FORT POLK, La. -- Deep in the tall piney woods and steamy summer heat of the Joint Readiness Training Center here, a team of First Army Division West Soldiers is preparing to make history.
Ranging in rank from a staff sergeant to a full-bird colonel, and comprised of two women and seven men, the Soldiers -- all from Division West's 191st Infantry Brigade at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Wash. -- are a Security Force Assistance Advisor Team.
In just a few weeks, in direct support of the U.S. shift from kinetic to advisory operations in Afghanistan, the SFA AT will deploy to Regional Command East, not to go out on patrols in search of insurgents, but to work side-by-side with their counterparts in the Afghan army, police and border police as advisors.
"It's a very decisive shift, and it's a very critical shift," said Col. Shawn Reed, commander of the 191st Infantry Brigade and leader of the SFA AT. "The transition to putting (Afghan National Security Forces) in the lead … is the critical aspect of success or not in Afghanistan. Being part of that is historic."
The Division West SFA AT deployment is historic on another level, too.
"First Army hasn't deployed into a theater of operation as an organization since World War II," Reed said. "We're very proud of our heritage, very proud of our history, and we're very proud to be representing First Army in this fight in Afghanistan."
Every year, First Army's two divisions -- West and East -- train tens of thousands of National Guard, Reserve and active-duty Soldiers, plus Airmen, Sailors and Marines, for deployments to Afghanistan and other theaters of operation. The SFA AT mission is a natural one for the First Army "training machine," Reed said.
"The 191st Infantry Brigade was called up to provide expertise in the arena of advising and training," Reed explained. "Of course, that parallels very closely with what we do on a day-to-day basis with our reserve component and active component training mission, our enduring mission for First Army."
Reed's team is the seventh SFA AT supplied by Division West, and the unit is already preparing Soldiers for future SFA AT rotations. All together, the nine Division West Soldiers on Reed's team already have more than 30 deployments under their belts.
"This is another in a long line, but this one with the 191st is special," said Command Sgt. Maj. Dennis Woods, whose first of nine previous deployments was Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in 1983. "On a personal level, it is kind of neat that I get to take a unit out that hasn't been out the door since World War II."
Woods is the 191st Infantry Brigade's command sergeant major, but in the SFA AT he is in charge of personnel and administrative duties. He is also the team's unofficial historian, and is quick to point out that their mission is really nothing new in American military history.
Woods cited the example of Baron von Steuben, a Prussian military officer who trained Gen. George Washington's Continental Army Soldiers during the Revolutionary War using an innovative "train the trainer" method still used today. Von Steuben also developed a program of military camp sanitation that remained the American standard for 150 years and served as Washington's chief of staff in the last years of the war.
"Baron von Steuben was an SFA AT -- an advisor -- to the U.S. Army 237 years ago. We still reference his work today," Woods said. "The SFA AT mission that's happening now -- one of the team members on some team, somewhere, will eventually be the Afghan von Steuben. What that Soldier does will be so significant … that (Afghans) will reference him from here on out."
The Division West SFA AT is one of more than 250 teams to go through the 162nd Infantry Brigade's Security Force Assistance Course at Fort Polk since January, according to Maj. Conrad Schupay, deputy operations officer for the 162nd. Perhaps the most difficult challenge for the advisor teams, he noted, is to step back and let someone else be in charge.
"As we transition from combat operations, Afghans have got to take the lead," Schupay said. "Americans are there to advise, but not to do the job for them."
Maj. Michael Doyle, who has previously deployed three times to Iraq, has a dual role in the Division West SFA AT as executive officer and operations officer. The biggest challenge for their team, he believes, is that they will get to work with their Afghan counterparts for only a short time.
"There are limitations to what we can accomplish in nine months," Doyle said, "but we have to look at long-range strategy. Even after we're gone, what we do has to last."
Nine months is also a short time to become fluent in the customs and courtesies of a foreign culture, so the SFA ATs get a head start on that learning process at Fort Polk. During the eight days of their initial intensive coursework, SFA AT Soldiers spend their mornings in the classroom and the afternoons applying that day's lessons to interactions with role-played Afghan police, army and border police officials.
"Every day, there's an event that you have to achieve and that you're being graded on," Schupay said. And it is not designed to be a cakewalk. For instance, on day one, the SFA AT Soldiers meet their role-played Afghan counterparts for the first time, speaking to them through an interpreter -- an interpreter who has been instructed to deliberately miscommunicate.
"The team has to figure that out," Schupay grinned.
This team "is doing exceptionally well" during the field portion of their training at JRTC, said Lt. Col. George Kranske, an observer controller/trainer with the 162nd Infantry Brigade.
"It's very evident, from the first day that they arrived at the 162nd, that they have obviously formed together very early on, which we believe is a cornerstone to their success," Kranske said. "(They are a) superb team, one of the best teams I've ever seen."
One of the best parts of training at JRTC is the role players, Doyle said. Many of them are Afghan, and some of them have actually served in the Afghan National Security Forces.
"You can only replicate Afghan culture with actual Afghan people," Doyle said. "The role players … have been critical in helping us with Afghan culture."
Cultural sensitivities concern Capt. Kai Hawkins, the SFA AT's logistics officer.
Hawkins, who has previously deployed twice to Iraq, said she and her teammates have been doing their own research and reading about Afghanistan for months. Before coming to Fort Polk, she already knew that some Afghan men might not be comfortable working with a woman.
"I want to be culturally sensitive to them," Hawkins said. "My only concern is being female. Other than that, I'm confident in my abilities."
Capt. Stacy Lardizabal, the SFA AT's intelligence officer and the second woman on the team, noted that not many females in Afghanistan do her job.
"Based on the culture of Afghanistan, it's going to be a tough challenge," said Lardizabal, who has deployed once before to Afghanistan and twice to Iraq. "Getting them to actually listen to and use my recommendations may be a little trouble."
Although American and Afghan cultures may differ, "culture is just a thin veneer on humanity," said Woods.
"Our needs and their needs are the same. How they choose to meet those needs is where the differences are between cultures," Woods continued. "We have the same needs, but different solutions. It has to be an Afghan solution to an Afghan problem."
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