Photo By Ashley Roy | Lt. Chun and Petty Officer 1st Class Smith, Provincial Reconstruction Team 13-17,...... read more read more
EDINBURGH, Ind. - Provincial Reconstruction Team 13-17, training at Atterbury-Muscatatuck near Edinburgh, Ind., consists of three teams; each one preparing for deployment to a rural province of Afghanistan.
This final rotation of PRTs will send one team, comprised of U.S. Navy personnel and a U.S Army Reserve civil affairs attachment, to serve in the Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, alongside Australian coalition forces.
According to “Access Restricted”, a 2012 report by Save the Children Australia, Children of Uruzgan program, it’s estimated that 35 to 40 percent of Uruzgan lies outside government control, causing many security incidents, and that 95 percent of the population lives in poverty.
A PRT is an initiative developed to combat issues such as these by extending the influence of the Afghan government outside Kabul, encouraging international and non-governmental organizations to operate in rural areas outside Kabul and facilitating reconstruction, as stated by the Department of Defense.
The mission of PRT Uruzgan is to continue fostering relationships with the Afghans and ensure the transition goes smoothly, said Senior Chief Petty Officer William Lewis, electronics technician, PRT Uruzgan.
“It’s definitely a unique deployment for in theater. The scope and the role is completely different,” said Lewis.
Troops arrived at Atterbury March 21 and immediately began training.
“We’ve been going through all the courses here at Atterbury, so a lot of culture training, counter improvised explosive devise, insider threat training, situational awareness training and force protection,” said Lewis.
Trainers with the 4th Cavalry Brigade have led most of the training conducted thus far at Atterbury. The 4th Cavalry Brigade, First Army Division East provides training and validation for the Provincial Reconstruction Teams, including Uruzgan. The unit will receive up-to-date training based on current mission requirements from combatant commanders in theater.
The overall training is unique because a normal deployment focuses on taking a unit, refreshing their skills, then sending them over to do the same task they’ve always done, said Lt. j.g. Laura Cargill, medical provider, PRT Uruzgan.
“Here your taking Navy guys, Army guys, people who are medical, people who are in communications — all different job fields — and your molding them together, giving them a type of mission they would probably never have otherwise,” continued Cargill.
Training has focused mostly on force protection due to the scaling back of troops overseas, and understanding Afghan culture because of the nature of their mission and working proximity to the Afghan populace.
“This is much more about a hearts and minds type of mission. The whole job of the PRT is to work with the people versus going over there in a traditional military type deployment,” said Cargill.
Cargill, who likes learning about different cultures, has really enjoyed the female engagement training and all of the classes focusing on Afghan practices.
“I think it is interesting that before you come here and learn so much about the culture, and the people and how it all actually works, all you know is what you see on the news and largely what they put on the news is negative,” said Cargill.
For Lewis, as training nears a close, the benefits of the individual training pieces are becoming apparent in the larger exercises, especially base defense training which requires the PRT to operate a Tactical Operations Center, run entry control points and base communications and react to multiple scenarios involving possible security threats.
“I think the benefit we will see at the end, when we’re able to use all the individual training we have because you don’t necessarily get the most out of the individual training during the individual training time; it comes more into play when you do evolutions like this where we’re piecing several of the trainings together and putting them to practical use,” said Lewis.
All three PRTs will conclude formal training with their culminating training exercise May 24, making their stay at Atterbury approximately two months long.
“I think it’s one of the longer— from what I’ve been able to see or hear — training pipelines before you deploy, so it’s definitely a commitment when you sign on,” said Lewis.
For Uruzgan, troops hope to see their commitment pay off through progress the population has made.
“Basically we’re the last PRT to go so you want to leave the Afghan people with a good impression of us,” said Cargill. “I’d like to see the people of Uruzgan be able to do all of this stuff for themselves; see them maintaining their own security and see them self-sustaining when we leave.”
| Date Taken: | 05.23.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.24.2013 08:53 |
| Story ID: | 107534 |
| Location: | EDINBURGH, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 202 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, PRT Uruzgan: Preparing for a different deployment, by Ashley Roy, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
