Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Leticia Samuels | RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina National Guard Soldiers and staff from the National...... read more read more
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RALEIGH, N.C. – Senior leaders from North Carolina Major Subordinate Commands gather at the Claude T. Bowers Military Center here to participate in the Rehearsal of Concept drill March 2-3, 2019 supporting the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team’s upcoming deployment to Southwest Asia.
ROC drills are a visual learning aide that allows leaders to sit side by side as they communicate their concept of operations for a training exercise, maneuver, or use of force, describing the sequence of events in detailed phases.
“You lay it visually out and walk through a sequence of events by phases,” said Sgt. Maj. Brian Webb, the North Carolina National Guard Operations noncommissioned officer in charge. “You bring all the players to the table and give everyone the utmost situational awareness of what is going on. This validates the plan to the senior staff section that says ‘yes I understand this plan and here is how I am going to execute it.’”
Guard units have to attain several validation points required to complete a successful mobilization into theater. Deploying a unit of the 30th ABCT’s size, which is scheduled to deploy later this year, takes numerous joint efforts and resources.
Leaders from the National Guard Bureau, U.S. Army Forces Command [FORSCOM] and First Army have the opportunity to observe and ask questions about the various aspects of the moving parts leading up to this deployment.
“NGB has been a great asset for us,” said Maj. Benjamin Balazs, an operations officer assigned to the 30th ABCT. “They have been going to the different Guard units in the country to see who is able to support us in terms of equipment and personnel. It is not just the 30th that is deploying. We are going to have Soldiers from several different parts of the country.”
The sustainment readiness model has become the evolution of National Guard units to assess and evaluate their readiness in a shorter timeframe while building combat power to deploy. Evolving from the Army Force Generation [ARFOGEN] cycle, the NCNG is the last of the first five Guard units evaluated for the proof of concept of Army National Guard 4.0 also known as the sustainment readiness model. This model dictates units accelerate their readiness cycle by a three-year training cycle and validates their readiness in their fourth year.
“We are the last ones to rotate into a mission and can’t fail,” said Col. Robert Bumgardner, the 30th ABCT commander. “This doesn’t just stand for the 30th or the state of N.C., it represents all the National Guard units. The director of the National Guard and all TAGs [The Adjutant Generals] across the country have said ‘hey, we can do this.’”
Bumgardner said the brigade would go to the National Training Center in California before deploying into country abroad without any breaks, which is atypical for Guard units.
“This is the Guard saying ‘Hey Army, we are going to do what we are going to do,’” said Bumgardner. “Our success is the Guard’s success.”
During this accelerated timeline, Soldiers utilize all military equipment to the fullest capacity, testing armored combat brigade teams in over 1,000 square miles of the San Bernardino County terrain.
“The biggest benefit is no Guard brigade has ever deployed all of its equipment into country,” said Bumgardner. “This gets all of our equipment where it needs to be, and it allows us to ‘train like we fight’. This also rebuilds our ability to maintain our equipment, which the Guard really lacks.”
The 30th ABCT deployed twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, serving in 2004 and 2009. Their 2004 deployment took place in the Diyala Province conducting nearly 19,000 combat patrols, 3,700 joint patrols with the Iraqi National Guard, 110 ambushes and 36 deliberate raids in efforts to capture or kill enemy forces.
The second deployment in 2009 focused on fostering growth in the economy and the local communities by assisting with civil capacity projects and developing relationships with the local populace, key leaders in the region and the Iraqi Security Forces.
“This is the main effort for North Carolina and this has been our main effort going on two years now and it will be for the next year and a half,” said Maj. Gen. James Ernst, the deputy adjutant general of N.C. “This is our main effort and our ROC drill today. This briefing is for us to work out all the problems so we don’t have problems as we go forward so the only dumb question is the one that is not asked. I expect this to be very interactive as we work our way through this.”
| Date Taken: | 03.03.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 03.19.2019 10:15 |
| Story ID: | 314661 |
| Location: | NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 938 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, 30th ABCT is “ROC”ing the Road to War, by SFC Leticia Samuels, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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