Members of the 75th Training Command lent their subject matter expertise for two weeks in March to help train commanders and their staffs on how to more effectively conduct mission command and use the military decision making process in a tactical environment. The 75th Training Command’s 2nd Brigade, Atlantic Training Division, provided experienced trainers to observe and mentor the eleven units participating in WAREX 78-17-01, held at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in the last two weeks of the month.
A warrior exercise, or WAREX, is crafted and planned to allow participating units in the training audience to exercise their standard operating procedures and their equipment systems in tactical conditions. Under the Crawl-Walk-Run construct of training, a WAREX is the crawl and walk phase allowing participating units to stop and evaluate their performance as needed.
A WAREX, for the training units, is designed to be the very first time a commander and staff team at the battalion and higher level go into the field and collaborate as a team, under the stressful conditions of a tactical environment. The exercise teaches members of the staff their roles and responsibilities and how to exercise the Military Decision Making Process to accomplish their mission. One of the units’ Command Training Objectives is to provide mission command.
Prior to the start of the exercise, each unit in the training audience worked with unit commanders and the training teams to identify training needs. As such, each training unit came to the exercise ready to train on tasks on its Mission Essential Task List, as well as the commander’s training objectives.
The role as OC/T in a WAREX is to observe and mentor them, and to train those staff teams as they react to the training scenarios.
“We are providing trained OC/T teams who are helping commanders and their staffs get better as they exercise the principals of mission command and increase their combat readiness,” said Maj. Gen. James V. “Boe” Young, Jr., commanding general of the 75th Training Command, during the exercise. “As usual, our OC/Ts are performing very well. Our trainers are embedded in the units, where they are coaching, mentoring and training as needed. Every unit I talked to was impressed with the contributions the 75th is making to their headquarters, and was very complimentary of our teams.”
Observer Controller/Trainers from the Atlantic Division, 75th Training Command served as subject matter experts to the 11 units that made up the training audience. Members of 2nd Brigade, Atlantic Training Division, also served on other exercise teams, such as the Higher, Adjacent, Lower, Supporting and Supported (HALSS) cell, observer controller/trainer teams, the simulation cell, and information technology teams, which ensures that all participants in the exercise can communicate with one another.
“Our team usually consists of five or six people. We have a Senior CHOT, and a CHOT for each team. That team consists of, based on the unit, if it is an engineer unit, they have typically 50 percent engineers or more on that team. They have staff experience, they have OC/T experience to know how to teach and mentor.” said Deputy Commander on Ground, Col. Michelle Huckins.
The deputy Commander on Ground leads the exercise team by planning, preparing and executing the WAREX. The DCOG integrates and manages the priorities and products of each of the exercise teams.
The Chief OC/T, or “CHOT,” is primarily responsible for an OC/T team as team members coach, mentor and teach the training audience. The CHOT must assure that his team is fully trained and prepared - and fully versed in current doctrine - to provide training and evaluation to the participating units’ commanders and staffs.
During WAREX 78-17-01, the training units operated inside the virtual nation of Atropia, reacting to a series of fictional events in the US-friendly nation. At the beginning of the exercise, the units had already set up their headquarters in the notional country. Training units reacted to a series of problem scenarios, communicated to them from the HALSS cell, while OC/Ts from the 75th Training Command evaluated the response of the commander’s staff. At the conclusion of each inject, OC/Ts not only evaluated the battalion or brigade’s response, but used each instance as a teaching moment.
The scenario injects are derived from the exercise Master Scenario Event List, and are sometimes known as “injects.”
Brig. Gen. Rodney Faulk, commanding general of Atlantic Training Division, 75th Training Command, said, "Atlantic Division, 75th Training Command built mission readiness for one brigade headquarters and ten battalion headquarters during WAREX17-01 at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ from 18-31 March 2017. The Atlantic Division also designed the exercise and set up the simulation environment to enable these staff headquarters to hone their skills in the art and science of mission command.
“Staffs practiced operational planning while operating their tactical operations centers in a field environment, with coaching and evaluation provided by Soldiers from the Atlantic Division. The units refined their standard operating procedures during the course of the exercise based on lessons learned from this valuable experience."
The mission of 75th Training Command is to provide subject matter experts and teams who can prepare Army Reserve units for deployments and missions by conducting training exercises, while mentoring and training the senior leaders of those units in mission command and the military decision making process. The 75th Training Command is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Atlantic Training Division’s 2nd Brigade is located in Newport, R.I. and Orangeburg, N.Y.
“I can tell you I have had nothing but the best teams in this unit. They have performed extremely well. They have gone above and beyond to coach, teach and mentor,” said Huckins. “They met with the units prior to the exercise. They have created a realistic training environment through the HALSS, which is the lower and higher response cells. They have that ability to use their experience to honestly prepare these teams.
“And how do I know that is true? It is because, based on their training objectives and what has been reported every day - there is a tracker of red, amber and green - there isn’t one unit that has not progressed through this entire exercise.”
| Date Taken: | 03.30.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 03.30.2017 21:43 |
| Story ID: | 228690 |
| Location: | FT. DIX, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Hometown: | HOUSTON, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, US |
| Hometown: | ORANGEBURG, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 107 |
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