903rd Contracting Battalion assesses capabilities with field training exercise

By Ms. Rachel Clark (Army Contracting Command)July 17, 2015

Demonstrating training tools at FTX
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tactical operations center tent
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KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany -- The 903rd Contracting Battalion recently conducted a field training exercise to assess its contracting capabilities in a deployed environment.

The FTX was based on a simulated humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission in the fictional Atropia Region of Europe.

"This FTX really allows us to take a hard look at our proficiencies," said Lt. Col. Gwen Devera-Waden, 903rd CBN commander. "We were able to evaluate our contracting teams as well as their ability to work side by side with the simulated regional contracting center."

The overall objective was to provide operational contracting support to a joint theater support contracting command for a period of a few weeks. The exercise had contracting teams working together and conducting contracting actions that they might encounter in a contingency or disaster relief environment.

"With such a young military contracting workforce, the majority of the teams have no experience working in a regional contracting center or with one another within their teams to execute contracting actions," said Devera-Waden. "This FTX provided that hands-on experience needed to execute an operation."

The FTX required the 903rd CBN to set up two regional contracting centers. During the exercise, the contracting teams reacted to several scenarios and used some of the tools and techniques they would employ in a deployed environment.

Staff Sgt. Maria Barrow, the most junior noncommissioned officer in the battalion, said she has a lot to learn about contracting.

"As a new 51C (contacting officer), the FTX gave me a lot of valuable information. I was familiarized with new things such as the 3 in 1 tool that I didn't know existed. I was able to see how important our roles are, prioritizing requests and also how much more I have to learn within this field," said Barrow.

Staff Sgt. Anthony Bryant, acting non-commissioned officer in charge, said managing the RCC workload quickly became a daunting task.

"As purchase requests started coming in back to back, we had to quickly create a tracking system, which helped the RCC run a little smoother," he said.

Devera-Waden said the intent was to "see how the teams handled not having access to the networked tools and systems that we are accustomed to utilizing on a day to day basis. This mimics the potential issues with an initial entry into an austere environment where connectivity is not yet established, yet the mission must still be executed."

The exercise was held on Kleber Kaserne, Germany, June 24-25.