Q&A: Brigadier General Charles M. Gurganus
Written by Marty Kauchak
Providing Relevant Training to Promote
Operational Forces' Readiness
Brigadier General
Charles M. Gurganus
Commanding General, MAGTF
Training Command
Commanding General, Marine Corps
Air Ground Combat Center
Brigadier General “Mark” Gurganus graduated from the University of North Carolina and was commissioned in May 1976. After The Basic School, he served as a rifle platoon commander and company executive officer in 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines (1977–1979).
Other operational assignments included assistant operations officer, rifle company commander, and weapons company commander with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines (1984–1987); commanding officer, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines and G-7, 2nd Marine Division (1995– 1997); G-3 current operations officer, III Marine Expeditionary Force (2001–2002); deputy commander, 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (2002–2003); commanding officer, 8th Marine Regiment (2003–2005); commanding officer, regimental Combat Team 8 (March 2005–August 2005) in Al Anbar Province, Iraq; operations officer, 2nd Marine Division; assistant division commander 2nd Marine Division (2006–2008); as assistant division commander served as the ground combat element commander, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) in Al Anbar, Iraq (February 2007–February 2008).
Supporting establishment duties included executive officer and commanding officer, Marine Detachment, USS America (CV-66)(1979- 1981); aide de camp to CG, MCB, Camp Lejeune (1981–1982); company commander at the Infantry Training School (1982–1983); depot training officer, OIC of the Field Training Unit, and operations officer of Support Battalion at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island (1987–1990); OCS company commander (1990); and MAGTF staff training program instructor (1992–1995). Joint assignments include chief, Deployable Training Team, Joint Warfighting Center, U.S. Joint Forces Command (1998–2001).
Professional military education assignments include Infantry Officers Advanced Course, Fort Benning; Marine Corps Command and Staff College and School of Advanced Warfighting, Quantico; and National War College, Washington, D.C.
Q: How will your training infrastructure be used to prepare additional U.S. forces for deployment to Afghanistan?
A: The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center is uniquely positioned to offer an outstanding training opportunity to units deploying to our two primary theaters of operations. The Combat Center remains the best place to conduct live fire with every weapons system in the inventory. This allows every Marine to experience the effects of weapons and the further effect on the 450 Iraqi or Afghan role players. Our trainers provide an incredibly realistic environment and scenario for units preparing to go to combat. In addition to the training infrastructure, this base offers climate and terrain that are similar to and can be leveraged for highly comparable training in support of both areas of operations [AOs]. We have added a number of enhancements to the base in terms of specialized facilities and ranges that replicate the micro-terrain of the AOs as well. For example, we have geo-typical Iraqi and Afghan towns built aboard the base where Marines can interact with role players in the accomplishment of their training goals.
We maintain a large equipment pool to reduce the amount of equipment that needs to be shipped to support the units’ training. This allows the units to rapidly transition from reception, staging, onward movement and integration to the field for training.
For training venues that support our live fire training, we have a number of software products and simulation facilities that train requisite skills ranging from language and culture training to fire support planning and employment. This training infrastructure allows Marines to conduct formalized unit training and also to train and learn at their own pace. We consider simulation training as a tool to enhance live training, which is always the pinnacle in training Marines for combat, counterinsurgency, or missions where we are partnering and mentoring the indigenous military and police forces.
Q: Briefly describe how your facilities are tailored to provide highfidelity training for the Iraqi and Afghan theaters of operations.
A: Ultimately, the best training that we can offer our Marines is the type that most closely and safely approximates the environment into which they will deploy. In the training context, we are attempting to replicate the physical environment of our AO and to a large extent the psychological and emotional landscape as well. For the live component of our training, we have created a number of training ranges aboard MCAGCC 29 Palms that approximate the villages and towns of our AOs in the two theaters of operation. We have contracted Iraqi and Afghan role players that “live and work” in these towns during our training events to provide highly realistic context for our Marines. This construct is the highest fidelity training that we are able to offer them without actually taking them into those countries. It allows every Marine and sailor to experience the culture of the environment they are about to deploy into.
At other times when the villages or towns are not populated with role players they serve as context to practice the difficult art of fire support planning in and around population centers. Marines plan to employ fire support in these types of areas to destroy insurgent strongholds or weapons caches while minimizing damage to other facilities and infrastructure.
Q: Please highlight recent innovations in virtual training at the MAGTF Training Command Battle Simulation Center.
A: Recent innovations at the MAGTFTC Simulation Center include a number of simulations and simulators. We refer to simulations as those hardware/software combinations that run on desktop or laptop computers often located in classrooms that are used for numerous types of cognitive-skill-based training. These are designed to help Marines get their minds around the problem and begin to identify patterns that work and those that don’t. Simulations are used at several classroom settings aboard the combat center to teach basic combat tactics, call for fire procedures and planning, IED recognition, and the language and culture of the population within our area of operations—Iraq and/or Afghanistan. These are but a few innovations in virtual training.
One of the greatest innovations, however, has been the availability of quality virtual 3-D terrain that we have been using in our simulations. In the past, we have had to rely on physical terrain models or training on a single piece of digital terrain that might be considered geo-typical. Geo-typical terrain is terrain that that looks similar to the terrain of the AO versus geo-specific terrain that is the actual AO. While geo-typical has been better than building terrain models in the dirt, it is less than optimal for achieving the highest fidelity training available. With the increases in the speed of computer processing power and the improvement in the software tools that are used to create virtual terrain, we are much closer to our goal of being able to rapidly generate geo-specific terrain and actually “walk the ground” of our AO prior to arriving there in person.
We consider simulators those devices that typically replicate an actual vehicle or weapons platform that Marines operate in the field to accomplish their mission. This additional level of fidelity allows them to take the cognitive skills that they learned on the simulations on computers in labs, to applications on the actual equipment and systems that they will be operating in theater. We are expecting a new combat convoy simulator [CCS] to arrive in the summer/fall of 2009. This enhanced simulator will replace the virtual combat convoy trainer [VCCT] that is currently used to train Marines in convoy operations. This device is a series of tractor trailers that have mock-up HMMWVs with 360-degree wrap-around screens inside them. Up to six vehicles can now be placed into a simulated virtual environment where the actions of one driver are seen by and require reaction from the other drivers in the convoy. The system allows voice communications between all vehicles, and units are evaluated on how well they communicate and coordinate specific training events. We also have a HMMWV egress assistance trainer [HEAT] and a mine resistant armored personnel [MRAP] egress assistance trainer [MET] scheduled to arrive this summer. These simulators teach Marines how to get out of and help their fellow Marines get out of a vehicle that has turned over or landed on its side. The operator driver simulator [ODS] is a high-fidelity simulator that can emulate a HMMWV, the MTVR [7-ton truck] and the MRAP vehicle. This simulator is used to satisfy a portion of the actual road time that drivers are required to complete before they receive their licenses for these platforms.
Q: Please outline your funded, future expansion plans for training infrastructure at the Training Command and Combat Center.
A: Perhaps the single largest funded expansion project is the development of a 1,500-building MOUT facility that will allow an entire regiment to train at one time. While principally a non-live-fire venue, we have established live-fire offset ranges especially for aviation ordnance.
Additionally, we are well on our way to establishing a range instrumentation solution that will enable voice, video and position location information for both air and ground tracks anywhere aboard the combat center. We are also continuing to refine and modernize all of our ranges to make sure they stay up to date with current tactics techniques and procedures [TTPs] as well as make the best use of developing technology. We are also in a long-term process of expanding the physical land and airspace available here. This is a very complex effort in close partnership with Headquarters Marine Corps, local, state and federal agencies as well as nongovernmental organizations.
We are very fortunate that Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization and congressional budget support in concert with other joint and service funding have allowed us to be very aggressive in keeping pace with the emerging requirements.
Q: What are the technology shortfalls in current DoD MOUT and combined arms training?
A: Technologically, we have more solutions than we have space for. Technology is very good at targeting very specific solutions and does a pretty decent job of satisfying those requirements. However, an overarching technological plan of action is what I feel that we are missing as a training community of interest. There seems to be a lack of a holistic approach to combining all of these technological solutions into a greater functionality. There are, however, a few technology challenges that should be addressed with the right focus and direction by industry that could be leveraged to help this MOUT and combined arms training process in the short term. Because the combat center is live-fire intensive, our big challenge is how to create a next generation of interactive targets, which goes beyond the traditional tank hulk placed on the range. This new generation of targets will be able to present visual cues to the exercise forces, possess shoot back capabilities and be able to be controlled from a central exercise control station, which allows them to influence the battlefield.
Q: To follow up, please list three technology challenges that you need industry’s help to solve in order to provide higher fidelity MOUT and combined arms training.
A: 1) We continue to be challenged with the location tracking of individual Marines to include weapons orientation and position of the Marine, standing, kneeling, prone. This technology would be most effective during after-action-review [AAR] sessions. Integration of position/location/orientation information into a 3-D virtual environment for playback is the next step.
2) With our range instrumentation development, we will be able to collect large amounts of information. But the meaningful transition of this information to an AAR is very difficult. Even with a system that could capture all the data [in individual location tracking], there is still a requirement to store it, filter out the meaningful portions, process it into a usable format, and output it for consumption by the training audience and the trainers. This is a tall order that requires huge system resources and especially the free flow of data across military networks. We have been experimenting with a joint solution as well as the USMC service solution prototype, but this is a significant area that today is only solved by having experienced contractors working in the AAR development cells.
3) In recent years the Marine Corps has made tremendous strides in integrating cutting edge technology to aid operating forces. Our challenge is not so much the technology itself in that it lies with the integration of systems across the base communication network. Full integration of DoD training systems and DoD networks in terms of information assurance [IA] policies and procedures. All technological solutions that arrive at MAGTFTC must have a completed DoD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process certification package as a prerequisite for its arrival. Without this, no solution, however useful, will be allowed to operate on USMC and other DoD networks or computer platforms. Without approved information assurance documentation and the subsequent certifications that this brings, we end up with great systems that can only operate in isolation and sub-optimizes the training value.
Q: Briefly describe how Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center is integrated with other services’ training facilities to support joint training.
A: We leverage the Joint National Training Capability to ensure the best joint training environment possible is established. This allows other service air, ground and ISR assets to integrate with our training technically. This has greatly benefited our training over the last three years and continues to do so. We have been able to integrate electronic warfare support, Joint ISR assets, training support from all three of our sister services, as well as some coalition training as well. We host other units that are not necessarily integrated with USMC training, but they provide an opportunity for us to learn and expand our integrated events.
We work closely with the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, the Air Force at Nellis Air Force Base, the Navy at Fallon, Nev., and the Army’s National Simulation Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to compare notes and leverage the collective work being done by all to share information and find more efficient solutions to the training challenges that we are all facing. The more closely training organizations of all services coordinate and cooperate, the better the joint integration will be. The end state for all this is to provide the best training environment for our Marines and sailors as we can. ♦