By Elaine Wilson American Forces Press Service MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind., March 9, 2011 - Rory Aylward sits on the edge of his seat -- pen poised over an already ink-stained page -- as he observes a scenario involving U.S. and Afghan officials.
In a few minutes, he'll share his critique of the leader's performance and provide his insight into the Afghan people. But for now, Aylward sits back, a crooked grin on his face, as he reflects on the hundreds of scenarios he's witnessed here, and the mistakes he's seen students repeat again and again. "There's a tendency among all people, but especially among Americans, to think people are like us and they're not," said Aylward, who'd served in Afghanistan as the Nuristan provincial reconstruction team's civil affairs officer in 2008. "Good manners in the United States are not necessarily good manners in Afghanistan." As an instructor for the Civilian Expeditionary Workforce's predeployment training here, it's Aylward's job to prepare civilians from varying backgrounds and levels of expertise for yearlong deployments to locations around the world, including Afghanistan and Iraq. The program formally stood up in January 2009 to supplement military forces in Iraq, and later on, Afghanistan. Aylward, a major in the U.S. Army reserve, and the other instructors have just 11 days to ready civilians for the realities of work and life in austere conditions and under the stressors of war. But those days are packed with instruction and scenarios. "Overwhelmingly they do very well," Aylward said of his students. "They get it. It's not going to be like [their] other job." The students participate in classes and a series of scenarios to familiarize themselves to their upcoming overseas assignments. They interact with Afghan and Iraqi role players to sharpen their communication and negotiation skills, and are taught cultural awareness and sensitivities, personal security, counterinsurgency, command structures, how to work with an interpreter, as well as how to become part of a team comprising primarily military members. Training runs the gamut of big-picture missions to boots-on-the-ground knowledge. They travel to training each day in a convoy with soldiers –- all Indiana National Guard members -- protecting them as they move in and out of buildings, and they return each night to an austere mock forward operating base. The course includes two types of cultural training, Aylward explained. The first is learning how to operate in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the other is learning how to operate within the U.S. military. To boost their cultural awareness, students take turns playing the lead at a series of scenarios with Afghan or Iraqi officials. They're tasked with discussing everything from stalled construction projects to security issues to problems with pay. Instructors go to great lengths to create a sense of realism, Aylward said. Each meeting room is draped with the host nation's flag, and artifacts of the nation are placed around the room. The Iraqi and Afghan role players all are Iraqis and Afghans living in the United States now, but who held similar roles in their home countries. An Afghan police chief, for example, was a former police chief in his nation, and the man who role-plays an Iraqi general is a retired Iraqi general. The scenarios also integrate real-world events, noted Chris Caimano, a CEW training analyst and former Marine who helped to develop the training program. "Stalled construction sites, corruption, waste and abuse, we try to hit on all of them," he said. "All of those major issues we see in theater." During scenarios, students speak to the officials through an interpreter, which takes a special skill-set in and of itself. Students, for example, have a tendency to look at the interpreter rather than the official, Aylward explained. Evaluators look for this tendency and others as they observe the students' performance and offer insights and corrections. Each scenario, he added, is followed by a "hot wash," in which evaluators give civilian students tips on what they may have done wrong or areas of improvement. Earlier that day, Aylward discussed potential issues surrounding pay. On pay day in Afghanistan for example, he explained, workers will take their money and head home. People there don't have direct deposit or bank cards, so they hand-deliver money to their family. It's wise to keep that in mind when work remains to be done the next day, he said. Aylward also delves into Afghan culture to convey the similarities, and differences. "People in Afghanistan are in some ways very much like Americans, they're very independent, fierce warriors. They're smart, very entrepreneurial," he said. "On the other hand ... their cultural sensibilities, particularly about religion, are very different than in the U.S." Lessons learned now can avoid major issues down the line, he said. "It's better they make a mistake here among friends who are going to mentor them and coach them than they go meet the line director for education in Afghanistan and offend them and ruin their relationship for the rest of the year," he said. Instructors take the same care to educate civilian students about the military. While some of the students are veterans with several deployments under their belts, others never have served in the military, or worked alongside troops in any capacity. And students, Aylward explained, can range from Humvee mechanics to senior advisors and decision makers. For all to be successful, he noted, the students must learn to adapt to a military mind-set and become a seamless member of the team. "The Army is a culture in and of itself," Aylward said, using his service as an example. "They do things differently and can be a fairly rigid in their thinking. On the other hand, they're much more adaptable than a lot of people in civilian life." Civilians must learn how to operate and be comfortable in a military environment to thrive, he said. "What we want for the students is, when they get to Afghanistan and have a problem, to feel comfortable enough to go to that young sergeant and say, 'Sergeant, my body armor doesn't fit right,' or 'What do you want me to do on the Humvee?'" That comfort level will enable them to fit seamlessly into the team and ensure they're fully engaged with security, he explained. This knowledge not only is beneficial to civilians while they're deployed, but also is advantageous upon their return. "When they get back to their office job and cubicle, they will have a much better appreciation for [the conditions] that soldiers and Marines and airmen and sailors work with at their day-to-day jobs," he said. "I think it helps them understand the struggles of the average kid in the field." Students also are taught military command structure so they'll understand how joint operations work, who they're required to report to, and how they fit into the big-picture mission. Even veterans may need a refresher, Caimano noted. People who served five, 10, 15 years ago may be familiar with the military, but given the operations tempo, a lot may have changed since. "When I was in [the Marine Corps], doing two tours of combat made you a legend," he said. "Nowadays, there are officers who have gone on seven tours." The goal is to ensure civilians are ready to serve in every aspect, for as soon as they depart, they're part of something much bigger than themselves, Aylward said. "What you do is going to impact the lives of other people," he said. "You have to accept that. You have to do what's required of you, expected of you in order to safeguard the lives of other people." Challenges aside, civilian students perform remarkably well across the board, Aylward said. They represent different services and backgrounds, but all are volunteers who share a common desire to support the wartime mission. "I really am impressed with people who are willing to step up to the plate," he said of his students. "It's a really demanding job and it's not for everyone. The people who are willing to step up and do it should be commended for it." | ||||||
| Related Sites: Civilian Expeditionary Workforce Camp Atterbury Muscatatuck Urban Training Center | ||||||
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Friday, March 11, 2011
Instructors Strive for Realism at Civilian Course
Team Focus Brings Synergy to Warfighter Support
By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md., March 8, 2011 - Not everyone at Fort Monmouth, N.J., was happy in 2005 when the announcement came down that the post would close and that most of its mission would move here as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission plan.
BRAC is bringing major changes to this historic post, with the exodus of the Army Ordnance Center and School and the influx of thousands of high-tech organizations that are making it a technological hub. The largest group of new tenants hails from Fort Monmouth, former home of Army Communications and Electronics Command and Communications-Electronic Research, Development and Engineering Center. It's made up largely of senior-level scientists, engineers, researchers, acquisition professionals and logisticians focused on developing, testing and fielding cutting-edge communications and electronics systems and equipment for the fighting force. Before BRAC, they had been shoe-horned into more than 90 buildings scattered across Fort Monmouth. Often, they were miles away from their colleagues and relegated to substandard workspaces made available to support the expanding mission. "There was a lot of retrofitting," said Joe Cocco, deputy principal engineer for the project. "You squeezed into a building and made that building fit the mission, or maybe you spread the mission over three or four different buildings. Each organization was in their own building or own area of a building." BRAC promised to change all that, bringing together these functions at Aberdeen Proving Ground and organizing them in a way that threw traditional organizational charts out the window. In addition to the Fort Monmouth activities, the state-of-the-art campus built to support their activities also would bring together other key partners in their mission that previously had been based at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., Fort Huachuca, Ariz., and Fort Belvoir, Va. Collectively, they would be called the "C4ISR Materiel Enterprise" -- for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. And as they began moving into their new "C4ISR Center of Excellence" here, they were organized more like a private-sector corporation than a military organization. Team C4ISR is built around "business domains," each focused on a different project or program, Cocco said. "Within each of those domains are several of the organizations, all mixed in each of the buildings and working together as an enterprise." "A domain is built around a single product development line," such as a new radar system, explained Army Col. Andrew Nelson, deputy garrison commander for transformation. "Components of all those elements that support the mission are in there, all now clustered around their common laboratory. "They work for three different bosses, but they are all working on the same domain – the same product – with the same objective to produce the next version of that radar or radio system," he added. That's a whole different way of doing business than what the staff had at their previous posts. "In the old scenario, they were all separated," said Army Col. Bill Montgomery, CECOM's chief of staff. "The engineers were in one building. The safety people were in another. The project managers were in another building. That worked OK. But imagine if you got those entities together in a room. Think of the difference that could make." Nelson agreed. "That's the beauty of what's happening here using the domain concept," he said. "You get the synergy of various team members, all working together with a common objective. It's a big improvement over how they did business before." It also speeds up the process that gets new systems and equipment to the field, Montgomery said. "When you bring the different people involved [in a program] around the table, with all of them contributing their own experiences and expertise, it helps us get things done quicker, because you are not going through four or five different offices in different buildings," he said. With more than half of the C4ISR team's 7,200 employees already settled into their new campus here and the rest to follow before the congressionally mandated Sept. 15 deadline, Montgomery said he's already seeing clear indications the new organization is working. Employees are enjoying the bright, open spaces of the new C4ISR campus that rivals the most modern corporate technology parks, he said. The environmentally friendly buildings are built around courtyards and green space that even includes a grass-covered auditorium. And no longer are C4ISR staffers relegated to cramped workspaces. When the second phase of the project is completed in the next month or so, the full complex will include 2.5 million square feet of new space spread across 13 buildings. But selling the new facility -- and the move to Aberdeen -- wasn't necessarily an easy task. Shortly after the BRAC decision, Cocco traveled to Aberdeen to walk the grounds that would become the new C4ISR campus. He was part of a team that worked tirelessly with planners at both Fort Monmouth and Aberdeen Proving Ground to sort through the thousands of tiny details involved in building a first-class new facility, and moving an entire operation without disrupting its immediate wartime support role. As construction continued on the new complex, Cocco hosted numerous bus trips so Fort Monmouth employees could see Aberdeen Proving Ground and its surrounding communities. Most of all, Cocco said, he wanted them to see the buildings being readied for them and entice them to make the move to Aberdeen. Ultimately, about half of the Fort Monmouth work force opted to do so – far more than the 20 percent typical of previous BRAC moves, Nelson said. While many of the C4ISR employees have relocated to Maryland, some have retained their New Jersey residences and commute between the two states. Among them is Richard Wittstruck in the office for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors, who commutes four and a half hours, roundtrip, between his home and Aberdeen Proving Ground. Living through his second BRAC – the first took him from Maryland to Fort Monmouth -- Wittstruck said he's worked hard to ensure his people understand that closing Fort Monmouth was strictly a business decision. "BRAC is a very personal thing," he said. "The first thing you have to do is convince the work force that it's not a reflection of their performance. It's not as if they failed at their mission and were closed." Wittstruck credited the efforts planners made to retain employees, recruit new ones to replace those who opted not to move to Aberdeen, and provide the infrastructure to support them at their new post. Already, he said he sees the payoff in being able to coordinate activities across functions, with people able to step outside their offices rather than running across an installation to collaborate with their colleagues. "There is going to be an intangible difference in the type of synergy and interaction that you are going to see," he said. "But to be practical, it is going to take time. It is going to take time to synthesize and synergize that." As that evolution takes place, with C4ISR employees sharing spaces at their new desks and laboratory facilities, or gathering at food courts expected to open in the coming months, Montgomery said, they'll help to transform the way the Army does business. "This is huge," he said. "We're getting back to the way things used to be done, which is just talk to each other" rather than relying on telephones and e-mail. "This new facility and organization really gives us the capability to get together and talk around the table and discuss the work we're doing," he said. "And ultimately, that's going to have a huge impact on how we support the warfighter." | ||||
| Related Sites: Army Team C4ISR Aberdeen Proving Ground Base Realignment and Closure Commission Related Articles: BRAC Transforms Aberdeen Proving Ground Mission | ||||
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Thursday, March 10, 2011
Course Readies Civilians for Overseas Deployments
By Elaine Wilson American Forces Press Service MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind., March 8, 2011 - An incoming rocket explodes, shaking the earth and setting off a shockwave of activity.
A few soldiers, M-16s in hand, surround the civilians and rush them into a waiting convoy. They load up and the convoy speeds off just as another rocket goes off. A cloud of smoke envelops the rear Humvee as it trails into the distance. A few feet away, a man shakes his head, unfazed by the flurry of activity around him. Although the scenario went well, the civilians, he noted later, entered the vehicles too slowly. The expectations are understandably high here, particularly for the civilian students. For most of them, the training grounds here and at nearby Camp Atterbury will be their last stop before yearlong deployments to locations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- where the next attack they experience could be a real one. "It's a very steep learning curve for some of them, particularly if they have no experience in this environment whatsoever," Rory Aylward, an instructor and subject matter expert on Afghanistan, said of the students. "It's ... like being thrown in a pool of cold water." Each month, dozens of students converge here for the Civilian Expeditionary Workforce's predeployment course. The course aims to equip civilians with the skills needed to successfully support combat and humanitarian missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations around the world. Defense Department officials started the course in January 2010, about a year after the CEW formally stood up to augment military forces overseas. Although civilians had been successfully serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, officials recognized the need to better prepare them for the austere environments they'd encounter. With time and lessons learned, the class evolved into what it is today -– a once-a-month training course that runs the gamut from military familiarization to cultural sensitivities to dealing with the stressors of war. The students are volunteers from around the world and with varying levels of military experience and expertise. Student Erin Dunn, for example, is an education manager for Joint Forces Command's joint public affairs support element as well as an Air Force veteran. Other students come from the private sector without the benefit of military knowledge, but with an in-demand skill, such as contracting or linguistics. "I got out [of the Air Force] a long time ago, and in this stage of my life, it's not appropriate to go back," said Dunn, who is heading to Iraq after training. "This is an opportunity to serve in a way I would otherwise not get to." Instructors have just 11 days to prepare this diverse and varied population of students for environments many haven't encountered or seen before. The students spend the first week here, participating in classes and a series of scenarios that expose them to different cultures and ways of life. They're taught cultural awareness and sensitivities, personal security, counterinsurgency, command structures, how to work with an interpreter, as well as how to become part of a team comprising primarily military members. The next week, students move to nearby Camp Atterbury, where they're taught how to operate a weapon, although most won't carry one, and take care of numerous details –- from finances to equipment -- required before they can deploy. Still in her first week of training, Dunn had participated in an Iraq-based scenario earlier in the day. She and a few fellow students met with a provincial governor, played by an Iraqi citizen, to discuss topics ranging from stalled construction projects to security concerns. The governor, an imposing figure decked out in a suit and seated at the head of the table with a backdrop of an Iraqi flag, expressed his desire to see an engineering project completed, speaking through a translator seated just behind Dunn. Dunn listened intently, occasionally taking a sip of her steaming cup of tea. She adjusted her bright yellow headscarf worn out of respect. "We want that too," she said of the project's completion, nodding in agreement. An evaluation team studied her every move. Although she performed well, they'll later dissect her performance so the next time she meets with an Iraqi official, she'll have even better odds of success. Every touch in the room, from the Iraqi flag to cultural decorations, reflects the represented nation and the instructors' efforts to make the training as realistic as possible. Even the role players are authentic. All are Afghan or Iraqi citizens living in the United States. The outside environment mirrors the same sense of realism. Each day the students travel by convoy here from an austere, mock forward operating base, called FOB Panther, about 10 miles away. As they drive onto the training grounds, they pass by a stark, white building trimmed in turquoise designed to resemble a mosque, a mock alleyway, and structures made to look like blown-up parking garages. Mark Parsons, a civilian program manager on Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and an Air Force veteran, said he and the other students felt a bit "awestruck" upon their arrival. "I was expecting something a little more United States-ey," he said with a smile. Like Dunn, Parsons soon will head to Iraq where he'll support overseas travel and training for Iraqi forces. He'll ensure Iraqis who are going to the United States for training have the proper security and travel arrangements, he explained. "What we're learning right now is absolutely paramount to prepare us for going over there," he said. Nycoca Hairston, an Army veteran, is familiar with the environment she's about to enter –- she served two tours in Iraq -- but still feels she has more to learn. She had just returned home last March when officials approached her to return again, this time as a civilian. In Iraq, she explained, she had served as the program manager of three reconnaissance management programs and was returning to help manage the logistics drawdown there. "Being there for the first two years, I didn't receive this type of training –- the intensity, the in-depth [instruction on] culture, customs, land structures," she said. "I feel more prepared now. "Just knowing the culture, the customs, is very important when interacting with [Iraqis]," she added. The single mother of two said she will miss her family, but is proud to be a part of the mission, which she's dedicating to a fallen boyfriend -- Army Command Sgt. Maj. Jerry Wilson, who was killed in action in 2003 in Mosul, Iraq. "I plan to go there and support the soldiers in his respect," she said. "Let me go over there and do it one more time." In a few short days, the students will join the roughly 4,000 civilians deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and about 500 civilians to other locations, such as Djibouti and Qatar. Dunn said she feels more confident now about what lies ahead. But, as with service members, Dunn also must come to terms with what she must temporarily leave behind. She tears up when speaking about leaving her 9-year-old son, who she called "my north, my south, my east and my west." "It will probably be harder for me than for him," she said of the separation from her son. Dunn said she's inspired by civilians who step up to deploy, particularly those who have served and deployed before. "They're making a sacrifice they don't have to make," she said. Parsons said his wife and children supported him 100 percent, even though he'd already deployed multiple times during his Air Force service. They understand his passion for service and desire to serve, he said. "I want to make an impact," he said. "I want someone to know that when Mark Parsons left that he served his country and he did all he could." Dunn echoed his passion to serve. "I want to make a difference in someone's life with a mission that's bigger than me," she said. | ||||||
| Related Sites: Civilian Expeditionary Workforce Camp Atterbury Muscatatuck Urban Training Center Related Articles: Photos | ||||||
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Injured Marine Regains His Stride
By Marine Corps Cpl. M.C. Nerl
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif, March 8: For Lance Cpl. James Grove, a member of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center's Wounded Warrior Detachment here, conventional methods of rehabilitation don't cut it.
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"When I was having feelings that normal physical therapy had hit a plateau," the Sellersville, Pa., native said, "I decided I wanted to take a different avenue."
He turned to an alternative offered through his command, competing in the inaugural Marine Corps trials for the Wounded Warrior Games.
Wounded, ill and injured Marines like Grove, along with other wounded from the U.S. and allied nations, gathered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Feb. 17–27 for the trials, where they competed in multiple events to claim gold, silver and bronze medals.
"It's far less conventional," Grove explained. "We've played a lot of sports, and I've had a great experience."
Grove, who competed in swimming, archery and wheelchair basketball, added that while he wasn't always a basketball player, he was a fan of the other two sports before he was injured.
"I picked swimming and archery," he said. "They were things I was interested in and did before I was injured. [I picked] basketball because of the team aspect. It sounded like it would be a lot of fun."
Carla Decker, a volleyball coach at the trials, said working with athletes like Grove was an enriching experience.
"I was glad to get the opportunity to come here and meet these fantastic people," she said. "I want to keep these athletes as my friends forever. I feel like I've made a thousand brothers while I've been here."
Decker said working with the wounded, ill and injured has helped her understand a world that was previously unknown to her.
"Working with any of these brave men has given me a chance to understand who they are and the sacrifices they make for our country," she said. "It's really incredible to see young men like this who have already overcome so much in their lives. I'm honored to have been able to come here and work with them."
Australian Defense Force Warrant Officer Class 2 Dennis Ramsay, a member of the allied team at the trials, testified from his own first-hand experience to the spirit of younger men like Grove.
"Well, having both of my legs amputated was incredibly tough," Ramsay said. "They take great care of all of us. Seeing a lot of the young Yanks and others with something that would wreck someone psychologically is a bit overwhelming at first.
"I know, though, that all these kids are pretty tough," he added. "I've met a lot of strong young men who have shown me a thing or two. It's good to see, and everything really has been a great boost not just in confidence, but reassuring for our future as well."Troops Project Humanitarian Aid to North Africa
By Air Force Master Sgt. Jim Fisher
17th Air Force
SOUDA BAY, Crete, March 7, 2011 - The team projecting humanitarian airlift missions into North Africa entered its fourth day of operations today, taking satisfaction from the more than 450 displaced Egyptian citizens ferried home from Tunisia.
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Air Force Staff Sgt. Ashley Vazquez, a command post controller with the 435th Air Mobility Squadron, has been working with teammates on everything from tracking people and equipment to building flight plans.
"We track all the personnel and aircraft -- we track flights, we set up all the communications equipment, making sure that we can talk to our flight crews in the air," she said. At Souda Bay, Vazquez is part of the 435th Contingency Response Group, based at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Known as the 435th Contingency Response Element while on Crete, they make the mission happen alongside airmen from the 37th Airlift Squadron.
"We just make sure everyone's taken care of while they are here," Vazquez said.
Much of this work is not captured by newsreels of evacuees gratefully touching down in Cairo, but is vital to making it happen, said Air Force Lt. Col. Charles "Doc" Schlegel, the contingency response element commander while deployed here and 435th Air Mobility Squadron commander at Ramstein.
"There are a lot of little things that must be done for us to be able to fly these missions," Schlegel said. "These guys have done a fantastic job, and when you see us on the news bringing people home safely after they have fled the conflict in Libya, you are only seeing part of the piece of the overall effort. Our whole teams, including our CRE element, aircrew, ravens, public affairs specialists and many others have all been crucial to the success of this important humanitarian mission."
Flexibility and versatility have made it possible for the small team -- fewer than 30 people are currently supporting the mission at Souda -- to get a lot done, said Air Force Staff Sgt. Justin Hairston, an air transportation craftsman with the contingency response element.
"We're a small unit, and we use cross-utilization training," he explained. "Everybody works together; everybody knows a little bit about everybody else's job. You have your subject matter experts, but everybody helps everybody out. That's what makes the [contingency response group] great," Hairston said.
Though their work is behind the scenes, the footage making network news in the United States and Europe is what makes it all worth it, Hairston said.
"Personally, my satisfaction comes from seeing these people getting home," he said. "It's nice to be a part of something like this. A lot of times you see things like this on the news, but to actually be a part of it, I feel very fortunate, very blessed to be here to help these people."
The airlift squadron and contingency response element did not fly today, waiting for further requests for assistance as part of the larger U.S. government and international effort to relieve suffering in the wake of the crisis.
"We are happy with what we've been able to get done so far in support of our State Department and U.S. Africa Command [missions]," Schlegel said. "We are standing by for more."
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
BRAC Transforms Aberdeen Proving Ground Mission
By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md., March 7, 2011 - With just over six months left to implement the Base Closure and Realignment Commission plan, the sweeping transformation it has sparked here is well under way and slated to be completed on time and under budget, officials reported.
The plan is bringing major growth to Aberdeen Proving Ground -- more than 6,500 people and more than $1 billion in new construction to accommodate the new workers, Army Col. Orlando W. Ortiz, the garrison commander, told American Forces Press Service. But it's also bringing a fundamental change to the post's historic mission, and how the Army ensures its warfighters have the most advanced equipment and systems possible to succeed on the battlefield. The U.S. Army Ordnance Center and School, the major tenant that defined Aberdeen Proving Ground's very identity for nearly a century, already has moved to Fort Lee, Va. There, it is part of the new Sustainment Center of Excellence, another BRAC initiative. As officials here closed a page on their post's legacy, they were busy preparing to open an exciting new one that would transform the installation into a hub of cutting-edge communications and electronics technology. Aberdeen Proving Ground has long been heavily involved in the Army's research, development, testing and evaluation mission, explained Army Col. Andrew Nelson, deputy garrison commander for transformation. But by consolidating many disparate and geographically separated organizations that supported those processes here at one post, BRAC is "bringing it to the next level," he said. "Aberdeen Proving Ground has been, but will be to a greater extent, one of the Army's major hubs of research and development of new technologies, and the testing and evaluation of those new technologies that lead to fielding new systems to support the warfighter," Nelson said. "This is the center of all of that -- the technology development that is leading to soldiers being better equipped and better supported in the operational environment where they are," he said. "It's the clothes they wear, the radios they speak through, the computer system that tracks where individual vehicles and soldiers are on the battlefield, to having [unmanned aerial vehicles] that give them the best intelligence of what the enemy is doing. "That is what Aberdeen Proving Ground already is, and what it will be about," Nelson said. "Everything we do here is all about ensuring that the individual soldier and the combat leader have the best possible equipment and systems and technology that is giving them the advantage on the battlefield." The biggest group of new arrivals to support this expanded mission is a collection of activities referred to as "the C4ISR materiel enterprise" that focuses on command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The lion's share of its 7,200 people are coming from Fort Monmouth, N.J., which is closing under BRAC and transferring most of its functions to Aberdeen. The new arrivals hail from Fort Monmouth's Communications and Electronics Command and Communications-Electronic Research, Development and Engineering Center and several of their program executive offices. Others are arriving from related activities at Redstone Arsenal, Ala.; Fort Huachuca, Ariz.; and Fort Belvoir, Va. CECOM established a forward presence at Aberdeen in 2007, and officially uncased its colors here in October 2010. A steady stream of its workforce began arriving this past summer, some directly from Fort Monmouth, some from temporary swing space at Aberdeen and others, new hires replacing workers who chose not to relocate. Today, about 60 percent of the new C4ISR team already has made the move to Aberdeen Proving Ground, settling into the state-of-the-art research and development campus known as the "C4ISR Center of Excellence." Meanwhile, construction crews are putting the finishing touches on the second phase of the C4ISR project, which Nelson said is expected to be completed this month or next. The entire C4ISR complex, once complete, will include 13 buildings and more than 2.5 million square feet of new space. The next-largest group of newcomers to Aberdeen, numbering just over 600, hails from the Army Test and Evaluation Command headquarters and Army Evaluation Center, both in Alexandria, Va. While construction was wrapping up on its new headquarters, Army Maj. Gen. Genaro Dellarocco opted to move directly to Aberdeen, rather than temporarily to Alexandria, when he assumed command in October. Working in swing space at Aberdeen, he's paving the way for the rest of the headquarters elements to follow, while supervising subordinate commands that were already based at Aberdeen when the BRAC recommendations were announced. In addition, BRAC is consolidating a variety of other organizations at Aberdeen. These include the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense from Falls Church, Va.; Air Force Non-Medical Chemical-Biological Defense Development and Acquisition, from Brooks City Base, Texas; the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research from Forest Glen, Md., the Army Research Institute from Fort Knox, Ky., and the Army Research Laboratory's Vehicle Technology Directorate from Langley, Va., and Glenn, Ohio. The BRAC initiative also has brought a broad range of defense contractors to Aberdeen Proving Ground, where many are operating in a new 416-acre complex just outside the gate. Ortiz credited detailed planning that started before the ink had even dried on the BRAC 2005 recommendations with ensuring the post is ready to receive the new arrivals. The planners worked closely with inbound organizations to identify their exact requirements, and with state and local officials to ensure surrounding communities were prepared for the influx. And, able to take advantage of an economic slump that made bidding on the 17 major construction projects required at Aberdeen Proving Ground highly competitive, they realized huge cost-savings in implementing BRAC. "In our fiscal year 2010 program, we were awarding contracts at 60 to 70 percent of what the government estimate was [in 2005]," Nelson said. "That's a big savings, money the Army didn't have to invest here." The first major construction project, a new gate with five vehicle inspection lanes, was completed in May 2009. As the other projects took shape around the installation, less obvious to casual observers were the tremendous infrastructure improvements required to support them. These included multiple-lane gate accesses, roadways, water, sewer and electrical line and miles and miles of fiber optic cabling. Exciting as these new developments are, Ortiz said he's made a concerted effort to ensure Aberdeen's 70-plus previous tenants don't get short shrift. "We don't want haves and have-nots," he said. So the post has undertaken a massive plan to upgrade existing facilities and demolish many of its old World War I- and II-era buildings. Ultimately, plans call for demolishing 188 facilities and 775 housing units over the next five years. As these efforts continue, Nelson said he expects lots of activity at Aberdeen during the spring and summer months as workers move into new or renovated facilities. July is expected to be particularly busy. With the clock ticking down, Ortiz said he's confident Aberdeen Proving Ground is on track to fully comply with the Sept. 15 BRAC deadline. "We've already integrated a sizeable number of the new workers and the buildings that aren't already completed are very far along," he said. "The conditions are pretty well set." The plan is going so well, in fact, that Ortiz expects Sept. 16, the first workday after the BRAC deadline, to be "just another day at work" at Aberdeen Proving Ground. "I honestly do not believe that on Sept. 16, folks are going to notice anything different," he said. "As the locals will tell you, for us, BRAC has already happened. The magic of that Sept. 15 date has long come and gone." So instead of fixating on the BRAC deadline, Aberdeen Proving Ground is focusing on its new, expanded mission, Ortiz said. "What we're focusing on is the future," he said."That's where we really need to go." | ||||||||||
| Related Sites: Aberdeen Proving Ground Base Closure and Realignment Commission | ||||||||||
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U.S. Military Aircraft Fly Egyptians Home from Tunisia
By Cheryl Pellerin American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 6, 2011 - U.S. military aircraft flew 640 Egyptians home today and yesterday from the Tunisia-Libya border where the refugees fled to escape the violence that continues between government forces and rebels in Libya.
U.S. Africa Command is overseeing the effort as part of the ongoing U.S. and international response to the evolving humanitarian emergency in that region. "For passenger evacuation, four more flights today are moving 328 passengers to Egypt," Africom spokesman Kenneth Fidler said in an e-mail. Most of the passengers were men who had been working in Libya before violence flared on Feb. 17 when Libyan leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi cracked down on protesters demanding government reform. Yesterday's four flights moved 312, Fidler said. The last military flight today left Djaerba in the late afternoon carrying 82 Egyptian nationals for a flight to Cairo that was expected to last 3.5 hours. Also yesterday, Fidler added, two U.S. Air Force C-130s from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, delivered humanitarian commodities less than 24 hours after President Barack Obama announced U.S. military support to the international effort. Donations from the U.S. Agency for International Development Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance warehouse at Leghorn Army Depot in Pisa, Italy, included 2,000 blankets, 40 rolls of plastic sheeting and 9,600 10-liter plastic water containers. The C-130J crews have used Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Greece, on the island of Crete, as a hub and crew-rest location. Crews of the Marine Corps KC-130s have used Naval Station Sigonella, Italy, on the island of Sicily, as a hub for their role in the operations, according to Africom officials. Thousands of Egyptians have returned home from the Tunisia-Libya border on aircraft and ferries belonging to or chartered by governments from around the world. On March 4, Naval Forces Europe-Africa, which coordinates U.S. Navy support to Africom, established the joint task for Odyssey Dawn to provide tactical command and control for emergency evacuations, humanitarian relief, and future Africom missions in support of the U.S. government response to unrest in Libya. Africom announced its airlift progress and the establishment of Odyssey Dawn in tweets from the social networking site, Twitter. The airlift and humanitarian effort is part of a larger U.S. government emergency response that Obama ordered last week. "The United States, and the entire world, continues to be outraged by the appalling violence against the Libyan people," he said during a March 3 press conference. "The United States is helping to lead an international effort to deter further violence, put in place unprecedented sanctions to hold the Gadhafi government accountable, and support the aspirations of the Libyan people," the president said. "We are also responding quickly to the urgent humanitarian needs that are developing." On the same day, Obama approved the use of U.S. military aircraft to help move Egyptians who have fled to the Tunisian border to get back home to Egypt. | ||
| Related Sites: U.S. Africa Command Related Articles: Ramstein Units Partner to Help Evacuees From Libyan Conflict Air Force Joins Effort to Help Libyan Evacuees |
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