Iowa Army National Guard Soldiers Role Play for Arctic Anvil 2016

FORT GREELY, AK, UNITED STATES

07.28.2016

Story by Staff Sgt. Matthew Garvey 

135th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

Note: In the following article, references to insurgents and villagers actually refer to Iowa National Guard role players during Arctic Anvil 2016.
Iowa Army National Guard Soldiers are assigned with different tasks and various roles. These soldiers are infantrymen, tankers, engineers, administrative clerks, mechanics, radio operators, intelligence analysts and so on. They are privates, specialists, sergeants, master sergeants, command sergeants major, lieutenants, captains, colonels and generals.
These soldiers are also civilians, doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, welders, truck drivers, students, parents, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. They come from all walks of life with different backgrounds, education, religious and ethnic backgrounds.
Give them a task and they will do it.
Iowa soldiers like all soldiers can be role players. Actors if you prefer.
Actors play to an audience on a stage or on the TV, or on film. It is unlikely that they plan to play a role that could be in real life where reality and fiction can become blurred.
This is what Sgt. Jessie M. Reis from Center Point, Iowa with Alpha Company 133rd Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the Iowa Army National Guard did in support of U.S. Army Alaska units during Arctic Anvil 2016, a ‎joint‬, multinational‬ exercise which includes forces from ‪#USARAK‬’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division and U.S. Army Alaska Aviation Task Force, along with forces from the 196th Infantry Brigade’s Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Capability, the Iowa National Guard’s 133rd Infantry Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
Reis played the role of a villager named Sukar. A mechanic, husband and father and member of the village Gunung. He is a man concerned about the war being fought between American forces and insurgents.
Sukar (Reis) brought his concerns and what he wanted in return for his information with Spc. Eric H. Sanchez of Tacoma, Washington with of Delta Company 75th Brigade Engineer Battalion out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Winston Y. Ahn of Upland California with the 426 Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne) out of Upland California and Army Sgt. Robert D. Gomez of Clovis California with Headquarters Headquarters Company 1st of the 24th Battalion 1st of the 25th Brigade out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
"Do not like all the fighting. Want to help stop this," said Sukar (Reis).
Sukar (Reis) was willing to give information about insurgent activity near his village that included his brother in law, an insurgent.
Sukar is concerned for his wife's safety, his family and for his village. He has information to share but he wants some things in return. Most of all he wants the war that has brought devastation, death a hunger and he is willing to risk everything to see that this happens.
Although Sukar is willing to give information to the American forces during the Arctic Anvil exercise he does want some things in return for his wife, family and for his village.
"I want 25 steaks and grill for village," said Sukar (Reis).
Although Arctic Anvil is a U.S. Army Pacific level exercise focused on providing a robust pre-combined training center force on force combat exercise primarily for the soldiers of the 1st Stryker Battalion combat Team and the 1st of the 52nd Aviation Battalion out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, it is equally important to Reis and the other soldiers of 1st Battalion 133rd Infantry Regiment.
Soldiers such as Reis, playing a role takes on a new dimension. It is for training, but it is a role that is an essential to learn and to know how to act and react to different situations with different people with varying religious, economic and ethnic backgrounds.
It can mean the difference between success and failure, good relations and bad ones. It can be essentially, life and death.
It is for this reason that soldiers train for many possibilities that can occur across the globe. To be ready for all foreseeable circumstances be it to engage and destroy the enemy or to give aid to to civilians in far off land.
Soldiers learn to work with civilians that may be on the field of battle to build trust with them, and the civilians trust them to share information to help defeat the enemy and make their lives better. This means soldiers can give them aid to meet their needs and give them security and peace of mind.
Actors play their role and then they are done and it is on to a new one.
The mission of the Iowa Army National Guard and the regular Army is not to just meet and destroy the enemy. It is to quickly end the hostilities, and working with people of foreign countries is paramount to making this happen.
Soldiers play a crucial role of being a representative, an ambassador for the U.S. is part of that role.
In armed conflict, soldiers are the face of United States and they meet the enemy but also the civilian populace.
How soldiers interact with these people can mean the difference between winning or losing, shortening a war or prolonging it.
It is for this reason soldiers like Reis play the roles of civilians and the enemy. To be prepared for anything that may come.

• Date Taken: 07.28.2016
• Date Posted: 07.28.2016 23:15
• Story ID: 205413
• Location: FORT GREELY, AK, US
• Hometown: CENTER POINT, IA, US
• Hometown: CLOVIS, CA, US
• Hometown: DUBUQUE, IA, US
• Hometown: TACOMA, WA, US
• Hometown: UPLAND, CA, US