Post by 2nd92nd FA Administrator on Jul 28, 2005 22:00:51 GMT -8
Story and photos by Jason L. Austin, USAREUR Public Affairs
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany – V Corps ramped up for an upcoming mission rehearsal exercise here July 19 to 24, during Urgent Victory, a U.S. Army, Europe-directed exercise in conjunction with the U.S. Army Battle Command Training Program with support from the U.S. Joint Forces Command.
Army, Air Force, Marine and Navy servicemembers, of the joint force that will comprise the V Corps contingent of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq, work together in the Joint Operations Center at the Joint Multi-national Training Center, Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 22. Urgent Victory is a pre-exercise in preparation for Unified Endeavor, a validation exercise to prepare V Corps to take over the MNC-I role in Iraq.
The upcoming MRX, Unified Endeavor, set for July 29 to Aug. 2, will validate V Corps is ready to assume command of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq when deployed later this year, said Tony Billings, chief, Public Affairs Training, Joint Warfighter Center, Joint Forces Command.
MNC-I is a subordinate member of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, whose mission is to conduct full-spectrum counter-insurgency operations to isolate and neutralize former regime extremists and foreign terrorists, and organize, train, and equip Iraqi security forces to create a security environment.
The MNC-I element is the tactical unit responsible for command and control of operations in Iraq. Currently MNC-I is staffed by XVIII Airborne Corps, forward deployed to Camp Victory, Baghdad.
Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander, Joint Multinational Training Center, site of the exercise, said Urgent Victory and Unified Endeavor are designed to give V Corps a pre-deployment, simulated look at what they will experience downrange.
“So, they face all of the things here first, before they face them in combat in Iraq. That’s the intent of this exercise,” he said.
“(Urgent Victory) is essentially an exercise for (V Corps) to practice their … tactics, techniques and procedures, to get ready for the UE,” Billings said. “(Unified Endeavor) is a validation exercise and one of the things that JFCOM is responsible for doing throughout the Department of Defense. That one thing is preparing a joint task force to deploy. It's our responsibility to train and ensure that joint task forces are ready to go into harm’s way, and that is what we are here to do with V Corps.”
Joint Forces Command has conducted several Unified Endeavor exercises with USAREUR units in Grafenwoehr, most recently validating the Southern European Task Force in January for their current mission in Afghanistan. This exercise, however, included more participation by sister services and coalition partners.
“From an exercise perspective, this is big,” Hertling said. “I don’t think we’ve seen coalition partners come together like this before. I’ve been in the training business for a while and I’ve never seen an exercise that’s as big as this.
“As I was sitting in the update this morning, to my right was an Australian one star, to my left was a Romanian three-star, behind me was a South Korean and over to the right were a bunch of other allies,” Hertling said.
According to Maj. Gen. Jim Molan, Australian Army, former deputy commanding general MNF-I, “The big difference here, of course, between Australia and the U.S., even that part of the U.S. Army in Europe, is one of scale. You guys do things on an enormous scale. It's a scale that we never see unless we work with you. It's fascinating to see how you work on such a scale.”
Urgent Victory was larger than was apparent at Grafenwoehr. Several U.S.-based units from their home station participated in the exercise.
Through a complex system of telecommunications and infrastructure, the exercise included those units set to deploy: V Corps, and select V Corps subordinate units, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) from Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas.
The exercise also included data links to those conducting the exercise, the Joint Warfighting Center and Joint Forces Command in Suffolk, Va., and those who supported it, the Battle Command Training Program, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and servicemembers and coalition partners in Iraq.
“What you see in this distributed environment is almost the wave of the future,” Billings said. “We are connected to Fort Campbell, we are connected to Fort Hood, we are connected to Suffolk, Va., and the Joint Warfighting Center and also to Iraq on occasion to the Multi-national Forces and Multi-National Corps in a way that's going to become common practice.”
Members of the V Corps staff, who were being validated, recognize the complexity of the exercise.
“There has been an incredible amount of energy and effort put into trying to develop all the processes and all of the pieces of this exercise to replicate a very complex combined and joint operation,” said Col. Gary Lankford, V Corps, G3, chief of operations.
Ultimately, Hertling said, the exercise would not be a success without the human dynamic.
“We’ve got a great bunch of people who are excited about what they are doing here -- not only excited about training, but also excited about working with coalition partners and doing theater security cooperation,” he said.
He concluded, “this has really been an unbelievable team that has come together to help V Corps prepare for their next round in Iraq. Isn’t that what you want in our brotherhood of arms?”
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany – V Corps ramped up for an upcoming mission rehearsal exercise here July 19 to 24, during Urgent Victory, a U.S. Army, Europe-directed exercise in conjunction with the U.S. Army Battle Command Training Program with support from the U.S. Joint Forces Command.
Army, Air Force, Marine and Navy servicemembers, of the joint force that will comprise the V Corps contingent of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq, work together in the Joint Operations Center at the Joint Multi-national Training Center, Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 22. Urgent Victory is a pre-exercise in preparation for Unified Endeavor, a validation exercise to prepare V Corps to take over the MNC-I role in Iraq.
The upcoming MRX, Unified Endeavor, set for July 29 to Aug. 2, will validate V Corps is ready to assume command of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq when deployed later this year, said Tony Billings, chief, Public Affairs Training, Joint Warfighter Center, Joint Forces Command.
MNC-I is a subordinate member of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, whose mission is to conduct full-spectrum counter-insurgency operations to isolate and neutralize former regime extremists and foreign terrorists, and organize, train, and equip Iraqi security forces to create a security environment.
The MNC-I element is the tactical unit responsible for command and control of operations in Iraq. Currently MNC-I is staffed by XVIII Airborne Corps, forward deployed to Camp Victory, Baghdad.
Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander, Joint Multinational Training Center, site of the exercise, said Urgent Victory and Unified Endeavor are designed to give V Corps a pre-deployment, simulated look at what they will experience downrange.
“So, they face all of the things here first, before they face them in combat in Iraq. That’s the intent of this exercise,” he said.
“(Urgent Victory) is essentially an exercise for (V Corps) to practice their … tactics, techniques and procedures, to get ready for the UE,” Billings said. “(Unified Endeavor) is a validation exercise and one of the things that JFCOM is responsible for doing throughout the Department of Defense. That one thing is preparing a joint task force to deploy. It's our responsibility to train and ensure that joint task forces are ready to go into harm’s way, and that is what we are here to do with V Corps.”
Joint Forces Command has conducted several Unified Endeavor exercises with USAREUR units in Grafenwoehr, most recently validating the Southern European Task Force in January for their current mission in Afghanistan. This exercise, however, included more participation by sister services and coalition partners.
“From an exercise perspective, this is big,” Hertling said. “I don’t think we’ve seen coalition partners come together like this before. I’ve been in the training business for a while and I’ve never seen an exercise that’s as big as this.
“As I was sitting in the update this morning, to my right was an Australian one star, to my left was a Romanian three-star, behind me was a South Korean and over to the right were a bunch of other allies,” Hertling said.
According to Maj. Gen. Jim Molan, Australian Army, former deputy commanding general MNF-I, “The big difference here, of course, between Australia and the U.S., even that part of the U.S. Army in Europe, is one of scale. You guys do things on an enormous scale. It's a scale that we never see unless we work with you. It's fascinating to see how you work on such a scale.”
Urgent Victory was larger than was apparent at Grafenwoehr. Several U.S.-based units from their home station participated in the exercise.
Through a complex system of telecommunications and infrastructure, the exercise included those units set to deploy: V Corps, and select V Corps subordinate units, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) from Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas.
The exercise also included data links to those conducting the exercise, the Joint Warfighting Center and Joint Forces Command in Suffolk, Va., and those who supported it, the Battle Command Training Program, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and servicemembers and coalition partners in Iraq.
“What you see in this distributed environment is almost the wave of the future,” Billings said. “We are connected to Fort Campbell, we are connected to Fort Hood, we are connected to Suffolk, Va., and the Joint Warfighting Center and also to Iraq on occasion to the Multi-national Forces and Multi-National Corps in a way that's going to become common practice.”
Members of the V Corps staff, who were being validated, recognize the complexity of the exercise.
“There has been an incredible amount of energy and effort put into trying to develop all the processes and all of the pieces of this exercise to replicate a very complex combined and joint operation,” said Col. Gary Lankford, V Corps, G3, chief of operations.
Ultimately, Hertling said, the exercise would not be a success without the human dynamic.
“We’ve got a great bunch of people who are excited about what they are doing here -- not only excited about training, but also excited about working with coalition partners and doing theater security cooperation,” he said.
He concluded, “this has really been an unbelievable team that has come together to help V Corps prepare for their next round in Iraq. Isn’t that what you want in our brotherhood of arms?”
