Wartime Focus-Plus

Written by Marty Kauchak

MT2 2010 Volume: 15 Issue: 1 (February)

THE DUSD/R ENABLES SERVICEMEN AND
WOMEN TO SUPPORT WARTIME MISSIONS IN IRAQ
AND AFGHANISTAN, AND PROVIDES POLICY
DIRECTION FOR FUTURE TRAINING.

Sam Kleinman, Ph.D., deputy under secretary of defense/readiness (DUSD/R), and his staff empower DoD to meet new and emergent training requirements for the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters. They also remain focused on including new and innovative strategies into department training.

SUPPORTING A TWO-FRONT WAR

DoD’s Training Transformation (T2) program remains responsive to new requirements from Iraq and Afghanistan. Kleinman emphasized that his staff closely watches and responds to shifting training requirements in both theaters. He cautioned that as U.S. force levels increase in Afghanistan, the U.S will also have a large force presence in Iraq “possibly through most of 2010.” Kleinman added, “We have to stay current in that environment. That scenario is changing. It is not the same Iraq scenario of two years ago.”

One of T2’s enabling programs remains the Joint National Training Capability (JNTC). The capability’s mission rehearsal events, under the oversight of U.S. Joint Forces Command, are tailored to prepare deploying staffs for the dynamic missions in the two theaters. “These are the dress rehearsals that go through the scenarios and lead you to believe you really were in Afghanistan or Iraq,” said Dan Gardner, director of Readiness and Training (R&T), in ODUSD/R. He added, “They recreate the environment and the scenarios—the occurrences—you have to deal with.” Role players, observers and other participants in the events may also be from other U.S. government offices, the Iraqi or Afghanistan military forces, coalition partners, and other organizations to help increase the scenario’s fidelity. “This sustainment effort is actually expanding because of the staff demands in Afghanistan—at General [Stanley] McCrystal’s request,” Gardner remarked.

During an era of high operational personnel and operating tempo, JNTC events continue to allow the department to “move electrons and not people,” when feasible, Kleinman noted.

To help maintain situational awareness of the Afghanistan theater, R&T and other department organizations participate in bi-weekly VTC sessions with the lead DoD trainer and other in-country U.S. military leaders. These sessions update the U.S.-based commands on time-sensitive and routine lessons learned and demands. Kleinman pointed out that the in-theater feedback on training “has been extraordinary.” Regular feedback on in-theater issues and challenges is immediately included in joint and service training programs, and lessons learned databases.

“More training on culture, language and counter IED skills are among those in-theater challenges that have been identified in recent VTCs,” Gardner added.

DoD’s war strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan relies on the “whole of nations” capability, which integrates joint forces, DoD’s and other agencies’ civilians, coalition partners and other entities into the war effort. These diverse groups must train as they will operate—together— during training events and other activities. The R&T staff is working with its counterparts in OSD’s Civilian Personnel Policy office to develop an orientation course and field training exercise for the evolving Civilian Expeditionary Workforce program, which is a key initiative that helps bolster the whole of nations’ capability with department civilians.

Gardner also noted that R&T is working with the Department of State (DoS) and several other federal agencies to support training for the president’s Civilian Uplift in Afghanistan. “This came out of direction from Ambassador [Richard] Holbrooke and General [David] Petraeus. What they wanted was a training course that would really look at how to integrate civilian and military operations into a single cohesive plan,” Frank DiGiovanni, deputy director, R&T, told MT2.

R&T led the department’s effort in collaboration with DoS to develop a six-day field training exercise at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center for civilian employees of the various federal agencies who are deploying to Afghanistan. Enhanced by military subject matter experts, the exercise provides firsthand experience working as an integrated civilian-mil team to meet development and governance objectives in Afghanistan.

OTHER POLICY TOPICS OF INTEREST

High on the list of potential new topics for R&T’s 2010 Training Strategy is the harnessing of virtual worlds and similar capabilities for training. A second emerging area of interest is the development of training regimens that help augment service training to produce more adaptive and agile forces. “This approach is how to make better decisions in complex, unpredictable environments, such as irregular warfare through improved cognitive thinking capabilities. What you really want is to train someone to be flexible and adapt based on the situation or challenge they are confronted with,” Gardner said.

The leadership of the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative continues to look at virtual worlds, games, mobile technology and social networking, and how they can be leveraged to enhance DoD training. Online learning content continues to increase in sophistication to promote more interactive and engaging online experiences for the warfighters. ♦

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