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FORT STEWART, Ga. — During today's war, knowing how to make alliances with local populations can make the difference between coming home to American flags waving in the breeze or draped over coffins. Although, as humans, we begin and end relationships on a daily basis, building and maintaining a connection with members of a war-torn nation can be much more difficult than usual.
To help soldiers learn how to develop those partnerships and utilize the benefits they offer, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team recently spent two weeks in the field role-playing both sides.
"We were trying to provide realistic, situational-based training for the soldiers," explained 1st Lt. Timothy Hart, a platoon leader with A Troop, 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment. "[That way] they can build, support and sustain relationships with local populations, be it in Afghanistan, Iraq or any other third-world country."
With soldiers acting as local nationals spread out over 14 Village Support Operation sites, squad-sized 'friendly' units traveled to each one and reacted to a variety of situations all requiring interaction with the ‘native’ tribesman.
"This training kept us on our toes," said Spc. Isaac Moser, an infantryman with A Company, 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 1st HBCT. "[Everyone] stayed in their roles the entire time, so I felt like we were actually deployed."
The exercise was set up to be a hands-on learning experience, allowing the units to operate how they believed would be most efficient. Experienced combat veterans within the brigade observed each scenario, graded the unit on their operations and offered feedback on ways they could improve.
“We have leaders [in the brigade] who have come from across the Army, served in different units during deployments and observed a great number of operations,” said 1st HBCT Command Sgt. Maj. Herbert Kirkover. “They are able to share those experiences and apply them to the various circumstances we have happening during this exercise. It’s good to get those perspectives to help our young leaders learn to make decisions on their own.”
As the weeks went on, sharing experiences from soldier to soldier helped improve the quality of the training, while operating independently allowed the units to learn from their mistakes.
"Not telling a soldier exactly what to do is keystone in training," said 1st Lt. Adam Cvetkovski, a platoon leader with B. Troop, 5th Sqn., 7th Cav. Regt. "By forcing the soldiers to think on their feet, we ensure the skills that they need down range are truly internalized within them."
The Raider Brigade also trained on their entire spectrum of operations throughout the exercise, such as completing full vehicle repairs, providing meals to all the soldiers, and pulling security to ensure each camp was safe from enemy invasions.
“The [battalions] are all learning from each other’s successes and failures and sharing their experiences,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Kirkover.
As they learned how to better build relationships with local nationals to achieve more success during deployments, they also worked on building a stronger foundation with each other - both of which is setting the Raider Brigade up for a safer, more cohesive unit and deployment. That way, in the future there will be nothing but flags waving back and forth, clamped in the hands of eager families excited to welcome their loved ones back home.
| Date Taken: | 05.07.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 05.15.2012 14:57 |
| Story ID: | 88458 |
| Location: | FORT STEWART, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Raiders focus on building relationships, foundations, by SGT Emily Knitter, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
