Photo By Sgt. Summer Keiser | U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to 3rd Infantry Division move equipment into a building...... read more read more
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BOLESŁAWIEC, Poland - “This is my first warfighter that, from the start, [our signals are] being jammed,” said Spc. Gage Mullins, a Clarksville, Arkansas, native and geospatial intelligence analyst assigned to Signal Intelligence and Sustainment Company, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, Third Infantry Division. “We weren’t fully expecting that to happen at all, but I think with that specific situation we did overcome it the proper way.”
Austere Challenge 2024 (AC24), held from March 4th to the 15th, was an exercise that trains Soldiers on how to fight alongside NATO allies through war simulations in preparation of possible real-life scenarios.
Mullins explained that for this exercise, his job was to monitor a channel feed and confirm what targets to strike to Grey Eagle Unmanned Aircraft System operators.
“Typically, with other warfighters when it starts, we’re moving in a country and we’re doing what we need to do,” Mullins said. “But, they’re not in the same country we’re in, so we can’t fire in and destroy the jammers like usual.”
Through a few trials of sweeping around enemy jammers, Mullins and his section powered through possible routes for their Grey Eagle surveillance counterparts to follow and find the correct flight path.
Mullins further explained that one of his sergeants eventually found a hole in the enemy’s jammers during a night shift.
“We’re trying to go through a bottleneck and they have jamming on both sides,” Mullins explained. “We went through the beginning of the warfighter predicting what the enemy might do.”
During most warfighters there are times when either parts of the division, or the division as whole, moves their operation sites to accomplish missions. Though most of 3rd ID’s warfighters are held in tents pitched on outdoor fields, 3rd ID adapted towards another real-life war scenario.
For AC24, 3rd ID jumped from outdoor tents to a nearby building, occupying the shared space with their Polish counterparts.
“The hiding in plain sight idea seems to be an innovative approach to masking the presence of an element,” said Staff Sgt. Shane Woody, a Santa Rosa, California, native and Psychological Operations Specialist assigned to the US Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (PSYOP) out of Fort Liberty, North Carolina. Woody is a National Guardsman currently deployed to support as the PSYOP planner for the 3rd ID.
For Dogface Soldiers, warfighter exercises showcase the culmination of unit training across the whole division. For some National Guardsmen deployed in support of 3rd ID, this exercise brought a new perspective.
“This is the first division-level Warfighter I have participated in,” Woody explained. “Leading up to this I have only participated in National Training Center Rotations at the Battalion level. Everything about this exercise has been a new experience.”
Mullins commended those who were new to division-level exercises.
“Some of the people that were brand new to [warfighters] were a lot better towards the end, where they didn’t ask as many questions,” Mullins said. “[They] already knew almost exactly what I was going to tell them what to do.”
For AC24, 3rd ID had multiple Commands and groups to collaborate with in order to keep up-to-date information. Woody’s team acted as a liaison between the 3rd ID forward-deployed group, rear group, and with V Corps during the whole exercise.
“My biggest obstacle was maintaining a common operating picture with elements spread between Europe and the United States,” Woody said. “It was challenging to overcome the communication hurdles as well as being up to 6 hours apart.”
Woody said that though the differences between working at a battalion and a division was quite a leap, this exercise reinforced the importance of delegating tasks as a skill by clearly communicating a task and purpose and ensuring there is a shared understanding between downtrace units.
“This helped my team execute our mission because it allowed me to divide my focus in order to allow my team to provide non-lethal support with various desired impacts,” said Woody.
With AC24 over, the 3rd ID is certified as proficiently trained to fight and win alongside allies and to be ready for any real-world battle scenario.
| Date Taken: | 03.15.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 03.27.2024 08:23 |
| Story ID: | 467124 |
| Location: | BOLESLAWIEC, PL |
| Hometown: | FORT STEWART, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 350 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Austere Challenge 24: Hiding in Plain Sight, by SGT Summer Keiser, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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