Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [155]
After the MOS cross-training, the team begins a long patrol to their new training area. Along the way, they conduct a mini Phase II course to review basic patrolling, raid, and ambush procedures, reaction to fire, countersniper procedures, hand and arm signals, danger crossings, security halts, and the whole range of small-unit tactical skills. Afternoon becomes night, and they continue to patrol and drill until they reach their second layup position and go to ground for the night. Ten of them bed down, while two remain awake on watch. Sergeant Blackman and Captain Childers had carefully reviewed their team’s training schedule prior to the exercise, but pretty much leave 915 to train on their own. I move around to see a few other Phase IV ODAs conduct cross-training and small-unit-tactics drills, and their cadre sergeants were often right there with them. I ask Miguel Santos about this.
“It’s on us,” Captain Santos says after their first full day in the mission-readiness exercise. “We know what we have to do, and the guys are committed to getting it done and getting it right. Sergeant Blackman told us what he expects out here, and we don’t want to disappoint him. We all think pretty highly of him—Captain Childers as well.”
The second day of exercise is interview day. Nine-one-five patrols about a mile to the training site and dumps their rucks in a wooded area near one of the lakes on Camp Mackall. This is where the eight student ODAs assigned to their forward operating base gather for this day’s training. There are eight training stations. Each station or venue is a tarp rigged among the trees with a table and four or more chairs. At each station, there are two contract role players who support this exercise and Robin Sage. Almost all are former Green Berets who now work for Northrop Grumman. The student ODA is briefed/read into each scenario by their cadre team sergeant. Then two members of the ODA are designated as the team leader and team sergeant. They approach and make contact with the two role players waiting at the station. The rest of the ODA members gather nearby so they can observe and listen.
For 915, the first scenario is a Belgian medical nongovernmental organization, Doctors Without Borders, working in Afghanistan. The ODA is new to the area and wants to make contact with the NGO—get to know them, see what they can do for the NGO, and see what they can learn. Specifically, the ODA wants to know about insurgents in the area. The men know the doctors move freely about and treat both sides. The NGO reps distrust the military. It’s not a personal thing, but they want to keep their distance and maintain their neutrality. They do want military help if things get out of hand, and perhaps some supplies that the NGOs find scarce. Staff Sergeant Olin and PFC Tim Baker are the team leader and team sergeant for this encounter. Olin asks how things are going and if there’s anything they can do to help. The NGO rep allows that he has a broken sterilizer and needs a new one. Tom Olin tells him he’ll see what he can do to find one, and asks about the insurgent activity in the area. After a semicordial back-and-forth conversation while the other members of the team observe, Olin and Baker say good-bye to the two NGO workers. Time is called in the exercise play, and 915 gathers for an immediate critique of the session.
The other venues pose different and challenging dilemmas, but issues commonly encountered by deployed ODAs. One is with a Pineland guerrilla chief. This is a first meeting between the G chief and the Americans who have just arrived in area. A guerrilla on security checks them out, and the chief welcomes them to his fire under a patch of canvas suspended between trees. The