Photo By Staff Sgt. Michael Crawford | A contracted videographer (left) videotapes civilian role-players during a training...... read more read more
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FORT POLK, La. – Explosions, small arms fire and screams of injured comrades heighten the stress and adrenaline levels of soldiers during combat operations. If soldiers are not prepared for this, the stress can lead to critical mistakes at critical moments.
To alleviate the number of mistakes in combat, soldiers tirelessly train on real-world scenarios, but that may not be enough. At the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, La., the Army has incorporated the services of contractors, who videotape and document training scenarios for soldiers to watch later as part of their evaluation process. The videos help them understand and correct mistakes while also maintaining appropriate actions.
“It’s like an omnipotent eye looking at you during a time of extreme pressure,” said Travis Boyle, contracted audio/visual branch production chief. “A lot of times you don’t realize what mistakes you make during the pressure situation, so the video allows the soldiers to have an outside perspective of the situation.”
With approximately 5,000 Soldiers training at JRTC for real-world operations in Afghanistan, 27 videographers document every major training scenario, as well as leadership meetings and operations to ensure every soldier, regardless of rank, can receive adequate feedback.
“It lets all ranks understand what they can continue to do right and also lets them fix systems in their own organization that my be broken and potentially save lives as they deploy down the road,” said Maj. Jason McCambridge, assistant operations officer, Brigade Mission Command Task Force.
The videographers uses video to interview a wide variety of soldiers on a specific topic so the command can determine if critical information is known and understood at every level.
“We do a lot of interviews from the private level to major level about a particular topic, put them together and show it to the commander and they will be able to see how their information is disseminated down the ranks,” said Boyle.
Along with providing video for evaluation purposes, Cubic also produces motivational videos of soldiers referred to as a “Hooah” video for the units to take home with them.
“All soldiers like to see themselves on video,” said Boyle.
If a soldier has a really hard or stressful training experience but sees some of what he accomplished on video with rock music in the background, it could make up for a lot of the hardships that he experienced, he said.
The contracted team, from the videographers to the video editors, works long hours and makes every effort to ensure the product they produce is beneficial to the training and the soldiers.
“They are extremely supportive. They are always coming to us and ask what more they can do for us,” said McCambridge. “They are also very flexible. With event start-times constantly changing, they are always accommodating for anything we need.”
Many soldiers find watching videos of themselves to be new and unique when it comes to evaluating the mission.
“It definitely shows everything from a different perspective,” said Spc. Brad Cornish, truck driver of the 946th Transportation Company. “When you are in the moment you don’t have time to think about what you did right or wrong, but watching it on video you can watch it over and over until you understand what happened and try to do better the next time.”
Despite the long hours and endless training scenarios to document, the contractors understand the importance of their mission.
“We are working with the Army—for the Army—in a time of war, doing our little part, which is extremely gratifying,” said Boyle.
| Date Taken: | 03.22.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.27.2012 17:34 |
| Story ID: | 85860 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 76 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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