Photo By Maj. Maryjane Porter | DCP2 leaders discuss operations at one of the many planning briefs held during River...... read more read more
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By Sgt. 1st Class Lyndon Miller, 412th TEC Public Affairs
VICKSBURG, Miss. - The spearhead of the 412th Theater Engineer Command is their two Deployable Command Posts. The primary function of these mobile command groups is to provide command and control for the purposes of planning an operation or exercise in lieu of the commander or deputy commander’s presence.
A DCP is designed to be theater opening and enables the engineer effort in support of Combatant Commands and Army Service Component Commands throughout the world.
“Both the 412th and 416th TECs have two DCPs as part of their organization, a DCP1 and a DCP2,” said Col. Craig Sanders, commander of DCP2 for the 412th TEC.
In the recent past, DCP2 spent nearly a year in Afghanistan overseeing U.S. Forces conducting engineer operations.
“We go into a theater of operations and establish and augment the joint engineer effort and setup as a feeder/enabler for engineers in a specific region,” Sanders said. “That is really our main mission."
DCP2 was intricately involved in this year’s River Assault 2013 exercise at Fort Chaffee, Ark.
“How our main mission dovetails with River Assault is that we served as the 412th TEC’s executive agent to oversee two engineer battalions, the 854th and 389th, and they actually ran operations during the exercise,” Sanders said.
The 854th Engineer Battalion falls under the 412th TEC, and the 389th Engineer Company is part of the 416th TEC.
River Assault is an annual training exercise where Army Reserve engineer units and assets assigned to the 412 and 416 Theater Engineer Commands construct an improved ribbon bridge across a portion of the Arkansas River.
For Master Sgt. Leo Trusler, operations NCOIC for DCP2, planning for RA13 started back in October 2012.
Trusler was the hub, the central figure responsible for getting all the moving parts synchronized and running.
“I helped coordinate movement and dealt with the annual training packets, funding, food, billeting and identified equipment needed for the mission,” Trusler said.
Exercises such as River Assault are how the DCPs train, and this was the first time Trusler has setup an exercise like RA13.
“Setting up the exercise was challenging, because I had to learn a lot along the way, like how to be a logistician, which I am not,” Trusler said.
“I learned a lot. I’d never done any bridging operations either. Although I had a rudimentary understanding of the bridges, I really didn’t understand their equipment prior to this. I am a construction supervisor, vertical and horizontal construction,” Trusler said.
Speaking of the behind the scenes planning involved, Lt. Col. Rusty Mizelle, DCP2 plans and operations officer for the RA13 exercise was pleased with the work of the 412th TEC staff and DCP2 and how smoothly the exercise ran.
“It’s a testament in many ways to the planning of the TEC staff, and most especially from MSG Trusler,” Mizelle said. “He really was the focal point for planning the entire exercise. Master Sgt. Trusler did a great job.”
The initial planning conference was held in November where DCP2 actually got the two battalions together, reviewed the Fort Chaffee facilities and went over all the planning factors of the mission.
From that point forward DCP2 monitored the planning of both battalions. The 854th was in support, and the 389th was involved in and accountable for the actual river crossing itself. DCP2 made sure the battalions had all the resources they need to get the training done.
“This is how we, DCP2, trained,” said Mizelle. “We provided a role as a higher headquarters for two battalions tasked with other missions to make sure RA13 happened successfully.”
RA13 “gave us the ability to go to the field and test our systems and exercise mission command over two battalions. By doctrine it would be three or four brigades, however, we would use the same processes,” Mizelle said.
“We really put together a talented team with a great plan, allowing enough freedom and initiative from the battalions,” Sanders said. “We setup the conditions, the equipment available and the training opportunities for the battalions. The battalions with their subordinate companies really took the ball and ran with it.”
The soldiers seemed to like the training.
“All the soldiers I encountered walking around or at the dining facility commented to me how great the training was and that it was a smoothly run exercise,” Mizelle said. “Despite a lot of very complex operations, aviation ops, bridging ops … that’s a lot of big Tonka toys moving around in very close space. I think the soldiers got a lot out of it and DCP2 got a lot out of it.”
“We really did some quality training out there, for instance, we had the availability of Chinook helicopters for a much long period than in past River Assaults, which allowed the 348th, a route clearance company, to conduct extensive training with the Chinooks including helocast , aerial insertion and sling load operations that fit nicely with the scenario when we did the river crossing,” Sanders said.
A theme running through all the training was “Forging Your Team.” In the nightly battle update briefs, Sanders emphasized several times the great opportunity for soldiers with combat patches, war experience, to pass the knowledge on to the Soldiers who have not been to a combat zone.
“I’m pretty sure they left here a more, close-knit better unit, including squads, platoons and companies,” Sanders said.
Fort Chaffee appears to be a premiere training base for engineer exercises and as such continues to be an important resource for the continued readiness of engineer units.
“The river is 300 meters wide so you have to have a coordinated effort to build the bridge, which involved several multi-role bridge companies,” Sanders said.
“In that aspect of owning a part of both sides of the river, Fort Chaffee affords the ability to train at this magnitude, and we’re probably not going to find this anywhere else in the United States,” Sanders said.
“We also showed the capabilities and the investment opportunities in the future for engineer operations at Fort Chaffee, with perhaps even expanding River Assault in the future,” Sanders said.
Sanders thought the overall operation went well.
“I think DCP2 did an excellent job in laying out the conditions and control required so that these battalions could conduct quality tough training, safely, and so far the record speaks for itself.
It’s going to benefit our soldiers immensely,” Sanders said.
| Date Taken: | 01.16.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 01.16.2014 16:31 |
| Story ID: | 119271 |
| Location: | VICKSBURG , MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Hometown: | VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 564 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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