Knights’ Brigade Leaders Train for Success

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Sinthia Rosario | 16th Sustainment Brigade Commander, Col. Michelle K. Donahue (middle), receives a map briefing from Maj. James E. Hayes (left), executive officer, 16th Sustainment Brigade, during Knights’ Week training at Baumholder, Germany, Oct. 15, 2018. Knights’ Week is a week-long training event for brigade staff and senior leaders to conduct Professional Development, synchronize operations and build unit cohesion.  

BAUMHOLDER, RHEINLAND-PFALZ, GERMANY

10.22.2018

Story by Staff Sgt. Sinthia Rosario 

16th Sustainment Brigade

16th Sustainment Brigade leaders trained together, shared experiences, ideas and best practices during a training event known as Knights’ Week, Oct. 15-19. Knights’ Week was an opportunity to bring the leaders in the brigade together from across Europe to conduct Professional Development, synchronize operations and build unit cohesion.

“As a brigade we are spread across twenty-nine countries, and because we are so geographically dispersed across the continent, it is important to bring leaders together regularly to engage personally with each other in order to solve problems and build the team concept for sustaining a Strong Europe, said Maj. James E. Hayes, executive officer, 16th Sust. Bde.

“Some of our rotational forces have only been in Europe for a few weeks now and this event promotes a common understanding of the logistics battlefield and provides new sustainers in Europe the opportunity to ask questions and review lessons learned from previous exercises and missions.”

For Capt. Natasha Rivera, commander of 80th Movement Control Team out of Lithuania, who arrived in September, this training was a great opportunity for her to meet and interact with her counterparts.

“This training is definitely important because we’re all one team one fight,” said Rivera. “We need to know each other, to be able to help each other and putting a face to a name, knowing who they are and what their capabilities are can be of great help.”

During Knights’ Week, the senior leaders received classes on building readiness as well as live Global Combat Support System-Army and Digital Training Management System demonstrations to incorporate into company and battalion level maintenance and training meetings. They also participated in a Semi-Annual Training Brief with the Commanding General of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, a Leader Professional Development on the Army Combat Fitness Test, a tactical Dining In and a tactical Mungadai training event.

The Mungadai is a term that goes back in history to the Mongols. In the U.S. Army it is known as a name for multi-day process to test Soldiers’ endurance and warrior skills.

“It is essentially a series of various physical training events that are tied together through a common mission set that we brief to them in advance which allows them to progress systematically through each station as if the teams were on a mission,” said Maj. Theodore U. Gebhardtsbauer, an observer controller during the Mungadai training.

During the Mungadai, the company commanders were separated from their first sergeants. “They were then mixed with other commanders and first sergeants from other companies, with the intent for them to come together as a cohesive unit in an extremely short amount of time and display both skillsets of leadership and followership,” Gebhardtsbauer said. “This was so they could just work a little bit on their esprit de corps, professionalism and break them out of their normal day-to-day routine.”

For some of the leaders being separated and partnered up with their counterparts was a bit challenging. “I didn’t know many of my counterparts, and when we were set up into platoons at times it was a little confusing trying to recall who was on my team and what their names were, Rivera said. “I think we did a good job working together as a team and this just helped me get to know more about the people we don’t normally work with since not all of us are located here on Baumholder.”
At the conclusion of Knights’ Week, an After Action Report was conducted with senior leaders who participated in the training. The leaders were able to provide feedback on Knight’s Week, talk about what to sustain and improve, as well as the importance and benefits of this event and to share ideas and lessons learned for future training.

• Date Taken: 10.22.2018
• Date Posted: 10.26.2018 08:11
• Story ID: 297803
• Location: BAUMHOLDER, RHEINLAND-PFALZ, DE