Staff Sgt. Jose Morejon, an observer coach/trainer with 2-309th Infantry Regiment, 174th Infantry Brigade, Division East, watches a Soldier with the Army Reserve's 11th Psychological Operations Battalion headquartered in Upper Marlboro, Md., perform ...

Staff Sgt. Jose Morejon, an observer coach/trainer with 2-309th Infantry Regiment, 174th Infantry Brigade, Division East, provides guidance on throwing hand grenades to Soldiers with the Army Reserve's 11th Psychological Operations Battalion headquar...

Staff Sgt. John Dodd, an observer coach/trainer with 2-309th Infantry Regiment, 174th Infantry Brigade, Division East, takes notes of the actions of Army Reserve Soldiers with the 11th Psychological Operations Battalion headquartered in Upper Marlbor...

JOINT BASE -DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- While Army Reserve psychological operations specialists recently went through two weeks of annual training here, they had the Army's top trainers with them every step of the way.

Division East's 174th Infantry Brigade provided 12 observer coach/trainers to conduct Army Contingency Force training for approximately 100 Soldiers of the 11th Psychological Operations Battalion, headquarted in Upper Marlboro, Md.

"Our main focus here is to advise and assist in any way we can to their ACF mission while here at Fort Dix," said Capt. Eric Madden, assistant operations officer, of the 3-309th Infantry Regiment, 174th Infantry Brigade.

Observer coach/trainers role-played as civilians from various overseas contingencies the U.S. military is supporting.

"The OC/Ts helped with coordinating the [training] lanes; not only did they focus on the mission-specific drills, they also focused on the basic Soldier skills and explained to the junior Soldiers how important these basic skills were and how they could be applied during our PSYOPS mission," said Sgt. Justin Vaile, a team leader with 360th Company, 11th Psychological Operations Battalion, out of Jersey City, N.J.

As U.S. mobilization operations decrease, the 174th Infantry Brigade is focusing on its mission to partner with and support Army National Guard and Reserve units to maintain mission readiness.

"This partnership provides enhanced support of the resourcing and contractibility of realistic training," said Sgt. 1st Class Lebaron Gordon II, operations noncommissioned officer-in-charge of the 3-309th Infantry Regiment, 174th Infantry Brigade. "As subject matter experts for Army Warrior Tasks and battle drills, we can provide holistic feedback to help make training better in the future."

Observer coach/trainers provide feedback to the Soldiers and leadership of training units so the units can more effectively perform their missions in real-world situations.

"The feedback that we provide as OC/Ts is very important to the overall effectiveness and combat health of the units," Gordon said. "External evaluation is an invaluable tool commanders can exploit at their disposal."

First Army Division East, in partnership with the U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard, advises, assists and trains reserve component forces, in both pre- and post-mobilization, through multi-component integrated collective training, in accordance with Army Total Force Policy, Department of the Army, U.S. Forces Command and First Army directives to achieve Army Force Generation-directed readiness requirements.

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