EBEN EMAEL, Belgium - From the ground where Julius Caesar crossed the Roman Army at the Rhine River to historic sites of World War II and the Cold War, 30 U.S. Army Europe, three Belgian Armed Forces and three German Army company commanders, personally mentored by seven senior general officers, reviewed and conducted leadership training with a USAREUR Staff Ride May 1 - 3.
Traversing centuries of battles in a mere three days to plan and train for today's Army tests and develops three enduring priorities of U.S. Army Europe: readiness, leader development and enhancing the environment, said Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, U.S. Army Europe commanding general and senior host of the training.
"This is a training event, very different from a battlefield tour, and like all training events it is assessed," said Staff Ride Historian and U.S. Army Europe Plans, Operations and Exercises Human Resources Director Col. Mark Viney.
"The commanding general of U.S. Army Europe wanted to look at junior leader initiative, risk taking and boldness," Viney said.
"So what we did is four venues, from Roman Empire times to World War II to the Cold War," he said. "We paired up general officer mentors with company commanders from throughout Europe as well as allies. It's an important investment, developing leaders."
The training began with Point Alpha, a Cold War crossing point between the former East and West Germany, on to the site of the Urmitz Bridge, a site of ancient Roman river crossing and an original pre-World War II structure, on to the town of Remagen and the remnants of the Remagen Bridge, another famous site along the Rhine from World War II. The final day of training was a visit to the Vroenhoven Bridge and Eben Emael, Belgium, World War II sites taken by German forces.
At each location, the focus was a combination of group instruction with emphasis on history of each location and the actions commanders took, both successfully and otherwise. Afterwards, groups would break out individually and collectively seek solutions to problems and questions posed. At the end of each session, groups would then present their findings and discuss. Throughout this process, individual senior leaders were given additional opportunities to share personal guidance and advice to the junior leaders.
"What is so important about staff rides is that it's an opportunity to get out of our normal environment to use a historical venue as a means to discuss important issues to the commander," Hodges said to the group. "Just like in your company, battalion or troop, maintenance is important. And we (senior leaders) are all invested in your development."
In addition to the general officers, several senior officers also hosted and engaged, joining the seven problem solving teams. Throughout the staff ride, the senior commanders, all students of history themselves, continually returned to the inspirations of historic events and actions as tutelage towards one's current and future impacts in situations of command.
"Why are we taking so many general officers on this staff ride?" asked Hodges. "Here you have close contact with some of the best general officers in your life. But it's also good for them, having all once been in your position, to remember what it is like to be a young captain as well."
One of the senior general officer mentors, U.S. Army Europe Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Kai Rohrschneider, a German Army general serving with the U.S. Army, brought the additional wealth of perspective with his personal experience from the German Armed forces and actual Cold War experience. Furthermore, the staff ride was joined by company commanders from three German Army units and three Belgium Army units.
"It was a great honor to be here, it was very interesting that these higher officers, generals, talk to us, junior officers, on a one on one level," said German Army company commander Capt. Benjamin Kregs, Rekrutenkompanic 2, Fallshirmjager, Regiment 26, based in Zweibrucken, Germany. "I think the greatest part of this experience is that really high leaders, general officers, are here and they are giving advice to us and we are learning from their experience."
U.S. company commanders at the staff ride echoed similar sentiments.
"To have had such an experience where we would look at historical activity, actions, their outcomes, their multi-echelon repercussions, with just a group of peers would have been pretty enticing, something I would have learned a lot from and take a lot away from, however to have done that in a small group environment with NATO Allies as well as with a general officer embedded with each of the small groups going over the same fundamentals that we feel are important, going over an open dialogue Socratic method of teaching and that they focus on enabling subordinate leaders to take prudent risk wherever mission initiative are required to do so, is incredibly empowering," said Capt. Phillip Messina, company commander for the 5th Quartermaster Theater Aerial Delivery Company, 16th Sustainment Brigade, in Grafenwoehr, Germany. "They look to us with that same level of initiative, that same level of drive that we look at our NCOs."
Each day of training has been made available through U.S. Army Europe, according to Viney. Viney is a former director of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, which has the mission of informing the Army and the public about the many contributions the Army has made to the development of the United States. USAHEC assists unit commanders interested in leveraging the lessons of history in support of their unit mission, morale, and esprit de corps. For more information, see the USAHEC website at htp://ahec.armywarcollege.edu/
"What we've done is we have created three distinct day-long staff rides, and we are going to put all these on the shelf and make them available throughout U.S. Army Europe," Viney said. "So that unit commanders can bring their own forces up here, and make a day trip out of it. "
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