EUCOM Navy Reservists support Combined Endeavor 11

Photo By Staff Sgt. Shawnon Lott | Lt. Daren DeCaen, NR EUCOM, Detachment 208, listens to Capt. Fabrice Revillon, French army, as he discusses the mission for the day during Combined Endeavor 11 in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Sept. 18. Combined Endeavor is the largest Theater Security Cooperation communications exercise in the world, combining 40 different countries from NATO, Partnership for Peace, and strategic partners.  

GRAFENWOEHR, BW, GERMANY

09.18.2011

Story by Sgt. Brian Rodan 

Combined Endeavor

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany -- EUCOM Navy Reservists are participating as evaluators in Combined Endeavor 11 a multinational exercise from Sept. 9-22 in Grafenwoehr, Germany.

The goal of the exercise is to improve North American and European military communications, and computer network inter-connectivity to help nations partner together in responding to regional crisis or disaster.

The Director of Evaluation is responsible for overall evaluation of exercise Combined Endeavor across a wide spectrum of analysis. Comprised of members from military, industry and academia, the DIREVAL cell collects data on exercise execution, management, military partnership, and operational analysis of 8 selected working groups. Some of these groups are Information Assurance, Network Operations, Information Management, and Scenario Development.

The core of the DIREVAL team is a cadre of naval officers from NR EUCOM, Detachment 208 in Atlanta. Supporting EUCOM J-6, these officers have attended planning conferences and conducted collaborative work via distance in order to carry the responsibility of the evaluation tasking and communicate with the Exercise Director as the cycle progresses.

Cmdr. Joey Dodgen, Commanding Officer, NR EUCOM 208, and DIREVAL, said Combined Endeavor is a great opportunity for our reserve unit to provide augmentation right where EUCOM J-6 requests it. Our ability to fill a specific, enduring role in this important multinational exercise allows us to maximize our efforts and showcase a great active-reserve-joint-coalition team.

Lt. Daren DeCaen, a Navy Reservist from San Diego, said the director of evaluation tasks us with going out to each mission group to observe them while they conduct their tests and their scenarios.

Each mission group at Combined Endeavor consists of multiple nations that share the same goal during the exercise. These nations work together to complete the mission successfully before the exercises completion.

“Then we bring that information back so we can collaborate all the mission groups and determine any trends, and any problems that are common with countries. That way we can improve on Combined Endeavor next year,” said DeCaen.

Combined Endeavor offers new experiences, and things to learn for all participants no matter the role they play during the exercise.

“While in the Navy I've done some exercises with a country or two during cooperation afloat readiness and training in Asia, but you don’t really get to talk to the other countries. Everybody is on their separate ships and not really working with each other to this capacity,” said DeCaen.

“I like the fact that the countries are coming together and computers are talking to each other that way we can pass information and build on the technology that we have,” said DeCaen.

Participating in Combined Endeavor gives all personnel from every nation the opportunity to share each others cultures with one another.

“Other nations are eager to learn and their very friendly, you walk into where they are working, and they give you an espresso, or a flag pin, its been very friendly,” said DeCaen.

• Date Taken: 09.18.2011
• Date Posted: 09.18.2011 07:45
• Story ID: 77206
• Location: GRAFENWOEHR, BW, DE