Photo By Staff Sgt. Emily Suhr | Australian army Maj. Gen. Rick Burr (right), the commander of the 1st Division, as...... read more read more
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QUEENSLAND, Australia – Nearly 120 soldiers from the California National Guard, most of them with the 40th Infantry Division based out of Los Alamitos, Calif., led the charge in the fourth biannual Talisman Sabre 2011 exercise in Queensland, Australia, this July.
The massive joint exercise, which included the U.S. and Australian Army, Navy and Air Force, the U.S. Marine Corps and several civilian agencies from both countries, was designed to improve combat readiness and interoperability between the close allies, as well as enhance regional security in the Pacific. More than 22,000 troops from both countries participated in the exercise, which took place across Australia, out at sea and in some parts of Hawaii, California, Virginia and Florida.
“From the United States perspective, there is no larger exercise,” said U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, the commander of the 7th Fleet, as well as the overall combined joint task force commander of Talisman Sabre 2011. “There may be some larger exercises in terms of people, but in terms of scope, complexity and what we’re operating, this is the equivalent of operating in the entire United States. It’s like operating the exercise out of Miami, Fla., and conducting it out of Seattle. It just doesn’t happen, except for here.”
The elaborate exercise, which took two years to plan, utilized a realistic hostile scenario requiring strategic planning and action from land, air and sea components. As members of the Combined Forces Land Component Command, Soldiers from the 40th ID, working side-by-side with their Australian counterparts from the 1st Division, were assigned the daunting task of planning and executing the land war portion of the large-scale exercise.
“The 40th Infantry Division soldiers are getting really great joint and multinational training,” said Maj. Gen. Scott Johnson, the commander of the 40th ID, as well as the deputy commander of CFLCC and the Army force commander for the approximately 1,500 U.S. Army personnel participating in Talisman Sabre 2011. “What we’re being asked to do is above division-level work. A division would be in command and control of less brigades in an actual war than we have here as part of a CFLCC headquarters, so our 40th Division people are getting a joint task force experience on the land component level that’s more on an operational and strategic level. It’s a great a experience, something we normally wouldn’t get.”
While thousands of troops participated in the “fighting” aspect of the fictitious war along the east coast and Northern Territory of Australia, the California soldiers spent the three-week exercise at Kokoda Barracks just outside the tiny town of Canungra in Queensland, Australia, ensuring every aspect of the ground war was taken care of, from tactical troop movement and battle strategy to the tracking and resupply of fuel, food and ammunition.
“We handle planning and contingency operations for upcoming days for the actual battle itself,” said Sgt. Charles Remley, a 40th ID soldier from Newport Beach, Calif., explaining the role of the future plans and operations cell he was a part of during Talisman Sabre 2011. “We wargame with all the other sections and we come up with all of the commander’s decision points – the decisive points of the battle. We then come up with courses of action with the other section heads and possible COAs for the commander to decide how he wants the battle to run, given possibilities with enemy activity.”
Taking on such important roles in such a short time frame required the Americans and the Australians to quickly adapt to each others different military cultures.
“We always try and have an open policy with the Americans,” said Australian Army Warrant Officer 1 Robert “Blue” Sumpton a 30-plus year logistics veteran from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. “We’re very receptive to their ideas and we hope that they’re receptive to ours. We think the collaboration, especially on the supply side, works well.”
The United States and Australia have shared a close alliance and military history for nearly 100 years, fighting side-by-side in every major conflict since World War I and regularly conducting joint disaster relief and humanitarian missions across the globe.
“It is a chance of a lifetime being here and meeting some people we share a special kinship with. Certainly there is an incredible alliance and a lot history,” said Van Buskirk, a native of Petaluma, Calif., whose father served in Australia during World War II.
”The foundation of how we operate together is born here in this exercise,” he added.
“These international exercises where we get to interact with our allies from different parts of the world are very important,” said Remley, a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom. “Especially during this decade when we’re conducting actual, real-world battle operations with so many different countries both in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is an opportunity for us to get to know each other, learn about each other’s military culture, the other country’s system, so that if we are tasked in the real world to conduct operations jointly, it will flow that much smoother.”
Despite little time off, soldiers from both sides of the Pacific, many of whom were on their first multinational exercise, made the effort to get to better know their counterparts and learn a little about their differing cultures over meals at the chow hall, movies in the recreation tent or on early morning runs through the winding back roads of Kokoda Barracks.
“They’re one of our allies, someone that we fight with and we’re on the field with,” said Spc. Ashleigh Aplin of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., a supply specialist with the 224th Sustainment Brigade. “Now we can put a face on who our allies are and who we’re fighting side by side with on a daily basis, even though we [may not be] actually standing next to the person or able to see them out there, we know that they’re over there fighting with us.”
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 08.17.2011 16:49 |
| Story ID: | 75517 |
| Location: | QL, AU |
| Web Views: | 1,491 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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