EL PASO, Texas -- About 1,500 Soldiers assigned to 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, are gearing up to deploy to Afghanistan this winter. The brigade will support Operation Freedom's Sentinel by advising and assisting their Afghan counterparts.
To prepare for the deployment, the unit completed a rotation in December at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. Soldiers trained with subject matter experts from 3rd Battalion, 353rd Regiment, Joint Regional Training Center, Fort Polk, Louisiana. Nearly every expert has experience as a liaison or advisor downrange.
"We literally train advisers who are getting ready to go overseas to work with the host nation counterparts to help them solve their own problems with their own solutions," said Capt. Ilyas Renwick, a trainer and team lead with 3rd Battalion, 353rd Regiment.
The two-week Security Force Assistance course covered a broad range of topics focusing on communication and rapport with host nation counterparts.
"We've transitioned from going into 'fight the fight' to where we are partnering with them," Renwick explained. "Now we're the ones working with them with their own resources, their own opportunities to solve their own problems."
The classes in the course explored the dynamics and psychology of human behavior and cross-cultural communication, training that should prove particularly useful, according to Renwick.
"Sometimes we recognize that, even though we may speak the same language, if we don't cross that cultural boundary there's no way we can establish that relationship," Renwick explained. "[That's] something that the people we train must know in order to be successful."
Capt. Mark McLaughlin, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, Division Artillery, 1st Armored Division, said the cross-cultural communication class was eye-opening.
"In the West, we're very linear. We go from A to B to C. In Afghanistan and a lot of the world, it's not that way," McLaughlin said. "So they will get to the objective ... but they get there in a more circular pattern. That was a big learning point, because it kind of tips everything on its head when dealing with people in preparation for the mission."
According to Capt. Tom Piernicky, trainer and team lead with the 3rd Battalion, 353rd Regiment, interacting with the foreign security forces counterparts on deployments like these is no longer about "going over there and engaging the enemy."
"It's not even as much anymore about us teaching them 'this is how you attack the enemy,'" Piernicky said. "It's us helping them develop sustainability so they are fully functional and self-sufficient ... It's more about teaching them about their systems and processes, how to procure uniforms and boots or how to do supply and logistics."
During the rotation, 1st BCT sent about 100 students through the course, which also involved engaging with native role players, many of whom served in the militaries of host nation countries.
"They are the subject matter experts in regards to the systems, the process, what will work or won't," Renwick said.
Soldiers assigned to the 52nd Translator/Interpreter Company, 3rd Battalion, 353rd Regiment, served as interpreters as 1st BCT Soldiers worked through the threaded scenarios. Trainers monitored the interactions to see how well the Soldiers used what they learned.
"There's a couple things that we're looking for: how they interact with their counterparts, how they use the interpreter, their body language and demeanor, making sure they're keeping culture in mind," explained trainer Sgt. 1st Class Philip Casiano.
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The 3rd Battalion, 353rd Regiment is a unique asset to the Army. The unit teaches several different classes at Fort Polk and travels to installations across the U.S.
Soldiers assigned to 1st BCT continue to prepare for their mission overseas.
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