The overall goal during of the exercise is to support a huge pacific forces humanitarian aid and disaster relief effort by providing critical life support throughout affected areas in the region.
According to Lt. Col. Jerome C. Duffy, operations officer for the 10th RSG, it's the first time the unit has conducted a split operations command post exercise since it reorganized from an area support group to a regional support group in 2010.
"We want to identify our shortfalls and develop our tactical standard operating procedures and assess our readiness to deploy," said Duffy.
The 10th RSG's mission is to provide sustainment support and base camp operations in theater or unified land operations. The unit also serves as the senior United States Army headquarters on Okinawa in support of United States Army Japan and is the Army's only active duty RSG.
"We've never had formal tactical standard operating procedures in place and this will help us, so when we do this type of exercise again, we get better at executing our mission," said Duffy.
Although the focus of the CPX on Okinawa was to help the 10th RSG establish standard operating procedures it also tested the ability to execute split based operations. This was done by having a mission command cell at Pacific Reach 13, which is the Combined Joint Logistics on the Shore (CJLOTS) exercise being held simultaneously at Yokohama North Dock on mainland Japan.
The exercise was of great significance to a few visitors from United States Army Reserves in South Korea. The 658th RSG, a reserve unit, sent representatives to gain a better understanding of what an RSG has to offer, while operating in an austere environment. The 658th is new to the RSG scene as it activated in 2011 on Yongsan Army Garrison in South Korea.
"We felt it was important to come here and see how the 10th set up for a mission and to get a common understanding of the manning and equipment to help facilitate our unit structure." explained Park.
Park also stated the Army is taking a closer look at the structure and effectiveness of an RSG and explained that United States Forces Korea clearly embraces the RSG concept as a force multiplier in the Pacific.
The 10th RSG command team welcomed the 658th with open arms in hopes of developing a closer relationship to become the Pacific's best active and reserve regional support groups.
"It's great we get a chance to set precedence for our sister regional support groups. Other units are looking for a doctrinal RSG model and they're looking to capture valuable lessons and implement them," said Duffy.
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