GRAFENWOEHR, Germany -- Chaplains and their assistants from 21st Theater Sustainment Command participated in Tactical Religious Support Training, April 19-20, 2016, here.
Based on training requests from the 21st TSC, coordinated through the 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command's Chaplains Office, a two-day training event focused on land navigation and tactical combat casualty care was organized.
Col. Scott Hammond, the command chaplain for the 21st Theater Sustainment Command explained, "For a unit ministry team, it is important to be on the battlefield with the Soldiers and go where they go. Chaplains and their assistants are constantly on real-world missions, and they don't always get to participate in the tactical training with their units.
"This training helps us make sure our Soldiers remain theater ready," he said.
The unit ministry teams, or UMTs, first received instructions on land navigation at the Joint Multinational Simulation Center using Virtual Battle Space 3, or VBS3, which is a desktop tactical trainer and mission rehearsal software system. This system can be programed to simulate anything from convoy operations to live-fire exercises.
"The land navigation course in this system is the actual course here at Grafenwoehr and contains the real terrain and points," said Corey Walter, a simulation facilitator at JMSC.
After a short instruction period on the system, these Soldiers were given time to find all of their points.
Next, at the Medical Simulation Training Center, or MSTC, instructors Tim Matthews and William Goodwin gave Soldiers instructions on treating casualties on the battlefield. During this scenario, the chaplain assistants also focused on protecting their chaplains, as they do not carry weapons in combats zones.
Hammond expressed, "I am very proud of the performance of our chaplains and chaplain assistants during this training. This has been our first time coming here to do a situational training exercise, and there has been great cooperation with 21st TSC's and 7th Army JMTC's chaplain offices."
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