Officer Cadets on Exercise ROTATION 2014

The movement to Germany was organized with the help of the US Office of Defense Cooperation. The objective of the mission rehearsal exercise (MRE) was to train the Republic of Georgia’s Army 51st Light Infantry Battalion in mentoring tasks before deploying to Afghanistan. The role-playing Hungarian officer cadets supported the exercise, in the roles of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police (ANP). Due to a long-standing cooperation between the Republic of Georgia’s Army and the United States Marine Corps (UMSC), the Georgian soldiers were training alongside a team of US Marine Corps mentors providing advisory support. English was used as the working language during the preparation and execution phases of the exercise, intermediate-level proficiency of which is an entrance requirement for officer cadets, and here they had opportunity to develop their language skills in a “lifelike" environment.

During the three-week MRE, the first week was spent with preparation. The designated officer cadets conducted conversion training and driving practice with HMMWVs. In addition, all members of the company successfully completed a Dry Rollover and Egress Training (DRET), during which the vehicle crewmembers and the transported persons practiced the procedures for a vehicle rollover, including how to exit the vehicle and how to assist each other in exiting the vehicle, which may have rolled over for several reasons.

In the second week, the officer cadets attended training methodology sessions with the Georgian soldiers in charge of the training, where they practiced combat life saver (CLS) and medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) as well as communication and information systems (CIS) tasks, the setting up and manning of checkpoints, the search of vehicles and persons, convoy operations, C-IED action, urban patrol and the basics of the commander’s work.

In the third week, the MRE continued with realistic scenarios, where six Afghan villages and a Forward Operating Base (FOB) were built in a training area covering 130 square kilometers. The exercise involved around 100 civilian role-players – including people of Afghan descent – acting as the “local" population. The role-playing was carried out in accordance with the Main Event List/Main Incident List (MEL/MIL) of the exercise, which included events synchronized in time, space and in terms of resources, while the reactions and activities of the training audience were observed, supervised and evaluated.

Through their participation in the exercise, the officer cadets of the HDF Ludovika Battalion were able to efficiently support the training objectives of the Georgian unit, and had opportunity to practice how to manage and cooperate with the local people and the governmental and non-governmental organizations. During the MRE, they gained first-hand experience of the challenges in a multinational environment and the features of operations conducted in the Afghan theatre of war, while earning themselves international recognition and esteem. The officer cadets have acquired knowledge, skills and techniques which they will be able to share, in their first officer billet, with the soldiers under their command.

Photos by the author