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By Capt. Joshua Robinson
SKWIERZYNA, Poland – Leaders from the 299th Brigade Support Battalion, the ‘Lifeline Battalion,’ 2nd Brigade Armored Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, ventured out to the training areas at Skwierzyna, Nov. 20-22, to exercise their mission command and defensive capabilities in a command post exercise and a tactical exercise without troops.
The CPX prepared the unit for future battalion level training exercises and a capstone multinational exercise, Combined Resolve X, in which they’ll participate in spring 2018.
The Lifeline Battalion is a combat service and support unit deployed to Central Europe on a nine-month rotation in support of Atlantic Resolve, which is a mission dedicated to strengthening the defensive and deterrent capabilities of the NATO Alliance.
Lifeline leaders sought to efficiently establish their command posts, validate their load plans, test their communications, and demonstrate their proficiency in camouflage within the confines of Polish forests and terrain.
“The command post is the head and the heart of any organization, where my staff and I control current operations, plan future operations, and issue orders that flex the organization into action to accomplish any given mission,” said Lt. Col. Brian Wallace, commanding officer, 299th Brigade Support Battalion.
“Mission command is integral to how we sustain and demonstrate our readiness to win.”
According to Army doctrine, mission command is the exercise of authority and direction by a commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders.
After the command post exercise was evaluated and completed, Lifeline leaders conducted a tactical exercise without troops to visualize the concept of the strong-point defense to develop standard operating procedures for base defense operations.
“We reached back into history and old doctrine to figure out how to fight and defend ourselves on a European battlefield, said Capt. Matthew Curliss, Battalion Intelligence Officer. “We looked into lessons learned by the German Wehrmacht and how they defended their rear supply areas on the Eastern Front during WWII.
“They adopted a strong-point defensive strategy that maximized their limited combat power forward, and allowed rear area troops to defend their positions against Soviet attacks, said Curliss. Base Supply Area perimeters are typically easy targets but when we make every work area a strong point, we can better defend ourselves against enemy attacks.”
In the end, both exercises allowed the Lifeline leaders to leverage lessons from history and Army doctrine to continue to reinforce their capabilities and their mission readiness.
| Date Taken: | 11.26.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.26.2017 01:48 |
| Story ID: | 256456 |
| Location: | PL |
| Web Views: | 553 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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