Photo By Staff Sgt. Michael Selvage | Maj. Melissa Ringhisen, the brigade's intelligence officer, briefs Col. Willie Rios...... read more read more
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – The 10th Sustainment Brigade held a commanders’ conference for the battalion command teams, operations and intelligence officers May 1-2 here to better understand the brigade commanders mission intent and review current convoy standard operating procedures.
The conference was a way for Col. Willie Rios III, commander, and Command Sgt. Maj. Jose A. Castillo, the senior enlisted leader of the 10th SBDE, to have the battalion leaders in one room and interact face-to-face rather than through other means of communication.
The first day of the conference was geared toward the operations and intelligence officers of the battalions.
Maj. Melissa Ringhisen, the brigade’s intelligence officer, and Maj. Josh Lunsford, the brigade’s operations officer, addressed the battalion representatives and discussed analysis of enemy intentions, attack operations within each regional command and disseminating information to Soldiers. Other topics covered focused on previous operations, intelligence security and reconnaissance assets, convoy escort team academies and debriefings after missions are completed.
Ringhisen said their goal was to have an open discussion
about the most important aspects of intelligence support for convoy escort team operations.
Lunsford said the battalion representatives were very receptive to the information.
Some battalion representatives said they wished something like this had been in place when they originally arrived in theater. One representative identified how it has provided them with better situational awareness.
“Only by having an open, honest discussion about the art of intelligence analysis will we be able to learn from each other and identify better ways of providing analyzed intelligence to the Soldiers in our CETs,” said Ringhisen.
The brigade’s CET SOP has been updated, revised and published, said Lunsford.
“Commanders conferences assist this command in fostering a positive leadership command climate focused on mission command, discipline initiative, empowering subordinates, and the biggest for me is trust,” said Castillo. “Because we operate in the entire CJOA-A as a decentralized organization, this requires leaders at all levels to know their environment, learn quickly, but most importantly they are trusted to lead, manage and influence change.”
The second day of the conference was a brief for the brigade commander, command sergeant major and battalion command teams. Ringhisen and Lunsford conducted a play-by-play briefing explaining what had taken place the day before, along with topics not covered, such as force protection.
Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Crossman, the brigade’s force protection noncommissioned officer, explained, in depth, the process on how to qualify a leader for the position of convoy commander. The process is made up of five steps a leader must complete to earn the responsibility of convoy commander.
“This was a very useful conference that allowed all the members of the intelligence warfighting function in the sustainment brigade to meet together and share information,” said Ringhisen.
Another brief was held later that afternoon covering the commander’s top five priorities. A few of the topics discussed were the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response Prevention program, force protection and sustainment operations.
“I thought it was great to talk with my peers to see how they do things and to see what nuggets I could take back to my RC and institute with my convoys,” said Lt. Col. James Turner, commander of the 548th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. “I think the standardization of CETs will go a long way so that we all have a base line throughout the CJOA-A.”
At the conference, it wasn’t only battalion command teams who learned something new.
“The commanders conference was a tremendously helpful forum,” said Capt. Garrett Ruud, 10th Special Troops Battalion operations officer. “The [intelligence officers] brought forward great information, in particular the ‘deep dive’ on ISR assets. I was not aware that many of these packages have radio relay packages. We will definitely use this capability.”
| Date Taken: | 05.05.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 05.11.2014 11:36 |
| Story ID: | 129469 |
| Location: | BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF |
| Web Views: | 189 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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