BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Chaplains and chaplain assistants assigned to the 10th Sustainment Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (LI), conducted their religious support team training with the brigade's unit ministry team July 10.
The training was made up of three focus areas: first responders to a victim of sexual harassment or assault, religious support and the operations process, and convoy escort team training.
Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Donald L. Rutherford, U.S. Army chief of chaplains, has mandated that religious service Soldiers complete first responders to a victim of sexual harassment or assault class no later than Oct. 1.
The class, which was conducted by Chaplain (Maj.) James Pennington, 10th Sustainment Brigade chaplain, provided chaplains and chaplain assistants with in-depth training on how they should respond to a sexual assault crime. The training emphasized that the religious support team should encourage victims to report the crime and seek further assistance from the sexual assault response coordinator or victim advocate.
Team members also received training to better understand the difference between restricted and unrestricted reporting to provide better guidance as to where the victims should go.
"Comprehensive (counseling) tools are furnished during the training so that victims can receive the best (guidance) possible from chaplains and chaplain assistants," said Staff Sgt. Jamie Proudfoot, 10th Sustainment Brigade senior chaplain assistant. "Confidentiality was another key subject that reminds RST members that legally, (they) cannot tell anyone what the victims talked about."
After the RST members completed the first class, they moved on to the religious support and the operations process, which gave them a better insight on how the Army conducts business.
"Most battalion RSTs have a chaplain and chaplain assistants (who) are brand new to the Army and do not understand what an operations order does or how it relates to their mission," Proudfoot said. "This class also allowed RST members to understand that their role is a sustainment role. It provided them with the eight sustainment principles and advised them that they should act instead of react to ever-changing religious support requirements."
The purpose of the convoy escort team training was to familiarize RST members with the capabilities of the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, as well as their roles on a convoy mission, which was provided by Spc. Pollyanna Tanuvasa, 419th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion chaplain assistant.
"Typically, RSTs show up to a convoy brief (and) jump in the back of a vehicle in which they have no idea of its capabilities," Proudfoot said.
They were trained on the components and capabilities of the MRAP, casualty evacuation procedures, reporting processes and radio etiquette.
Some of the Soldiers were learning something new every step of the way, while others already had a pretty good grasp of the training.
RSTs learned how to properly secure a casualty to a litter and what it takes to load a litter in the back of an MRAP while in full personal protective equipment.
Once the training was completed, they participated in real-world scenarios that reinforced the training and what they have learned in the past.
Pennington said the goal was to focus on the chaplain assistants and chaplains equally, a task in which he said he felt the trainers were successful.
"It was a challenge," he said. "We tried to be creative and keep the RSTs out of the classroom as much as possible to drum up the competition among the RSTs."
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