Operating the ION, the Information Operations Network

KALAMAZOO, MI, UNITED STATES

03.17.2021

Story by Spc. Tyler Morford 

First Army

Sgt. Vaughn Rowles, from Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a Battalion Command Language Program Manager with the 407th Civil Affairs Battalion, Arden Hills, Minnesota, has a unique role as an Army linguist. Working with the ION, the Information Operations Network, Sgt. Rowles uses his language expertise as a creative content-lead to ensure the real-world scenarios sent through the ION simulations look and sound real to the area of operations. Sgt. Rowles explains, “Were actually able to use a linguist’s skills in relevant areas for Civil Affairs and in the operational environment they will be experiencing when they deploy.”

Sgt. Alexander Lind from the 407th CA BN, the Deputy Exercise Director, explains what the ION is, “The Information Operations Network (ION) is an intranet, it’s an enclosed system, that we use to properly emulate real-world scenarios, utilizing our own training ideas. It allows soldiers from home or from their duty stations to be able to train in a real-world capacity before being able to go overseas.”

The ION, after being tailored by the operations team with a scenario, sends information in the form of replicated content, such as fictional social media posts, videos, or news articles to the training site, in this case Fort Custer Training Center, Augusta, Michigan, where Soldiers from the 308th CA BDE and the 415th CA BN are being evaluated and validated in an exercise, known as Crimson Dawn 3.0. The replicated web content is produced in foreign languages to make the scenarios all the more realistic. Sgt. Rowles ensures the content is consistent based on the area of operation presented and that the language emulated is accurate.

The Chief of Operations Exercise Director, Capt. Christopher Speller from the 432nd CA BN, describes the importance of the ION in Soldier's training, “It’s vital, what we’re doing is absolutely essential to prepare our Soldiers for what they will be encountering; influence operations, misinformation, these are happening in every corner of the world, and our ability to replicate that, and to input that for a training audience, provides them the opportunity to train here where we can learn lessons now, on how to work in that civil domain, the civil information domain, as Civil Affairs soldiers, and hopefully shape and work with our counterparts and shape our environment in that capacity.”

The 308th CA BDE and the 415th CA BN are being assessed on how the units react to this scenario in this replicated digital environment as Cpt. Speller explains, “It’s going to bring us the data, not only to track their METS, their Mission Essential Tasks that they’re validating on, but also how they’re performing on leadership or other issues they may encounter downrange; this exercise provides us with valuable data and valuable feedback for the training audience so that they can become better.”

Sgt. Rowles feels confident in his role, “I feel like we’re putting out a scenario that actually emulates the real-world, and were able to do that through ION, were able to pull in current events that are within the last couple of years, and put it into the scenario to make it as realistic as possible and to hopefully make it look a lot like what they will actually see in these countries, that gives me faith that when this unit deploys, they’ll do a great job, and if my unit replaces them, they’ll have laid a great groundwork that we can pick up and continue their work.”

Sgt. Lind describes the feedback from Soldiers who trained on the ION scenarios, “The feedback has been really good, a lot of the officers had really enjoyed the realism of it, we have had a lot of the junior Soldiers and junior NCOs, who are seeing a level of training that they haven’t seen before, and they are able to understand, doctrinally, things that they understood, but didn’t see in real-life, and that’s a really cool thing as a sergeant, being in charge of training, to be able to witness; going forward, we’d like to see this become a bigger thing.”

• Date Taken: 03.17.2021
• Date Posted: 06.01.2021 09:48
• Story ID: 391917
• Location: KALAMAZOO, MI, US
• Hometown: BROOKLYN CENTER, MN, US