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GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — More than 50 Soldiers from the 21st Theater Sustainment Command based out of Kaiserslautern, Germany, participated in exercise Unified Endeavor here, March 18 to April 6. The 21st TSC Soldiers assisted in providing training to multinational forces in preparation for their roles in overseas contingency operations.
Unified Endeavor is a semi-annual series of exercises that was developed in 1995 as a way to train commanders with new, computer simulation technology. The exercise is a three-phase program that culminates with a simulation driven computer-aided exercise.
The phases consist of academic training (how to develop a plan), development of the operations plan and execution of the operations order.
UE brought more than 1,900 multinational Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, government civilians and contractors from 27 countries together at eight different locations spanning across the globe to participate in or to support the multi-tiered command and control exercise.
This year, all the major headquarter structures expected to deploy in support of overseas contingency operations took part in the training at the same time to allow the unprecedented ability to weave exercise scenarios throughout national and international leadership. The computer-based training during the exercise included hundreds of scenarios based on situations that Soldiers may face while deployed.
“The training is to help them see the problems that they are going to encounter during their deployment, so they can prepare and have ideas of how they would handle those problems,” said Lt. Col. John Looney, the 21st TSC’s training and exercise chief and Atlanta native. “It is also basic staff training so that there is interaction between staff sections so that they can understand and talk to each other and share information as opposed to all just working individually.”
The primary training unit supported by the 21st TSC contingent was the 3rd Sustainment Brigade, located at Fort Stewart, Ga. During the exercise the 21st TSC acted as their higher command referred to as the Joint Sustainment Command-Afghanistan, in addition to supporting other training events with units from the ISAF Joint Command.
“The 21st’s role went extremely well,” said Looney. “We conducted one train up prior to the event; we established operations and the communications team did an excellent job establishing communication.”
“There were some growing pains as the exercise began but because of our preparations, everything was right on track. We had a really good team out here,” Looney added.
The 21st TSC supported the event with members from all of its primary staff sections in addition to personnel from the public affairs, surgeon and chaplain offices to name a few.
“It makes me feel proud to be a part of an exercise like this,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 George Annan, a maintenance management technician for the 21st TSC and a Baltimore native. “I have been downrange before and we didn’t receive training like this.”
“What we’re teaching to these guys is what they are going to be actually doing while deployed,” added Annan. “So I’m hoping that when they go downrange they will be like wow, the stuff we were taught is very helpful.”
“I’m encouraged to see that we could all come together as a team and work towards a common goal to get these Soldiers ready to conduct operations in Afghanistan,” said Staff Sgt. Herschel Skinner, a support operations financial management noncommissioned officer for the 21st TSC and a Winston Salem, N.C. native.
