Eagle Punch Near Rome

One of the first stages in their training program was the autumn command post exercise ‘Eagle Roster’ mounted by the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps–Italy (NRDC-ITA) north of Rome, in Bracciano and its environs.

The Debrecen- and Hódmezővásárhely-based staff of the HDF 5th ‘Bocskai István’ Infantry Brigade sent an eight-man team to Italy to participate in the exercise for two weeks as role-players under the NRDC-ITA HQ. In addition to the Italian forces that provide most of the NRDC-ITA personnel, Greek, Slovenian and Hungarian staffs were also taking part in the exercise as role-players.

In cooperation with the supporting artillery units and the air force, the Hungarian brigade had to engage an armored division which was deployed in the first echelon of the enemy corps in a rough mountainous area. The enemy’s airborne troops seized a mountain pass that served as a key feature in the only available line of communications (LOC) of the Hungarian brigade, with the consequence that the brigade had to fight for three days while being cut off from a significant portion of its reserves and supplies. On the fourth day, after driving back an enemy attack and forcing the enemy to retreat, the brigade started to prepare for launching the post-conflict operations.

During the after action review (AAR) of Exercise “Eagle Roster" which involved 1200 troops, the commander of NRDC-ITA and his deputy stressed several times the international character of the exercise, both in terms of the training audience and the role-players impersonating the subordinate units. This fact is an added value to the exercise in the case of a multinational staff which is scheduled to deploy in Afghanistan in 2012.