Staff assistance visit benefits USJFCOM, CJTF-HOA

A deployable training team from U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Training Directorate/Joint Warfighting Center recently returned from a staff assistance visit with Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. The visit was a chance for both the team and the joint task force to assess training delivered by J7 prior to the JTF's deployment earlier this year.

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By Jacob Boyer
USJFCOM Public Affairs

(SUFFOLK, Va. - June 28, 2010) -- The results of a recent site assistance visit (SAV) conducted by U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) observer/trainers (O/Ts) and the joint task force (JTF) responsible for U.S. military operations in eastern Africa will benefit both commands.

A Joint Training Directorate/Joint Warfighting Center (J7) deployable training team (DTT) worked with Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) during the visit, which is the final in a series of events - the Unified Endeavor (UE) Mission Rehearsal Program - designed to prepare the JTF's core staff for its mission, said Lt. Col. Mark Brennan, the DTT's lead O/T.

Navy Rear Adm. Brian Losey, CJTF-HOA commander, said the visit and its preceding mission rehearsal exercise (MRX) are "utterly vital" to his task force because of the unique challenges it faces in both assembling and operating. Prior to deploying, his staff went through education and training conducted by J7.

"Particularly with the way this JTF is formed," Losey said. "We form up outside of the theater. There are some very specialized regional requirements that are necessary to operate in Africa. That and the idea of bringing a disparate group together to form a joint task force are both serviced by the MRX and the SAV."

Losey and his chief of staff, Navy Capt. John Dixon, both said the ultimate goal of the SAV is to enhance CJTF-HOA's mission effectiveness.

"It's making our team and our processes better so that we can execute the mission better," Dixon said. "We'll be more effective at doing what we came here to do. We're out here working with other parts of the government to execute the national security strategy. That's what it's all about."

CJTF-HOA's primary mission is conflict prevention. That sometimes can be difficult to communicate, but Dixon said the small investment in operations now can keep at bay the large cost of wars later.

"The biggest difference is prevention of conflict is not the kind of thing Tom, Joe and Mary back in Bedford, Pa., understand easily," he said "It's not the traditional sense of what people see the military doing. Conflict prevention over here is a bargain. We're preventing potential wars that could cost billions of dollars and see American lives lost."

J7 DTTs deploy to train JTFs and combatant commands all around the world and share best practices and lessons learned across those organizations. Losey said that insight is valuable to JTFs like this one.

"They're bringing lessons learned to us from Afghanistan and Iraq," he said. "They take those practices and bring them to us. A concrete example I can give you is population-centered analysis: understanding the environment from a population-centric view as opposed to an adversary-centric one. That's critical when you consider conflict prevention in the context here in Africa."

Lessons learned and best practices for a JTF immersed in an operating environment that presents new challenges regularly are important. The DTT can come in with an outsider's perspective and see things a staff dealing with those challenges may have missed, according to Dixon.

"They come in as an outside set of eyes," he said. "That's probably the best thing. We may be tunneled in on something whereas they can see maybe a bigger picture or different perspective and bring best practices to us and evaluate what we do. It's very helpful."

While the SAV was the final training event for this iteration of CJTF-HOA, it also was the first step for the J7 as it prepares to train the core staff's replacements. Navy Cmdr. Nick Mungas, U.S. Africa Command lead planner with J7's Joint Exercise Division, was part of the DTT and gathered lessons learned to help him craft relevant academics and training for that next core staff. He said he was there to find out what worked during this staff's training, what could have worked better, and what could be added to this year's MRX.

"It's going to pay a lot of dividends for me to have seen the environment they're working in and better understand their physical environment and what some of their day-to-day limitations are while they're out here," he said.

Losey said the JTF's huge geographical footprint, its emphasis on civil-military operations, and its need to operate in coordination with host nations and other U.S. government agencies are challenges the UE program has helped the staff prepare for and overcome.

"The key distinction they're helping us with here is that we're operating in a region of roughly 12 countries," he said. "When you talk about exercising a whole of government approach, understanding the dynamics of a country and its country team play in and impact how you coordinate comprehensive solutions. They help us root through best practices to determine how to do that effectively."