Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Terra Gatti | Soldiers of the British Army’s 1st Battalion, The Rifles, visit a notional village...... read more read more
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STANFORD TRAINING AREA, U.K. – For two weeks, more than 700 Soldiers from five nations spread across 13 time zones lived, trained and learned together, reacting to rioters, protecting food and medical supplies from would-be looters, interacting with villagers and manning checkpoints. Together they dodged hurled potatoes, planned missions in poorly-lit village centers and protected their posts, all as part of the second phase of Steppe Eagle 16.
Now in its 13th year, Steppe Eagle is a USARCENT led multinational training exercise that this year brought Soldiers from the United Kingdom, the United States, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to the northeast corner of England, the British Army's Stanford Training Area in the northeast corner of England. This year, like all years, Steppe Eagle focused on building and honing the peacekeeping and peace support capabilities of participating nations.
“We live in an uncertain time with an uncertain world which is increasingly unstable and at times insecure,” explained Brigadier Martin Gamble, commander of the 160th Infantry Brigade. “Our responsibility in that is to keep the peace and build a safe and secure environment.”
Steppe Eagle, like many USARCENT exercises, achieves many goals. The event aims to prepare the Kazakhstan Peacekeeping Battalion, or KAZBAT, for validation to deploy in support of global peacekeeping and peace support operations while working to strengthen the relationships between these nations, allowing Soldiers to find commonalities among their diverse cultures and to learn from one another.
“The most important thing that goes on in these exercises is yes, it’s building capability, but it’s also about building understanding, it’s building relationships, it’s building trust and you can’t build that overnight,” explained Maj. Gen. Giles Hill, commanding general of the 1st (United Kingdom) Division.
For Steppe Eagle, units were divided into two battalions, one primarily comprised of KAZBAT troops and the other multinational with Soldiers from all five participating nations. As the exercise began, battalion leadership went to work on mission planning and operations development while Soldiers headed out to the field for four days of situational training lanes where they focused on reacting to public disturbances, conducting a cordon and search, securing an international border and conducting civil military operations.
“The [situational training] prepared them for the Field Training Exercise, or FTX,” explained Capt. Christopher Wille, of the 116th Military Engagement Team who worked as an observer/mentor during the exercise.
Maj. Cletis Derek Butler, who managed the civil military operations lane, explained that managing and working with displaced persons and locals is a big part of the job when Soldiers deploy in support of peacekeeping operations. He explained that the lanes helped lay the foundation of knowledge for the Soldiers and helped “key leaders to understand the relationship between civil organizations, governments and the military.”
Similarly, the tasks completed in the other training lanes mimicked the situations they would surely encounter during the FTX and likely encounter were they to deploy in support of real-world peacekeeping operations.
Following the situational training, Soldiers took a day to reset and to partake in good-natured rivalry during a sporting competition. The event included a strong man competition, volleyball and football tournaments, a tug-of-war competition and a relay race.
“I think my favorite part was probably the sporting competition,” said Maj. Benjamin Salt, of 1st Battalion, The Rifles, who oversaw much of the exercise. “We do a lot of military stuff, obviously, but there’s another part to it and it’s about understanding each other. Sports day is a bit more relaxed, a bit more social, and people can actually talk and understand that our cultures aren’t that much different and that we all want the same thing.”
Overall, the Kazakhstanis took the win for Sports Day, with the British troops winning the football match, the Americans taking the tug-of-war competition.
After that, it was back to work for the 700 troops at Steppe Eagle. With the exception of only the exercise controllers, all Soldiers headed to various training villages scattered around the Stanford Training Area for a five-day FTX. There, the Soldiers encountered much of what they had experienced on the situational training lanes, only on a larger and more continuous scale.
“The KAZBAT staff collected, processed, analyzed and disseminated information from their higher headquarters, subordinate units and other sources,” explained Wille, who worked with the KAZBAT during the FTX. “Based on this information, leaders and staff then planned and executed operations to improve security in their area of operations, disrupt illicit networks and provide humanitarian relief to the local populace.”
The local populace, in the case of Steppe Eagle, was played by British and American Soldiers who helped to add realism to the event. They played villagers and displaced persons, as well as humanitarian aid and assistance workers, mayors and police chiefs.
“It was the most awesome experience I’ve had in my military career,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jackie Pace, a role player from the 116th Military Engagement Team. “It was working with the other Soldiers as role players as well as the Soldiers that were out there for the exercise. It was also the first time I’ve ever been arrested.”
At the FTX, the KAZBAT went through a sort of preliminary evaluation, with evaluators from NATO observing many of their training events to ensure they were on track to earn level one validation next year.
“I think it went really, really well,” Salt said. “The endstate of this is that they know their strengths and they know their weaknesses for next year when they go to their evaluation and we can now use our resources in an effective manner to really target the areas where they need improvement.”
On the final day of the FTX, July 28, nearly 60 distinguished visitors, along with representatives from the media, descended upon Eastmere Village, one of the primary training sites used throughout the exercise, to observe the culminating training event.
“I’m very impressed,” said the Right Honorable Mike Penning, Britain’s armed forces minister. “To see countries coming together, the good guys coming together and actually training so we can have the confidence to go out and actually protect and conduct peacekeeping activities around the world is simply thrilling.”
In addition to Penning, Gamble and Giles, other distinguished visitors included Lord Mohamed Sheikh, member of the House of the Lords, and his wife, Lady Shaida Sheikh; Lt. Gen. Michael X. Garrett, commanding general of U.S. Army Central; His Excellency Erzhan Kazykhanov, the Kazakh Ambassador to the U.K.; Turdakun Sydykov, minister-counsellor at the Kyrgyzstan embassy in London; and Lt. Col. Khotasho Kurbanov, the senior military representative from Tajikistan.
As the distinguished visitors watched from two stories up in the center of the village, American and KAZBAT Soldiers surrounded the area, forming an outer and inner cordon. British troops soon entered the village on foot, interacting with role players and gleaning bits of information from them as they patrolled through the town. They were after a suspected smuggler, all part of the training exercise, and soon shots rang out across the town square. Kazakhstani soldiers reacted, the target was identified and escorted out, but the villagers were angry with the rising violence in their town and started to riot. They built up a barricade as British and KAZBAT troops marched into the town with shields and protective equipment, pushed through the barricade and quickly dispersed the potato-throwing crowd in the final training event of Steppe Eagle.
“I was very impressed with the KAZBAT’s performance,” said Maj. Eric Elliott, who ran the scenarios and injects for the duration of the exercise. “We learned a lot from them, and I think everyone got a lot out of the exercise.”
Finally, Soldiers and distinguished guests gathered on the parade field to officially close Steppe Eagle 16.
“The aim of Steppe Eagle is to develop the expertise and experience of Kazakhstan’s peacekeepers and to strengthen operations between the forces of the countries involved,” Kazykhanov said during his remarks at the closing ceremony. “Both of these goals have been achieved over the last few days.”
At the close of the ceremony, Garrett saluted as a parade of Soldiers marched proudly past.
"The one thing I would ask all of you to remember and to not take for granted, is the ease of which professional militaries are able to come together and operate," Garrett said. "It is something that is not replicated in any other profession that I know of. It's one of those things that is very special about being a servant of our countries."
| Date Taken: | 08.09.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 08.10.2016 06:38 |
| Story ID: | 206493 |
| Location: | THETFORD, NFK, GB |
| Web Views: | 113 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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