Peace
Support Operations Rehearsals at the CMTC
by
CPT Mark StammerSince Peace Support Operations present a series of unique and unfamiliar roles for soldiers, full-mission rehearsals are essential for a successful deployment to Bosnia. Both collective and individual training and rehearsals conducted at the CMTC focus on the peace support mission. They are designed to prepare soldiers and units specifically for operations in Bosnia.
EXERCISE
MOUNTAIN EAGLE IV:
THE
BENCHMARK IN COLLECTIVE TRAINING
Exercise Mountain Eagle IV was a new experience - CMTC's first full task force peace support mission. CMTC personnel actually converted the Hohenfels Training Area (HTA) to replicate conditions in Bosnia. To accurately maintain these conditions, CMTC personnel regularly deploy to Bosnia. They conduct on-site surveys of living conditions and attitudes of local populaces. They talk with soldiers and leaders, experience base camp quality of life, and observe units conducting the wide variety of peace support operations missions.
The goal is absolute realism.
Elaborate details to ensure an authentic operational environment at HTA include:
- Populating five towns with the appropriate religious and ethnic mix of people.
- Establishing and maintaining infrastructures in these towns.
- Developing religious, political, military, social hierarchies in each town.
- Establishing an Inter-Entity Boundary Line (IEBL) and Areas of Transfer (AOT).
- Developing and maintaining Former Warring Factions (FWFs) with headquarters, training areas, and weapon storage sites (WSSs) on both sides of the IEBL.
- Maintaining
appropriate non-government and private organizations (NGOs or PVOs) in the
maneuver area to include:
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
- International Police Task Force (IPTF).
- International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
- International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
- Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
- Brown and Root contractors.
- Constructing and maintaining fully operational base camps, guard towers, and checkpoints.
- Maintaining routes and patrol plans throughout sector.
- Developing personality profiles for all key role players in the maneuver area.
- Developing operational themes that begin at the very start of the rotation and culminate near the end (escalation, high intensity conflict, stabilization phases of peace support operations).
- Continuing documentation efforts for historical files dating back to the beginning of the Implementation Force (IFOR).
Because Mountain Eagle IV was unique, observer/controller (O/C) participation in the exercise differed significantly from a normal rotation. Initially, O/Cs facilitated and supported the mission rehearsal by replicating outgoing units at all levels from task force down to buddy team patrols. Documentation included SOPs, OPORDs, contingency plans, range cards, sector sketches, fire plans, patrol plans, and base defense plans. O/Cs based all documentation on current events and information, SOPs, and systems currently in place in their prospective area of responsibility (AOR).
O/Cs were careful to continually highlight teaching points during the planning, preparation, and execution phases of the operation. They emphasized emerging peace support operations doctrine and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP). O/Cs intensified coaching, teaching, and mentoring efforts during planning and preparation to ensure maximum opportunity for success during execution. Since units conducting mission rehearsals do not have time to wait until the after-action review (AAR) to learn from their mistakes, discovery learning is essential throughout the entire exercise. Outstanding AARs, accompanied by comprehensive take-home packages, comprise the normal foundation for Home-Station training programs. In this case, however, at the end of this mission rehearsal, the unit deployed directly to Bosnia.
The entire CMTC Team quickly reacted to support the mission rehearsal. USAREUR also enlisted the assistance of senior active and retired Army leaders to mentor leaders of the deploying unit on the finer points of leadership, battle command, dealing with the media, and negotiating skills.
CMTC followed up Mountain Eagle IV by deploying a cadre to Fort Riley, KS. The mission was the same: to facilitate a peace support mission rehearsal for an infantry task force. This exercise marked the first time that O/Cs from the CMTC in USAREUR deployed to a unit's home station in the United States to facilitate a full-mission rehearsal.
CMTC has taken the leading role in facilitating full-mission rehearsals for peace support operations. The CMTC made all of its time and resources available to ensure the best full rehearsal possible for the deploying units. CMTC will do even better for Mountain Eagle V.
INDIVIDUAL TRAINING
CMTC routinely conducts Individual Replacement Training (IRT) for USAREUR soldiers preparing to deploy to Bosnia. IRT offers soldiers the opportunity to train and rehearse the individual skills necessary to perform successfully and safely as part of a team in Bosnia. The IRT program is an intense three-day training cycle consisting of both classroom instruction and practical exercises. Figure 1 below depicts the IRT schedule.
Day
1.
Inprocessing.
Day 2. Round Robin classroom instruction and practical exercises.
Day 3. Two Situational Training Exercises (STXs) . Students form squads to negotiate each lane.
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