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The 1st Human Resources Service Center conducted a Mission Readiness exercise Nov. 2 to 5. The exercise offered training in basic Soldier tasks as well as human resources functions in preparation for a deployment to the Central Command area of operations in March.
Roughly 60 strong personnel of the 1st HRSC are deploying for about nine months to provide oversight of HR services throughout Central Command. The activities they will oversee include personnel processing, reception staging and onward movement, casualty assistance and other HR services.
Providing current operational insights for the exercise was the 8th Human Resources Service Center, the unit currently filling the role the 1st HRSC will fill during its deployment. Having the 8th HRSC participate in the exercise helped focused the training on the real-world tasks the unit will have to accomplish in theater.
“They’re doing the mission right now, so they know exactly the processes we need to be ready to do,” said exercise Director Lt. Col. Marcos Suarez with the 1st HRSC. “We have the experiences of the people who are doing the job right now, and they bring a lot of realism to the exercise.”
The exercise consisted of several days of scenario-based training in which the unit would receive various HR tasks or processes they would have to accomplish. The 8th HRSC helped develop the training events, known as Master Scenario Events List injects, which call on the unit to perform the functions it will have to perform when it deploys.
In addition to this MSEL-based HR functional training, the 1st HRSC also enlisted the help of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 21st TSC, to provide hands-on training in basic Soldier skills and tasks such as convoy operations, casualty evacuation and movement under fire.
“Every one of these HR specialists needs to also be a Soldier,” Suarez said. “Our mission is to oversee HR operations, but as Soldiers we need to be able to defend ourselves so it’s also critical to train those basic Soldier tasks as well.”
The combination of functional area training and basic soldiering tasks seemed like the perfect preparation for deployment, according to 1st HRSC Soldier Spec. She-Ra Newell who had her share of both low crawling and paper pushing throughout the exercise.
“The low crawling, three to five second rushes and all of that was definitely something I think we needed,” Newell said. “But it also helped to get a chance to do some of those things we don’t normally do.”
One of the things Newell found most challenging and learned the most from was the opportunity to perform casualty operations, a function the 1st HRSC does not normally perform, and one that Newell says she wants to make sure she gets right when she is downrange.
“Since the garrison does casualty assistance here in Europe, we don’t get a chance to do that here, but we’re going to do it when we’re in Kuwait,” Newell said. “If a Soldier dies downrange, the casualty processing we do will affect that Soldier’s family members, and that’s something I want to make sure I do right!”
