Photo By Kathryn Summerhill | Spc. Ryan Burke, a Celina, Ohio native and a gunner for Alpha Company, 489th Civil...... read more read more
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FORT DIX, N.J. – With the war in Afghanistan becoming a war of wills, gaining the support of the Afghan population is a top priority.
For this delicate job, the U.S. Army has a special group of soldiers: Civil Affairs soldiers.
These unique soldiers are trained to help civilians who are living in war-torn nations. A humanitarian effort on a national scale requires a special sort of training. Every civil affairs soldier in the U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) must complete a gamut of training over the course of 52 days, which then culminates in one final crucible: A three-day long, fast paced simulation of what they’ll be facing in Afghanistan.
In the lead up to their crucible, they receive cultural, language, weapons and tactical movement training, said Sgt. 1st Class Michael Trost, native of Muryville, Tenn., and a team sergeant with Delta Company, 489th Civil Affairs Battalion, based out of Knoxville, Tenn. These lessons all come together near the end of the pre-mobilization training during their mission readiness exercise geared specifically towards civil affairs preparation, run by the USACAPOC(A)’s 1st Training Brigade.
“The purpose is to immerse them into scenarios that are most like what they are going to encounter downrange, overseas.” said Staff Sgt. Rob Overmeyer, a Chicago native and a team sergeant and civil affairs instructor with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Training Brigade.
The deploying troops spend three days living on Contingency Operating Location Victory, which was modeled after deployed living situations. Housing is comprised of large tents in rows filled with metal bunk beds side-by-side. There are no amenities like privacy, T.V. or internet. Each morning, they wake up with the sun to prepare for a day of convoys in high heat and humidity.
On these convoys, they must overcome a series of challenges including: improvised explosive device attacks, mortar fire and gunfire from enemy combatants.
Amidst these challenges, the civil affairs soldier must also perform a unique mission called a key leader engagement. These engagements are meetings held with influential members of the village, including mayors, governors, security leaders and elders. Getting to know the local leaders and power brokers is critical to mission success because it allows the civil affairs team the ability to understand what’s happening in their area of responsibility.
The meetings also serve as a chance to get passive information on insurgent activity in the area. All the scenarios are modeled after real-life situations occurring overseas as they train.
“It’s really all about establishing lines of communication,” Overmeyer said. “Getting them to see that they can be a part of the world legally, and not have to fight it.”
To make the situation more realistic, the instructors have civilians dress up as foreign nationals, simulating civilians on the battlefield, and also have opposing forces ready to attack with artillery simulators and small-arms fire. The engagements usually end abruptly in training due to a simulated assault from the opposing force. This forces the soldiers to practice their tactical responses and movements while ‘in-sector’. They typically sustain injuries and must perform medical care under fire as well.
The soldiers know that practicing their skills in a ‘safe’ environment is an important step to take before going to Afghanistan.
“You get rusty on it,” explained Trost. “If you’re a reservist, we have mandatory Army training all the time, but it’s not specific to civil affairs. We are always on the computers trying to get subversion and espionage training, sexual harassment training, information assurance training, whatever it is during battle assembly, leaving us with very little time to train on civil affairs stuff.”
While reserve soldiers face the challenge of staying up-to-date on skill specific training, instructors from 1st Training Brigade are constantly updating the mobilization training to make sure it is as true-to-life as possible.
“What we try to do is stay in touch with people that we send through the training once they go over and start their mission,” said Overmeyer. “We try to keep in touch with them so we are getting real-life scenarios back from them to keep [the training] pertinent, up-to-date and relevant.”
“We have flexibility with training to where if we hear something today about something in Afghanistan, we can change training for tomorrow,” said 1st Sgt. Robert Matthews, a Philadelphia native and a first sergeant with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Training Brigade.
The soldiers and trainers agree it is the flexibility and adaptation of training that gives first-time deploying soldiers more confidence to go downrange. While most mobilization training focuses on general infantry skills, the instructors here try to make their training more personal for the civil affairs soldiers.
“I feel that here, they are focusing more on our actual civil affairs mission,” said Spc. Brett Anglin, a Pawlak Station, Texas native with Charlie Company, 451st Civil Affairs Battalion, based out of Pasadena, Texas, who is deploying for his first time. “They’re really giving us good, all encompassing training.”
Veterans like Trost, who deployed to Iraq in 2004 as a civil affairs sergeant, believe quality training like this is invaluable to the war in Afghanistan.
The civil affairs soldier is not the only unique player on the battlefield. The Taliban is also competing for the same hearts and minds and is employing similar tactics but with opposing interests, “They do civil affairs just like we do. So we have to do it much better than they do,” said Trost.
These soldiers believe the only way to do it better is to be prepared: you have to train like you fight. Matthews explained that the biggest advantage of the MRX is that soldiers get that chance.
“The MRX is scenario based and constantly changing. It can’t be taught in a classroom, it has to actually be done, and this is the only place they [civil affairs soldiers] are getting it.”
While the training is always evolving, and the soldiers receiving the training come and go just as rapidly, there is always one constant: the quality of training.
All of the instructors have at least one tour downrange, and are qualified civil affairs specialists. In many cases, they come from the same units they are training, and for some, they served downrange with soldiers they are now training.
“We [the instructors] have a vested interest in seeing that the soldiers are getting the best training,” said Matthews. “These are the same units we will go back to. These are our friends.”
So while other soldiers concentrate on the local enemies, a small group of civil affairs soldiers concentrate on the local allies. They work to get information on how to help, and how to best combat the insurgency, said Overmeyer.
“If they [the Afghans] are talking, they’re not shooting.”
| Date Taken: | 06.20.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2011 13:17 |
| Story ID: | 72684 |
| Location: | FORT DIX, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Web Views: | 976 |
| Downloads: | 4 |
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