News From USJFCOM: USJFCOM deployable training team works with CJTF-HOA to improve Unified Endeavor Mission Rehearsal Program

USJFCOM deployable training team works with CJTF-HOA to improve Unified Endeavor Mission Rehearsal Program

A deployable training team from U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Training Directorate/Joint Warfighting Center travelled to Djibouti working with the staff of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa to reinforce training the task force received prior to deployment. The site assistance visit represents the final phase of USJFCOM's Unified Endeavor Mission Rehearsal Program that trains staffs in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa.

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By Jacob Boyer
USJFCOM Public Affairs

Blog posts from CJTF-HOA Visit

Jake Boyer, USJFCOM Communications, travelled to Africa with U.S. Joint Forces Command's Deployable Training Team to cover the team's work with a staff assist visit. Each of his blog entries from USJFCOMLive are linked below.

(CAMP LEMONNIER, Djibouti - June 11, 2010) -- Joint observers and trainers from U.S. Joint Forces Command's (USJFCOM) Joint Training Directorate/Joint Warfighting Center (J7) are working with Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa's (CJTF-HOA) during a staff assistance visit (SAV) here this week.

A J7 deployable training team (DTT) arrived in Djibouti June 4, and will be here until Saturday. The SAV is the final element in a series of events known as the Unified Endeavor (UE) Mission Rehearsal Program. The progam is conducted by USJFCOM to prepare a task force's core staff for its mission, said Lt. Col. Mark Brennan, DTT lead observer/trainer (O/T).

Team members have been observing operations and providing training and assistance to the staff throughout the visit. Brennan said their work with other JTFs and combatant commands all over the globe enables them to offer helpful insights to warfighters on the ground.

"We have a tremendous amount of experience. Our team goes all over the world," he said. "Through these experiences, we are able to develop insights and identify best practices because we see all these different organizations which we then share with other organizations. For example, we may see that International Security Assistance Force Joint Command is doing something well in Afghanistan, so we want to share that with CJTF-HOA."

Brennan emphasized that a SAV should not be confused with an evaluation of the organization being visited. The DTT arrives and works with Navy Rear Admiral Brian Losey, CJTF-HOA commander, to help his staff improve its operations.

Navy Capt. Miguel Gonzalez, DTT chief, said the team brings a valuable outside look at operations to staffs that are committed to doing the hard work of running a JTF.

"Sometimes the staff is so busy doing their work, they don't see the forest for the trees," Gonzalez said. "What we bring is that outside view. We're not mired down by the process of the daily business of running a JTF, so we can come in and look at that with a critical eye and see common threads they're not privy to."

"We are not judging. We are not evaluating for a grade so much as trying to help them and observe and be noninvasive," said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Chris Dalton, sustainment O/T. "That is very relationship dependent and can be very quickly broken. Commands have long memories, so we try to be very careful to stay out of the way, stay engaged and assist them wherever we can. At the end of the day we try to answer their questions and leave them with some tools they can choose to use."

As they conduct training, the team's O/Ts observe how directorates and staff sections go through their processes and talk to staff members about them. Each team member is assigned a functional area and works with staff members whose responsibilities encompass that area. More important than the observation, however, is the training the team does while it is here, said Air Force Lt. Col. Philip Hicks, engineer O/T.

"You want to do a little 'O' and a big 'T,'" he said. "That means I go in and do my observations and I train. I come in with training tools, parts and pieces I give to the training audience and tell them 'Look, I'm not telling you how to do it, but here are some concepts we've seen as best practices.' It's up to them to then take those concepts and develop them into the appropriate structures or processes that work for their organization, because every organization is different."

The UE program has three main components. The initial phase is academics. An incoming JTF staff spend time learning about the area it is going to and the mission it will assume. Following academics is the mission rehearsal exercise. During the MRX, a staff practices processes it will use on the ground while being observed and mentored by O/Ts. The final component is the SAV. Hicks said it is important for the O/Ts remember the difference between the MRX and the SAV once they arrive in theater.

"A SAV is a real-world event," he said. "They're conducting real-world ops. If there are events that they are going through, then you have to learn to back off. There's a very fine line between being overly intrusive and limiting their ability to do their jobs versus trying to help them."

Each night, the MTT holds a roundup meeting where team members share observations. As time passes, O/Ts and analysts combine observations into Gonzalez's common threads called 'buckets.' Buckets are overarching themes for the staff to consider, including subjects like strategic communication, staff integration and whole of government.

"They transcend the functional areas that we cover down on, like assessments and legal," Gonzalez said. "These cut across those and put them into one focus area. They're areas we're seeing across the functional areas that have common points we'd like to highlight."

Later in the week, those threads feed into two products the team puts together for a commander and his staff: the facilitated after-action review (FAAR) and the commander's summary report (CSR). Gonzalez said the FAAR is a chance for him to tell the staff what his team observed and allows them to talk about it as a group.

"A good facilitated after-action review is one where I don't talk very much," he said.

"It's really a discovery for the staff to talk amongst themselves given topics from us. If a FAAR happens and I do all the talking, I don't find that as useful as one where the staff engages itself."

In addition to the FAAR, the team prepares the CSR, which is delivered to the commander within 10 days of the team's return. Gonzalez said the CSR is a supplement to the FAAR which goes more in-depth into subjects discussed during the review.

The SAV has value to J7 and the DTT beyond the training value to a JTF, Brennan said. The O/Ts have a chance to increase their own knowledge. Additionally, it gives them a chance to analyze the training JTFs get during UE's first two phases.

"We work in designing the academics, the exercise, and all the training that the core staff receives before it deploys," Brennan said. "The SAV will help us gain insights to continue modifying the training program to better suit the audience."