Photo By Sgt. 1st Class David Bruce | Soldiers with Regional Corps training Team-2 complete paperwork that will start the...... read more read more
CAMP ATTERBURY JOINT MANEUVER TRAINING CENTER, Ind. — The Indiana Army National Guard’s Regional Corps Training Team-2 recently returned from a 10-month deployment to Afghanistan and demobilized at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, Ind.
The RCTT’s mission was to perform a combined-action partnership with the Afghan National Army’s 203rd Corps. It is a form of counterinsurgency operation, said Col. Kenneth Ring, commander of RCTT-2.
“Our team was put together for a very unique mission. Our primary objective was to work with the ANA at the regional level, to partner and mentor them in the performance of their duties across their staff sections and command,” said Ring. “We embraced the concept of combined action, where you actually live and work with the Afghans. Our team’s thought process and actions were always by and with the Afghans. With that focus, you are able to do a lot more. If you are a U.S. force working with an Afghan force, it’s a lot different than if consider yourself one organization and working as a team.”
Maj. John Pitt, engineer officer for RCTT-2, drew a comparison between the mission and the role Friedrich von Steuben played in molding the Continental Army for the American Revolutionary War at Valley Forge, Penn.
“As a combined action partner, our job was to help build capability and capacity of the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police,” said Pitt. “For me, as an engineer, capacity meant building facilities and capability meant fielding their own route clearance companies to clear explosives from roads, either I.E.D.s or mines.”
The training culminated for Pitt when an Afghan route-clearing company cleared unimproved roads leading to a new base for the Afghan 203rd Corps Chief of Staff to tour.
“We were lead by an Afghan route-clearance company through unimproved roads, followed by an American route-clearance company,” said Pitt. “They led the way to this combat outpost for the Afghan 203rd Corps Chief of Staff to tour this new facility. We used their new capability to view this new capacity and all this came about during the same rotation. It was very rewarding,” said Pitt.
One of the primary innovations of military organizational structures was the development of the command staff, the personnel that advises the commander and supports Army operational requirements. It is this that separates warlords and militias from professional modern armies.
The target audience for RCTT-2 was the senior non-commissioned officers and officers that make up the staff of the Afghan 203rd Corps. This included personnel, intelligence, operations, logistics and communications and information technology.
In order to engage the Afghans, Staff Sgt. John Stickler, intelligence non-commissioned officer with RCTT-2, said they underwent intensive language and cultural training prior to deploying.
“The training we received here at Camp Atterbury was excellent. The cultural training at [Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck Center for Complex Operations] was extremely beneficial,” said Stickler. “Just being able to say ‘hello’ and chit-chat in their language made a big difference and allowed us to have a very good rapport.”
Stickler was responsible for training the Afghan 203rd Corps Intelligence Section.
“We had a couple of really motivated Afghan soldiers in their Intel section,” he said. “We trained them so they can take control of their country, so when we decrease our presence, the Afghans can stand up.”
Part of what makes an effective staff is professional non-commissioned officers. In order to improve this capacity, soldiers of RCTT-2 helped create a larger non-commissioned officer academy, said Command Sgt. Maj. Jim Brown, senior non-commissioned officer of RCTT-2.
“We helped them increase their enrollment from about 80 students per class to 500,” said Brown. “We also helped develop courses for team leaders and senior leaders. They are an old culture with a new army, so they need mentoring on leadership, NATO weapons and tactics, and finance and logistics.”
Brown said that the mission was very instrumental in building the Afghan 203rd Corps capabilities and provided them with increased knowledge in the growth of their army.
“I’m just the angry old man that made everyone work. Our young soldiers are the best and brightest of America. They were magnificent.”
| Date Taken: | 12.09.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 12.09.2010 16:57 |
| Story ID: | 61660 |
| Location: | CAMP ATTERBURY JOINT MANEUVER TRAINING CENTER, US |
| Web Views: | 67 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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