Preparing for Everything…

Szöveg: Tamás Zilahy | 2012. április 5. 9:11

The practical training of the CIMIC-PSYOPS basic course took place recently on the range of Püspökszilágy. Lt.-Col. István Guba, the Deputy Commander of the HDF Civil-Military Cooperation and Psychological Operations Center (HDF CMCPOC) told us that some 40 experts from four HDF units put into practice what they had learnt on the earlier one-week classroom instruction.

The participants learnt that personal meetings and contact have a key role in civil-military cooperation which is supposed to bridge a gap, but psychological operations are conducted mainly with the use of multimedia vehicles. During the various situational plays, mentors with considerable mission-specific experience from Afghanistan and Kosovo joined them to help their preparation. They mastered different negotiating techniques and tactics, the proper ways of negotiating with a local entrepreneur, journalist or warlord. Of course, issues of security were high on the training schedule, just as some special fields like working with interpreters.

“The language of the training program is Hungarian, since most of our students are participating in a professional training like this for the first time, so we’ve started from the basics", Lt.-Col. Guba told us. He stressed that the main objective was to prepare the course attendees for all imaginable situations, so that they cannot get any surprise in real-life situations in the area of operations.

We were informed that the practical training was not easy either, because it lasted from 08:00 a.m. to 06:00 p.m. for three days. During that time, the training audience mastered various techniques, learnt body language and the core truth “Never say no" – that is, they learnt what it means to be a CIMIC officer.