Photo By Staff Sgt. Tiffany Lundberg | DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - Eastern Accord 2016 participants leave for the Tanzanian...... read more read more
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Many times during a military exercise the articles, photos and videos are of the participants and actors participating in the event. But who makes the mission “tick?” Who is greasing the parts in the machine supporting the overall mission? For the U.S. Army Africa-led Eastern Accord 2016, the members of the 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division came to the rescue.
“We make sure that the 200 people who are participating in this event from nine different countries have lodging, food, transportation and other support they may need,” said U.S. Army Capt. Brian Neal, 2nd Brig. 3rd ID assistant brigade fire support officer and EA16 mayor.
EA16 is an annual, combined, joint military exercise that brings together partner nations to practice and demonstrate proficiency in conducting peacekeeping operations. The two-week exercise builds readiness, maintain U.S. and African coalition partnerships, facilitate interoperability between militaries and capacity building.
The 1-9th FA arrived before the main exercise group to ensure smooth arrivals for the participants and to coordinate the daily logistics plans for the duration of the exercise. Every morning the mayor cell made sure the exercise participants were transported to the exercise site, received lunch meals and water, and had transportation back to their respective lodging. They maintained accountability for both the U.S. assets participating and the partner nations’ participants as well.
“I also work with the joint visitors bureau who are facilitating and working with all the distinguished visitors that will be coming in for the D.V. day,” said U.S. Capt. James Moats, 1-9th FA assistant specialist in operations officer and EA16 chief of operations and sustainment. “We coordinate with the security elements that have been providing us with police escorts to and from the training site and also will be providing the security elements that will be taking us out on the cultural day as well.”
For some of the soldiers, their roles at the exercise were not what they normally do back home at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
“This is very different from what I do back at Fort Stewart, where I plan a lot of training and some logistical support,” said Neal. “But this has been completely different and a great learning opportunity for me and for my guys. We are really enjoying this opportunity to get to operate in this type of environment.”
For U.S. Army 1st Lt. Theresa Bucco, who was the mayor cell officer in charge at the, her normal duty was as a platoon leader for a 1-9th FA howitzer platoon. At EA16, she maintained accountability for the U.S. and partner nations’ members as they traveled to and from the training site and also maintained visibility on participants flying in or out of the country.
“It gives me a better idea of staff work and what goes into it because I’ve never been in a staff before so it is eye opening to see what would be happening at the battalion level since I am normally at the battery or company level,” she said.
The training location and multinational exercise in itself not only provided a leadership laboratory for the training audience but also for the support roles that provided a backbone for the entire exercise.
“This event is making everybody more rounded dealing with a multinational event like this,” said Neal. “It definitely comes with different challenges but we are rising to the occasion and have been pretty successful and will keep working hard.”
| Date Taken: | 07.15.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 07.15.2016 08:25 |
| Story ID: | 204051 |
| Location: | DAR ES SALAAM, TZ |
| Web Views: | 87 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, The backbone of Eastern Accord 2016, by SSgt Tiffany Lundberg, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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