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Blackanthem Military News
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Last Updated:
Feb 9, 2012 - 5:06:14 PM |
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Blackanthem Military News
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| First Army Division West trains nearly all Army Reserve and Army National Guard aviation units. Since the completion of the Longhorn Airstrip expansion at North Fort Hood, the bulk of that training will be held here. Division West hosted an Aviation Joint Assessment July 20-22 for Guard units that will deploy in the next year to identify what each unit's needs are in manning, equipment and training. (Photo by Sgt. Aaron Gott, 166th Aviation Brigade, Division West) |
FORT HOOD, Texas - Birds of a feather from the Army National Guard's aviation community flocked together July 20-22 at North Fort Hood for an Aviation Joint Assessment, a gathering previously held in Georgia.
Causing the change in location was the Longhorn Airstrip expansion here that has resulted in Fort Hood being the premier mobilization training platform for nearly all reserve component aviation assets.
To better serve aviation units that will mobilize and demobilize at Fort Hood, First Army Division West hosted the AJA, bringing together representatives from the National Guard Bureau, First Army, First Army Division West and units of the Army National Guard. The main purpose of the assessment is to identify strengths, weaknesses and needs of each unit before that unit hits its mobilization date, or M-day as it is also called. Bringing the AJA to Fort Hood gives unit leadership a chance to get a lay of the land and first-hand knowledge of the amenities their units will have available while training.
"The AJA is something that has come about due to constant (after action reviews)," said Maj. Steven Traweek, a Division West logistics support officer. "We're constantly looking for ways to improve. Three or four years ago we didn't have the AJA - at least not as regularly as we have now. So, a lot of units would show up to the mob site not really understanding how the process works.
"The AJA really gives us the opportunity to meet the units," he said. "It's done 365 days out now. A year in advance, now, the unit gets to meet who is going to mob them and how this is going to work."
Giving units an idea of what is to come helps pinpoint their needs before mobilizing. Leadership and key personnel present their unit's status on personnel, training and equipment at different stations during the AJA.
"An aviation joint assessment is a lot like a (Soldier readiness process) at the unit level," said Staff Sgt. Clay Lankford with the National Guard Bureau. "Soldiers have to go from station to station during an SRP to determine their individual level of readiness - this is basically the same process on the unit level."
Manning, equipment and training are major points of interest for each unit during the AJA. Finding shortcomings in any category gives the unit, the NGB and First Army opportunities to determine courses of action to fix any deficiency through cross-leveling of Soldiers, transferring equipment or coordinating necessary training. The unique nature of National Guard structure benefits from having cooperative efforts like the AJA and resources like the NGB that can reach across state lines.
"There are really 54 National Guards - 54 different chains of command. That's one for every state and territory," Lankford said. "The AJA gives a kind of order to that by getting units to talk to us, and each other, because some units will be crossing state lines for deployments."
By crossing state lines, Lankford said he meant units will have to reach outside their state's borders to obtain any equipment or personnel they are lacking for mobilization. The NGB aids in locating and making those assets available.
For units' other major need, training, representatives of First Army and First Army Division West were on hand. Capt. Richard Palagonia, an officer with the First Army's operations/plans office, works with Guard aviation units on a regular basis and reviewed the aviators' training plans at the AJA.
"It has been pretty tough for me as an active duty guy taking on the responsibility of (National Guard) lead," Palagonia said. "It was tough at first dealing with the different states, but once you get to know the main people and figure out who they are, it's pretty easy. It can be pretty complex, though, because there's a lot of different people you have to deal with."
"Since we have the unit, their subject matter experts and our subject matter experts here we can look at the unit and say ‘Here are some areas you need to work on,'" Traweek said. "If they're short on people, equipment or training, we then look to see what we can leverage from ourselves, First Army, FORSCOM and the NGB to fix them so they're 100 percent ready to train and to perform their tasks when they arrive at the mobilization center.
"One of the other key points is to discuss what the unit is expected to do in pre-mob training," Traweek said. "Something that's happening now is units are expected to do more training leading up to their mobilization date."
Armed with true readiness assessments of their units, the soon-to-mobilize units can return to their home stations, address their manning and equipment issues, schedule needed training, and have a greater understanding of the facilities they will have at their disposal.
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col. raed naghway
12 Jun 2011, 08:40
i am col. Raed Naghway from the jordanian army asking of the where abouts
and email address of capt. Richard Palagonia , we served together in
Falloujeh and on the jordanian - iraqi borders , thanks a lot
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