FORT DRUM, N.Y. - This month, the 10th Mountain Division headquarters element got its first opportunity to participate in a war game as a “unit of execution” since becoming one in September.
Headquarters Soldiers deployed Nov. 1-10 to the Battle Simulation Center on South Post here armed not with machine guns, but with laptop computers, headsets and cable to train on communications systems and to develop reporting procedures with brigade combat teams. The 3rd Infantry BCT participated in the event as well in preparation for its Joint Readiness Training Center rotation at Fort Polk, Louisiana, next spring.
The main thrust of the training, according to Maj. Robert Urquhart, G-3 deputy for exercise, was to establish and exercise digital connectivity – “to establish our ability to talk” using technology similar to instant messaging and chat rooms common on the Internet.
Once all the players came on line with their communications systems, the battle simulation kicked off, giving all the headquarters sections a chance to develop standard operating procedures for working with BCTs.
“The final goal for the exercise was to baseline the entire UEx to figure out how a UEx fights,” Urquhart said. “I think the transition that we have to make is to step out of our comfort zone of working at a tactical level and (instead) work in the operational level.”
At the operational level, a UEx coordinates with various resources (FBI, CIA, coalition partners to the United States, and host-nation governments) to achieve desired effects, such as stability and conditions for democracy in Iraq, he said.
“BCTs are executing tactical tasks,” in essence, following orders established by a UEx, Urquhart said. “The UEx has to measure the effectiveness” of its coordinated strategies.
The exercise maintained a purposefully slow pace – called a “crawl phase” – so that sections could troubleshoot technical issues, which occurred frequently. In many cases, those issues were caused by “operator error,” said Sgt. Maj. Willie Robinson, the G-3 sergeant major. Deployed forward with the UEx, Robinson runs the Joint Operations Center, where all the UEx cells work. He served in that capacity with the division in Afghanistan in support of Coalition Joint Task Force-180.
“I think most people understand how to bring up the systems,” used in the JOC, Robinson said, “but some don’t yet understand some of the little things you do that can have a negative effect on the operation.”
Some have called for “digital rules of engagement,” that is, training and instruction on how to interact with the laptops, software and headsets that are vital elements of JOC operations.
Leading the way in that effort, Soldiers in the G-6 section worked late into the night to get Army Battlefield Communication Systems online for everyone and trained section representatives how to build Web pages.
“Before, leaders were not very sure what their voice and overall data requirements were” for the operation, said Sgt. Maj. Donald Williams, G-6 sergeant major. “As the exercise started, almost immediately those same leaders started seeing what they needed for success.”
Urquhart said another command post exercise next month, this time with 1st IBCT, will ask headquarters Soldiers to pick up the pace as a UEx using the things they learned on their last deployment to South Post.
“As we continue on to the Warfighter next November, we’ll have other chances to learn how this beast the UEx is supposed to fight,” Urquhart said.
A Warfighter is a full speed exercise that tests the full spectrum of a UEx’s capabilities and preparedness.