SZCZECIN, Poland -- When a group of about 25 Soldiers needs to take an Army Physical Fitness Test, update their records, go to the range, receive gas masks, and catch up on all of their mandatory annual training all at once, it becomes a challenge to say the least. Now add to that mix the fact that the Soldiers are from seven different remote locations across an area spanning more than 300,000 square miles and none of them are within even a few hundred miles of a U.S. Army Installation.
That was the task facing Company C, AFNORTH Battalion, U.S. Army NATO Brigade as they held a readiness week at the NATO Multinational Corps-Northeast headquarters in Szczecin, Poland Apr. 24-27, qualifying the Soldiers on their assigned weapons, completing their annual mandatory training, conducting an Army Physical Fitness Test, issuing and fitting the Soldiers with gas masks, and conducting a review of personnel files and medical readiness.
The U.S. Army NATO Brigade is responsible for ensuring the individual readiness of all U.S. Army personnel assigned to the various NATO organizations and commands spread across the alliance. Each contributing nation of the 28-member NATO alliance is responsible for the individual readiness of the Soldiers they contribute to NATO organizations and headquarters.
For USANATO, this means making sure all of the roughly 700 Soldiers assigned to NATO billets are up to date on their personnel records, all of their mandatory training, medical readiness and their weapons qualification. USANATO is also responsible for making sure they are issued their individual equipment, including their gas masks.
To meet these needs, USANATO and its subordinate units regularly conduct readiness weeks and Soldier Readiness Programs at various locations across the brigade's footprint. All of the readiness efforts present challenges like conducting training on a foreign installation, or without the support of the Army's computer network, or conducting marksmanship training with live ammunition in countries with very strict safety regulations.
The readiness week conducted by C Co. at MNC-NE however, was particularly challenging. With roughly 25 Soldiers divided among seven organizations in six countries, the logistics of getting everyone on the same schedule and gathering them at one location to conduct the training was the hardest part of setting up this event, according to C Co. logistics noncommissioned officer, Staff Sgt. Jeffrey King.
"There were a lot of challenges, one of them being just the transportation involved in bringing people from seven different countries here to take part in the training," said King, who explained also that transporting weapons and ammunition across international boundaries takes careful coordination, and makes these sort of training events much more involved than they would be on a normal U.S. installation.
The readiness week started Monday with Soldiers travelling from their home stations to the training site in Szczecin, some of them traveling over a thousand kilometers. On Tuesday the training began in earnest with a marksmanship qualification range at a Polish military range followed by gas mask fitting and issue, and a review of personnel records and medical readiness. C Co. conducted an Army Physical Fitness Test early Wednesday morning, making use of local running paths near the MNC-NE headquarters. After the APFT the rest of Wednesday and Thursday were devoted to getting the Soldiers caught up on all of their mandatory annual training requirements.
The Soldiers attending this readiness week included U.S. Army personnel assigned to the NATO Force Integration Units in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland as well as the MNC-NE headquarters in Szczecin, Poland. The MNC-NE is the higher headquarters of these NFIUs whose mission is to help integrate various forces from contributing nations into the NATO force structure.
With NATO's recent expansion in Eastern Europe, and the buildup of forces along NATO's eastern flank, the readiness of Soldiers assigned to Europe, including those working within NATO headquarters, has become even more critical recently, according to U.S. Army Europe's commanding general, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges who recently published an article in the U.S. Army's Sustainment Magazine on 'Redefining Readiness in Europe.'
"In USAREUR, Soldiers must be prepared to "Fight Tonight" against an adversary that has freedom of movement on interior lines of communication, significant anti-access/area-denial capabilities, and many instruments of national power to gain advantages on the battlefield," Hodges wrote in the article. "Fight Tonight is a slogan used by U.S. units in Korea, but recently the entire Army has been using it to describe its ability to respond quickly as a ready and resilient force."
Social Sharing