1st SFG(A) maintains highly lethal, rapidly deployable forces to execute the full spectrum of special operations alongside allies, partners, and the joint force as the preferred partner and premier special operations entity in the U.S. Pacific Command area of responsibility. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Cayden Hall) View original
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — Leaders from across 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) gathered at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, Oct. 5-8 for the Group Training Management Seminar, an annual event designed to provide leaders with the guidance and resources necessary to train and equip the force for future operations.
While the seminar is conducted annually, this year's event placed particular emphasis on how the Group manages training to prepare special operations forces for large scale combat operations while maintaining proficiency in required 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) lethality tasks.
As 1st SFC(A) executes continuous organizational adaptation, specifically of the Special Forces Groups 4th Battalion’s, 1st SFG(A) must navigate how leaders manage changing training and deployment cycles. As the Group prepares to incorporate an additional line battalion, they must account for its effects on training schedules, resources and readiness across the entire formation.
“Our ability to succeed in the next fight depends on how well we prepare today,” said Col. Ronald Hudak, Commander of 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne). “We have to master the fundamentals, learn from our experiences and adapt to an evolving operational environment. GTMS brings our leaders together to build a more integrated, lethal and ready formation, ensuring the lessons we learn and the capabilities we develop translate into real operational advantages alongside our joint and partner forces.”
The seminar brought together detachment, company, battalion, and Group leadership for a four-day seminar including discussions on 1st SFC(A) lethality requirements, unmanned systems, super intelligence, information operations and touchpoints with key staff. The seminar also addresses the less visible requirements that turn training concepts into executable events. Sessions covered training management, resources, land, ammunition, schools, medical readiness and other support requirements. Together, those discussions connect the desired end state of training with the resources, coordination and planning required to achieve it.
The seminar also provided leaders an opportunity to compare experiences across the Group rather than allowing individual lessons to remain isolated within a single detachment or battalion.
For an Operational Detachment, the decision to turn experimentation into established practice has practical consequences. “If we make something standard before we have tested it enough, we risk locking ourselves into an approach that may not work.” said a 1st SFG(A) leader. “But if we keep experimenting without turning those lessons into TTPs, an ODA could deploy without the repeatable practice it needs.”
Another area of emphasis discussed during this year's seminar was integrating capabilities such as Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations. Rather than incorporating those elements after an exercise has already been designed, it is imperative to deliberately plan to ensure training accounts for the capabilities and requirements of the broader special operations formation from the beginning.
“Integrating Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations allows us to build more complex and dynamic training scenario,” said a 1st SFG(A) leader. “Those scenarios provide realistic feedback that helps us refine how we fight and improve the effectiveness of our integrated teams before deployment.”
That integration is particularly important for 1st SFG(A) who experiences an additional challenge due to the geographic displacement of its subordinate units in Korea, Japan, Washington, and North Carolina.
Managing training within 1st SFG(A) has implications beyond the Group itself. Building proficiency internally helps prepare Green Berets to share their capabilities with other formations they may be called upon to support, advise or train.
“Through training events like the TAHOMA series, we integrate conventional and joint forces into our training to strengthen our understanding of how we operate together,” said a Green Beret. “Improving ourselves makes us more effective partners and better prepared to bring increased capability, efficiency and lethality to future operations.”
For 1st SFG(A), managing training is a continuous process of determining what the force must be able to do, testing ways to accomplish it, and learning from the results. The impact of the seminar will be measured in how units build their training, how lessons are carried from one exercise to the next and whether successful experimentation becomes a capability Soldiers can reliably employ when required.
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