on a unique mission.
Members of Greywolf staff crossed the globe, traveling more than 4,850 miles to Salisbury, England, for Exercise Iron Resolve ’15, the 3rd (United Kingdom) Division’s validation training exercise that integrated multinational units within its roster of combat units.
“Exercise Iron Resolve is really a warfighting exercise that goes from the peer-on-peer threat all the way to the hybrid threat,” said Col. Matthew Van Wagenen, commander of the Greywolf brigade. “We replicated bringing the entire brigade over to really exercise and warfight with the 3rd UK Division. It’s been a great learning experience.”
Helping to bring the coalition feel of the exercise to life, the 3rd ABCT and the 1st Danish Brigade traveled to England to operate as combat brigades subordinate to the 3rd (UK) Division.
The program kicked off with a week of academics to bring its nearly 1,100 British, American, and Danish army participants onto the same page in terms of which units were represented and how the division wanted to operate throughout its field time. The 3rd (UK) “Iron” Division headquarters spent its final two exercise weeks in the countryside on the Westdown Camp Training Facility refining its ability to efficiently operate division-level tactics, techniques and procedures within a NATO construct.
“Training with multinational partners remains one of our top training priorities,” said Maj. Marc Tyers, 3rd (UK) Division’s training director. “It is highly likely that any potential deployment will see the division commanding multinational formations, and this training exercise provides the perfect opportunity to better understand how to operate alongside our closest allies.”
Upon completion of the exercise Oct. 9, the British headquarters will be validated across a number of focus areas as a command post.
“We have to train like we’re going to fight, and that’s coming together in these kinds of environments, in these kinds of settings, so that we can leverage every opportunity that we have to train together,” said Van Wagenen.
From participating in operational planning teams to liaising division staff, brigade staff members used the IR’15 training exercise to increase their individual leader development skills and to increase the capacity of the Iron Division.
One Greywolf trooper even worked behind the scenes to manage the story lines being used during the training.
Capt. James Young, a simulations officer with the 3rd ABCT, spent a great deal of time and effort with the 3rd Division Exercise's control planning exercise events and setting the scene to ensure the division’s training objectives were being met.
“All aspects of the exercise much be synced, or the exercise will lose credibility,” said Young, who hails from Sebring, Florida. “Keeping an exercise this large in scale in sync is a challenging and daunting task, and the exercise coordinators did a great job.”
Young – and many other members for the Greywolf staff – hadn’t been to England before, and the opportunity to immerse themselves in British culture and cuisine, and learn about Danish and British military operations were added benefits of the exercise.
“We’ve got a lot to share and a lot in common, but also we do think slightly differently, and we can learn a lot from each other,” said Capt. Dan Cornwell, 3rd (UK) Division logistics and liaison officer to 3rd ABCT during Iron Resolve. “The way we do business from now is always going to be in a multinational environment, and I think it’s really important that we try to integrate in peacetime, as well as in wartime when we may well be fully integrated with other brigades.”
Even though English is the official language of both the U.S. and the UK, and all of the Danish participants were English speakers, the exercise sometimes tested all three countries’ use of Queen’s tongue – with a few communication mishaps along the way Cornwell found that he might confuse coalition members by saying “half nine” instead of 9:30 a.m.
And while English may have been the common language, IR ’15 participants also found that some military doctrinal terms also needed a little translation.
“I think it forces us to understand how we do business and how we can integrate others into that,” said Cornwell. “Given the world as it is now and as it will be in the future, we’ll always be together, and we’ll be looking toward our allies to support us in any sort of endeavor we go for. We’ll always be part of a multinational construct.”
That very multinational construct is just as present in the 3rd (UK) Division, which recently welcomed its first U.S. deputy commanding general.
Brig. Gen. Michael Tarsa, who earned a 1st Cavalry Division patch during a previous deployment and now proudly wears it during his two-year stint with the 3rd (UK) Division, said that as the security environment grows in complexity, our ability to work across multinational lines within the NATO alliance to operate effectively, offsetting any technical inconsistencies is very important.
“I have a considerable amount of time at Fort Hood, so to see a brigade from the storied 1st Cavalry Division and come over to the United Kingdom and fall subordinate to the 3rd UK is really a special opportunity,” said Tarsa. “I’m very pleased and very proud of the great job that Greywolf, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division has done here. They have represented the United States exceptionally well and add value each and every day to our tactical scenario.”
Van Wagenen added that he too is proud of the performance of his Gretwolf Troopers and staff.
“Team Greywolf has turned in a first-class performance and is representing well for the 1st Cavalry Division and the U.S. Army,” said Van Wagenen. “Not only are we taking an active role in the warfighting capability development of the 3rd (UK) Division during its principal validation exercise, but we’re also learning new techniques, building relationships with key allies, and bridging multinational capability gaps to ensure our armies can seamlessly operate together on the modern battlefield anywhere in the world the mission may call.”
| Date Taken: | 10.08.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 10.08.2015 18:26 |
| Story ID: | 178524 |
| Location: | SALISBURY, GB |
| Hometown: | SEBRING, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 131 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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