Photo By Sgt. Derek Kuhn | Staff Sgt. Bryan Naron, a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant candidate, pulls security in...... read more read more
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. - “You’re dead, you’re dead, you’re dead and you have a chest wound,” barks a grim Special Forces instructor as he strides toward a downed vehicle. “What now?” he yells to the remaining, "surviving" soldiers of Operational Detachment–Alpha 9125.
Four role-players – three "killed in action" and another "wounded" – lay on the ground beside their vehicle. The instructor is a cadre member at Robin Sage—the culmination exercise for potential Special Forces Soldiers. Taking place throughout 15 North Carolina’s counties, Robin Sage brings together candidates for each Special Forces specialty to work together through a four-week-long unconventional warfare exercise.
Moments earlier, before the team's deaths and chest wounds, the team members and their group of guerrilla fighters were caught in a mock firefight at an enemy base camp.
“Get down, now!” yelled Sgt. Brian Guzman over assault rifle and machine gun return fire. Guzman, a Special Forces medical sergeant candidate in the Special Forces Qualification Course, directed role-players making up a "guerilla force" as his team seized its objectives.
Under Guzman's direction, the guerillas responded to the enemy contact, returning fire and maneuvering smoothly through the firefight. They dodged gunfire while coordinating tactics before searching downed enemies.
The objective of the mission: take out an enemy base camp, gather weapons for the guerilla force and get out before enemy reinforcements arrived.
Everything was going according to plan; the enemies and their base camp were searched. Weapons were distributed throughout the guerillas. Everyone remained unscathed.
However, as their two-truck convoy was leaving, a whistle broke the silence, followed by an explosion and more gunfire.
The second truck was disabled as the enemies’ reinforcements arrived. With three role-players "dead" and one "wounded," ODA 9125 wasn't getting a time-out or do-over. Followed by their instructor, the team and their guerilla force had no choice but to face the ambush and continue on with their mission.
“Everything we’ve learned throughout the course is combined in a very real way,” Guzman said. “From small unit tactics to survival training, we have to know how to react and succeed.”
However, success is not a guarantee, said Capt. Nicholas Guillet, a Special Forces officer candidate attending the qualification course.
“You are going to make mistakes, because Robin Sage is incredibly taxing,” said the Poteau, Okla., native. “You are constantly thinking all the time—building contingencies. You’ve gotta’ be on your game and you can’t let your guard down.”
According to Guzman, even the mistakes made at Robin Sage can be used to help refine the Special Forces candidates' training.
“Robin Sage definitely puts your weaknesses on display,” he said, “but that is good because now I know what I need to work on.”
Guillet said there are many reasons why Soldiers make mistakes at Robin Sage, such as physical exhaustion and limited sleep, but the realism is what really affects soldiers.
“It is incredibly realistic,” Guillet said. “All of the exercise is based off of what we do and how we react in different situations. If you do something right, you get positive results. If you do something wrong, you have to deal with the consequences for the rest of the exercise.”
Guzman couldn’t agree more; he said the role-players really enhanced the realism of the training.
“It is realistic—really realistic,” he said. “For instance if you mess up on the objective and a person dies, they are removed from the rest of the exercise. It isn’t like they flip a light switch and that person is back at camp.”
When one of the guerillas "dies," the team members have to cope with more than just fewer numbers for the next mission.
“When someone ‘dies’ out there, it affects everyone’s morale, especially the role-players',” Guzman said. “The team members have to learn to deal with that situation. If your guerillas keep ‘dying’ on missions, then the rapport you build with the guerillas is really strained, which makes missions more difficult.”
The exercise felt so real, some of the candidates said they would never forget it.
“The time, effort and resources put into Robin Sage are pretty amazing,” Guillet said. “I heard it was a great training event prior to taking part in it, but you never know until you experience it. Getting here and experiencing it is great; there isn’t any substitute for it.”
Guillet said the effort the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School puts into Robin Sage really sets it apart from other field exercises in the Army.
“Everything is taken into consideration,” he said. “Unlike the conventional Army, we are all we have. We depend on each other. We can’t rely on higher. What we have is what we have.”
“Being able to depend on each other is how we survive,” Guzman said. “Robin Sage is the only place I know where 12 strangers come together, accomplish the mission and leave as brothers.”
Although Special Forces candidates bond throughout a year or more of qualification training, Robin Sage is the first time candidates from across the Special Forces specialties – medical, engineer, weapons, communications and officers – come together to form one ODA. There, they plan, rehearse and execute their final unconventional warfare mission before graduation.
The brotherhood developed within ODA 9125 helped the team's Special Forces candidates succeed through Robin Sage’s trials, Guillet said.
“To be honest, it was a difficult transition at first,” he said. “We haven’t known each other too long, so there were some growing pains, but we started succeeding when we started depending on each other.”
Though success eventually came for ODA 9125, Guzman looked at Robin Sage not as the end of a mission, but as the beginning of a new journey in his career as a Special Forces soldier.
The soldiers of ODA 9125 graduated the Special Forces Qualification Course Oct. 1 alongside over 100 classmates. By now, these Soldiers are on their way to their next unit of assignment: one of the Army's active duty or National Guard Special Forces Groups.
“Robin Sage means a lot,” Guzman said. “Words can’t describe how I feel. All the sacrifices and time away from my family was worth it. I wanted to prove that I had what it takes to serve alongside the best the Army has to offer. Now, it is my turn to prove I can.”
| Date Taken: | 10.14.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 10.14.2010 10:04 |
| Story ID: | 58085 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 922 |
| Downloads: | 19 |
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