KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany--Three Army contracting officers recently travelled to the Ukraine to support a joint U.S. State and Defense Department initiative to provide security assistance for partner countries.
Maj. Latasha Watson, Capt. Magen McKeithen and Staff Sgt. Bunnie Martinez, all from the 903rd Contracting Battalion, 409th Contracting Support Brigade here, travelled to the Yavoriv Training Center to provide contracting support for Global Security Contingency Fund-Ukraine, which is expected to begin in April.
"Part of what we do is provide business advice to dispel assumptions in contracting support and provide contracting do's and don'ts," McKeithen explained.
The exercise, hosted by the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, will support U.S. European Command's counterinsurgency and basic infantry skills training for designated Ukrainian Ministry of Interior and security forces.
The GSCF-U is the train-the-trainer exercise used to educate the Ukrainian security forces on basic infantry counterinsurgency skills, according to Lt. Col. Christopher Ingels, a planner with the U.S. Army Europe G3.
"It was refreshing to hear the concept of support to the Ukrainian forces and be a part of the overall planning for supported units. This experience allowed me to see the issues/challenges that any requiring activity must overcome in order to ensure success," McKeithen said.
"The team also contracted for a number of items including material handling equipment, field sanitation services, non-tactical vehicle support and ground transportation for the entire length of the exercise," said Lt. Col. Daryl 'Gwen' Devera-Waden, 903rd CCBn commander.
"Our contracting personnel have been involved in every step of this process, including pre-deployment site surveys, numerous conferences and working the schedules for the final planning conference, exercise execution and contract closeout," she added.
The exercise is expected to conclude no later than January.
"Our team was there from the start, and we will be there until the end to ensure this new initiative is successful in the overarching assistance for partner countries in addressing their emergent challenges and opportunities important to U.S. national security," Devera-Waden said.
According to the U.S. State Department, the Global Security Contingency Fund is a new initiative to incentivize joint planning and to pool the resources of the DOS and DOD, along with the expertise of other departments, to provide security sector assistance for partner countries. It can be used to provide training, equipment, and supplies to foreign security forces and the government agencies responsible for those security forces, in order to address emergent challenges and opportunities. It can also be used for the justice sector (including law enforcement and prisons), rule of law programs and stabilization efforts in countries when conflict or instability in a country or region challenges the existing capability of civilian providers to deliver such assistance.
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