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The village of Guba is bustling. Local shop owners yell in
foreign dialects hawking their wares from stalls that display
colorful rugs and clothing. Women huddle together to whisper and
steal glances underneath hijabs of the U.S. Army Soldiers meeting
with the local police chief and village elder. Older villagers
casually lounge while smoking in chairs trying to avoid the harsh
midday sun.
A mushroom cloud of dust appears in the distance
beyond the village followed by a booming eruption piercing the
casual chaos of the marketplace.
The explosion scatters the
locals. The streets quickly become deserted as the Army Reserve
troops from the Fort Story, Va., based 437th Civil Affairs Battalion
raise their rifles and take up protected positions throughout the
village.
A man runs toward the Soldiers screaming
incoherently while bleeding from his face and from where his arm
used to be.
Sgt. 1st Class Derek Ungerecht, a civil affairs team
sergeant from Chesapeake, Va., acts quickly and methodically
to help the injured man to a building.
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September 7, 2016 - Spc. Madelyn Riccio, a civil affairs Soldier
from Virginia Beach, Va., assigned to the 437th Civil Affairs
Battalion, puts a tourniquet on a role player simulating an injury
during training at National Training Center Fort Irwin, Calif. The
437th Civil Affairs Bn. keeps troops trained and proficient in order
to support the s 352nd Civil Affairs Command's mission to support
the Central Command area of operations. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Mark Burrell)
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Luckily, the
village of Guba isn't real. It's a fake town constructed of
plywood, concrete and large metal cargo containers in the
middle of the Mojave Desert at the National Training Center
(NTC) in Fort Irwin, Calif.
The farmer, who blew his
arm off from unexploded ordinance in his field, also isn't
really hurt.
“There's a lot of confusion, there's a
lot of chaos,” said Ungerecht. “Role players play a big part
in it ... they really do fill the places out. If you walk into
what would be a governance center, there's some evidence
that it should be that, it's not just an empty room where
you have to use your imagination. So it really helps with
the training.”
After two deployments to Iraq as a
military policeman, Ungerecht knows what a remote village
looks like and what chaos feels like. He said this was some
of the most realistic training he's had in his 14 years in
the Army.
“The buildings and infrastructure
replicate the cities that would be found on the outskirts of
large built-up areas,” said Maj. Larry Graham, senior civil
military operations officer from Bellflower, Calif., and
part of the training team assigned to the NTC Operations
Group. “As the civil environment kind of develops, you have
a number of civilians that will react to the kinetic and
non-kinetic actions on the battlespace. So managing those
effects becomes a critical task for any rotational training
unit (RTU) that comes through here – to manage those,
synchronize those and report those back up to higher
headquarters.”
These types of civil military
operations on the battlefield are exactly the situations
that the troops from the 437th Civil Affairs Bn. train for
in preparation for their upcoming deployment to the Middle
East.
“Nothing happens accidentally, nothing is
artificially injected. Accidents do happen, but nothing
happens accidentally here. It's all on purpose and with
purpose,” explained Graham. “The level of detail we try to
replicate is a realistic environment that is adaptive
according to the RTUs positive or negative actions as well
as the enemy's. The enemy has an equal say in the fight.”
With three deployments under Graham's belt, he knows
that the battlefield is constantly evolving and combat is
unpredictable. The specific civil affairs scenarios are
geared to replicate real-world situations, even down to the
living conditions.
“What we find is that training
absolutely prepares them in terms of their craft, but the
next logical step is to stress those things that they've
been taught,” added Graham. “To put them in positions that
are awkward, difficult, challenging, tired, stressed,
hungry, in the heat.”
The Mojave Desert provides a
stunning backdrop to stress these conditions. The relentless
sun beats down on troops throughout the day, and at night
cold winds harass the troops, temperatures dropping 30
degrees when the sun sets.
“The heat and just
constantly being dirty kinda gets old after the first week
or so, but then you kinda also get used to it,” said Sgt.
Jacob King, a civil affairs noncommissioned officer from
Farmville, Va., assigned to 437th Civil Affairs Bn. “It can
either be the worst experience you have and the worst two
weeks of your life, or you can look at it as the best
training you've ever had.”
The heat and exhaustion
from running 24/7 operations, dealing with an enemy that is
constantly on the move and an insurgency to quell provides
plenty of opportunities for realistic training for the Army
Reserve troops.
“Most of this rotation we were out
with an infantry line company, it's mostly living out of a
Humvee for two weeks,” explained King. “We sleep on cots
next to our trucks every night, on the nights that we do get
to sleep. Just living out of a ruck sack. Basically, I've
been wearing the same uniform for six days now ... living on
as little as possible.”
Army Reserve Soldiers get few
opportunities to train with their Active Duty counterparts.
These troops jumped at the chance, despite the austere
living conditions.
The civil affairs troops were attached to 3rd Brigade Combat
Team, 4th Infantry Division and sometimes had to get back to basic
Soldier skills by providing security or clearing buildings
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September 7, 2016 - Soldiers from the 437th Civil Affairs Battalion
hone their civil affairs capabilities at National Training Center
Fort Irwin, Calif. The 437th Civil Affairs Bn. keeps troops trained
and proficient in order to support the s 352nd Civil Affairs
Command's mission to support the Central Command area of operations. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Mark Burrell)
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“We are civil affairs, but we
still are part of the fighting force and our primary job, as
any Army person, is to be a fighter first and then our other
job comes second,” described King. “It's not our goal to
come out and get into a gun battle; it's still something we
have to do. When we come into a place like this, it's still
a hostile environment and we don't just run away when we get
shot at – we shoot back.”
There's no lack of shooting and explosions
during the training, day or night.
“Here at NTC we have
MILES gear. It's kind of like a giant game of laser tag and it gives
it some sort of realism,” said King.
The Multiple Integrated
Laser Engagement System, or MILES, uses lasers and blank cartridges
to simulate actual battle. When MILES gear takes a hit, an alarm
sounds and your weapon is disabled.
Every troop, vehicle and
role player wears the MILES gear everywhere in the vast training
area. Just like in combat, a Soldier has to be prepared for anything
at any time.
King and his team proved just that after they
set up an observation point and had to provide security for a
dismounted element as the friendly forces were depleted. The next
thing that King and his team knew an enemy tank was bearing down on
them.
Immediately, King and the other civil affairs troopers
opened fire with a .50 caliber machine gun. The enemy tank was
disabled shortly after.
“I'll be deploying at the beginning
of next year; NTC is a great opportunity to work on the basic
soldiering skills to be ready to go into a forward environment where
things might be hostile,” said King. The Army has given me a lot of
leadership skills and really helped me advance my career. And vice
versa, I'm not just another guy that's gone through basic training
and knows how to shoot a gun; I have a skillset I can apply to what
we do to help accomplish the mission.”
After Ungerecht
successfully stopped the one-armed villager from bleeding with a
tourniquet, the team linked up with the local leaders to find the
closest hospital. They provided aid for the man and took him to the
vehicles before the trainers stopped the exercise to give them an
after action review.
Ungerecht's team did the right thing.
They set stage for future partnerships with the village locals and
proved that they were there to help. The team celebrated by hanging
poncho liners from their vehicles to escape the sun, drinking water
and trading the contents of their Meals Ready to Eat (MRE).
“Yea, I'd come back at some point,” said Ungerecht with a smile.
“Well, it's hot and it's dry, but it gets cold at night, which is a
plus ... We've gotten hot chow several times during our time but it's
mostly MREs. Sandy, dirty, dusty constantly, it's the first time
I've gone two weeks without taking a shower.”
Throughout it
all, the troops rarely complained. At least not about the training.
&“Cook a steak. I'm going to Kroger and buy a two-inch ribeye
and eat a steak,” said Ungerecht with a toothy grin, when asked his
plans for his first day home.
However, for some of the
Soldiers from the 437th Civil Affairs battalion, their homecoming
from NTC will be short-lived. Soon, they'll be saying goodbye to
their loved ones again for a much longer deployment. This time in
real danger, but also a little more prepared to handle it. /p>
By U.S. Army Master Sgt. Mark Burrell
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2016
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