Military intelligence Army Reserve Soldiers participate in Exercise Always Engaged

Photo By Todd Pruden | Soldiers with the 321st Military Intelligence Brigade, out of Orlando, Florida, react to direct fire during a training scenario at Camp Bullis, Texas, July 21, 2017, during Exercise Always Engaged, an Army Reserve MI training mission.  

CAMP BULLIS, TX, UNITED STATES

07.21.2017

Story by Todd Pruden 

Exercise News Day

Soldiers with the 321st Military Intelligence Battalion out of Orlando, Florida, are participating in Exercise Always Engaged, an MI training mission aimed to ready the unit for an upcoming deployment.

"The idea is for us to really come in here in a way to see where we are. We look at this as a combination with sticks lanes and also a certification exercise. This is where I can bring my troops, my counter intelligence, my human intelligence and also what we call PED, which is process, exploitation and dissemination, and it allows us to be able to train," said Lt. Col. Bill Putnam, commander of the 321st MI Bn. "And although we can train during Battle Assembly, it allows us to be able to come here and conduct collective training in the facilities that we don't always necessarily have at home station and to really get an idea of where we are."

Exercise Always Engaged plays off the motto of the Military Intelligence Readiness Command, based out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia, which is "Always Engaged." The MIRC provides deployable forces and vital support that enable intelligence operations, expeditionary missions and international engagement.

"It's great to come here because it allows the Soldiers to see really, where are they," Putnam said. "Because, you can train at home station and you can go through with your first-line leaders and say, 'OK, I think we're pretty good here. Here's an area we need to work on.' But now, I have objective personnel coming from the outside who are looking at us and giving us that hands-on perspective that I otherwise wouldn't have."

Formed in 2005 as the U.S Army Reserve's first functional command, the MIRC has grown into an intelligence partner and provider. The MIRC consists of over 6,300 Soldiers in more than 40 units across the continental US, Hawaii and Europe. Since its inception, the MIRC has deployed approximately 6,000 Soldiers in support of named and unnamed contingencies around the world and provides operational intelligence support to nearly every national intelligence agency and combatant command.

"The MIRC has wanted to create a culminating exercise at the battalion (level), specifically for the … expeditionary military intelligence battalions," said Capt. Omar Alvidrez, 321st MI Bn. operations officer. "The bottom line with this exercise is, with this new EMIB concept … We wanted to essentially exercise our intel functional skills on the intel side of the house. That would be our counter-intelligence, our PED operations … and then our humanist capability as well."

Like their active counterparts, MIRC Soldiers provide a breadth of intelligence specialties, supply relevant and valuable operational intelligence support and stand ready for rapid deployment when needed.

"I've got to be honest about it. Here we are, we're about 11 days in and I think it's going really, really well," said Putnam. "So, I'm really pleased and I think the feedback I am going to get is going to really help me and my team to put together the plan we need to take us to the next level."

Putnam said the training is about ensuring his Soldiers are engaged and the training evolves throughout the time the Soldiers are conducting the exercise.

"Taking care of Soldiers is meaning, are they trained and ready to go down range, to fight and to win and to come home alive," Putnam said. "This is allowing us to do that from an individual part and then moving into the collective and we can do more collective training here at this (annual training) with these wonderful facilities than we can at home station."

• Date Taken: 07.21.2017
• Date Posted: 07.24.2017 06:37
• Story ID: 242250
• Location: CAMP BULLIS, TX, US
• Hometown: ORLANDO, FL, US