Photo By Sgt. Adrian Shelton | U.S. Army Pvt. Edward R. Ayala (left) and 1st Lt. Vincent W. Calvillo (seated) of 82nd...... read more read more
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U.S. Army Garrison, Hohenfels, Germany - Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division tracked daily troop movements in June 2016 during Exercise Swift Response.
Exercise Swift Response 2016 is the premier military crisis-response training event, involving a multinational task force whose primary purpose is evaluating and enhancing the readiness of the Global Response Force to rapidly deploy anywhere in the world within 24 hours. The first phase began May 27 in Poland with paratroopers from multiple nations conducting simultaneous airborne jumps to demonstrate allied rapid-response capabilities. Phase Two moved to Hohenfels with another large airborne jump, which included elements that the Rotational White Cell team is tracking on a daily basis.
"Here at the White Cell, our primary mission for this rotation is tracking any real- world casualties that have come from recent airborne operations, as well as tracking overall personnel that we're responsible for here at Camp Albertshof," said U.S. Army 1st Lt. Vincent W. Calvillo of the 82nd Airborne Division. Calvillo is the officer in charge of the White Cell team, and has a staff of enlisted Soldiers who monitor all of Exercise Swift Response's moving parts.
"We report to our first brigade chain of command regarding our daily personnel status, situational reports, and an overall picture of what we do here daily," Calvillo said.
Being responsible for all Soldiers in the training area has its complexities that require good management skills.
"That entails conducting an overall accountability of soldiers here, so when we have real world casualties, we house them here and make sure they're taken care of," Calvillo said. "We make sure they have the proper necessities and then from there we go and link up with, and transport them back to their units so they can return to duty and get back in the rotation. It entails precise coordination."
Speed matters during Exercise Swift Response, and the White Cell team does its best to incorporate speed into its own operations.
"Most times I'm running," said Pvt. Edward R. Ayala of the 82nd Airborne Division. "It's been hectic, but we still get manage to get through it. We get our job done, finding out who's a casualty, accounting for what equipment they can take with them to the aid station or hospital, where is everyone sleeping, are they going to return to duty?"
Tracking the participants of Exercise Swift Response entails both administrative and logistical, including any vehicle utilized in the training area, and precise coordination with the American Red Cross, Calvillo said.
"If we receive a Red Cross message, we execute the paperwork usually done for a pass or leave in the most expedient manner possible, and it'll be executed within 24 hours," Calvillo said. "We make sure they get out of here and get back to their loved ones."
Relationships with all of the multinational forces at Exercise Swift Response also matter to the success of the exercise.
"With some foreigners, it still is a bit of a hassle because of the language barrier," Ayala said. "But we still manage to communicate, and we're still tracking people. We deal with the French, Polish, British, and our own Soldiers."
"Coordination of everything medical, logistical, and administrative is done here at White Cell," Calvillo said. "We're all working together as a team, and we are executing in our job in as expeditious and efficient a manner as possible to ensure we can get to them what they actually need. We're looking at no more than a 24-hour turnaround for everything we do here."
That is the same amount of time the Global Response Force allows itself to respond to conflict in the world.
| Date Taken: | 06.15.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.22.2016 08:13 |
| Story ID: | 202025 |
| Location: | DE |
| Web Views: | 168 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, White Cell tracks closely manages successful operations at Swift Response, by SGT Adrian Shelton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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