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FORT BRAGG, N.C. – For three days in the beginning of November, the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Group Support Battalion, hosted a Modular Capabilities Demonstration to showcase the battalion’s various logistical, signal, and medical enablers.
Representatives from the Human Resources Command, the Sustainment Commands on Fort Bragg, and the Special Operations Command participated in briefings, demonstrations and a rock drill to promote a better understaning of the Group Support Battalion and their role in support of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan.
The commander of the Group Support Battalion, Lt. Col. Ronald Ragin said, “The MOD Demo is basically an information sharing campaign. We have an enormous amount of capabilities that are resident in the battalion, over 35 different military occupational specialties. I probably have the most complex battalion in the group.”
The demo, which ran from 2 through 4 November, was broken down into three phases beginning at the Special Operations Museum in downtown Fayetteville.
During the first iteration, participants including soldiers from the GSB received an overview of the CJSOTF-A operational area in Afghanistan and discussed the issues support elements face working in that environment.
Ragin said it was important to go over the operational environment first, so participates would have a better grasp on the support requirements needed to achieve success.
“To be honest with you, a lot of people don’t even know what we have and the way that we deploy downrange,” said Ragin. “As we operate in our current setting in Afghanistan, it is a very decentralized counterinsurgency mission. So the environment puts requirements at a lower level on the battlefield.”
During the second portion of the demo, Nov. 3, the battalion set up over 20 live exhibits to showcase the various facets of support it provides to the CJSOTF-A.
Displays and demonstrations ranged from equipment maintenance and fueling stations, to a video production at the combat camera station and were open to the public to interact with.
“The MOD Demo today is kind of just a demonstration of capabilities,” Ragin said. “We were at Range 65 earlier this morning with all of the Ops Det committees and we had a demonstration of the 18 series, Green Berets training support soldiers on advanced rifle marksmanship.”
Ragin said having the displays open to the public and in a central location was part of an overall information sharing and education campaign to encourage members of the Special Forces community, family members, and local residents to come out and see it.
“There’s nothing secret about our operations…what we did was, give them a master overview of operations downrange,” Ragin said. We talked about village stability, we talked about foreign internal defense, partnership and we talked about our challenges with those, specifically logistically and support wise.”
The demo wrapped up at the Special Operations Museum with a “rock drill”. Ragin said during this portion, he wanted to synchronize all of the support assets and identify friction points in preparation for their next rotation to Afghanistan.
| Date Taken: | 11.03.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 11.18.2010 12:04 |
| Story ID: | 60402 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 168 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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