Photo by Sgt. Marlana Cureton

Fort Stewart, Ga.- Observer, Coach/ Trainers (OC/Ts) assigned to 188th infantry brigade participated in the Fort Stewart Hunter Army Airfield annual Integrated Protection Exercise held at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield Education Centers, March 20-21, 2024.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with being the first to say the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” In an emergency situation, the last thing that anyone wants to be is unprepared.

Photo by Sgt. Marlana Cureton

OC/Ts provided evaluations and after-action reviews during and after the training event to test the preparedness of the installation during the training by using real-world scenarios to validate the response to these complex and difficult situations.

“The Installation Protection Exercise did real world Active Shooter and Bomb Threat scenarios,” said Maj. Justin Maroney, assigned to 188th infantry brigade, “there were many stakeholders involved in this exercise to include Military Police, Army Criminal Investigation Division, DPW, the Fire Department and school officials.”

Maroney went on to explain that the key objectives of the training were to expose any gaps in the Emergency Operations plan, which will mitigate the loss of life and property in the future.

Photo by Sgt. Marlana Cureton

“We tailored the training by using real world scenarios, using real role players, and threw in scenarios as the exercise went on to stress emergency operators in making decision points,” said Maroney.

Over the two day training event, multiple topics were covered; including a bomb threat, active shooters, barricaded suspects, hostage negotiation and power grid failure. Ensuring the training was effective and engaging for the participants was an integral part of the success of the mission.

The directors of the training ensured that the scenarios were ongoing, so that there was no downtime. The planners, and role players used real-world scenarios that made the exercise as realistic as possible.

In all planning situations strategies and techniques are vital, especially regarding response and risk mitigation during these emergency scenarios.

“We emphasized time management for the response and waiting for backup to arrive so that Law Enforcement did not have to enter the building alone,” said Maroney, “ for both exercises we stressed that communication was the key.”

As with any exercise, there were challenges to overcome, such as having too many evaluators in the training area, which caused confusion in some areas, but overall the training was productive.

“A success story was seeing the components get better with every iteration,” said Maroney.

The response teams learned from their mistakes and learned how to communicate and work cohesively with one another, which made them successful by the end of the exercise.

The addition of the OC/Ts helped to measure effectiveness because during the after-action reports held, each organization was able to address what they needed to practice and prepare for in the event of a real life incident.

“We measured the effectiveness of the training by their improvements with each iteration, response times to new scenarios and by the incident command becoming a unified command,” said Maroney.

Overall, the lessons learned, knowledge, and skills that were gained during the training will be critical to planning for future training and for real world events. Event planners hope to sustain and reinforce this by continuing to help Fort Stewart/ Hunter Army Airfield exercise their Emergency Action Plans now and in the future.

Congratulations to the soldier of OSUT class #24-15 (Arma3) for successful completion of training! This soldier has been awarded the Army Service Ribbon and has earned the right to be a full active member of their squad and the unit! This is merely the first step in their career here at 3rdID, we look forward to your continued success! Hooah

Graduates :

 PV2 N.McEnheimer 

Instructors : 

 SGT A.Shocked               

 SPC B.Fitzgerald            

WO1 J.White                  

OSUT GRADUATES #24-14

Congratulations to the soldiers of OSUT class #24-14 (Arma3) for successful completion of training! These soldiers have been awarded the Army Service Ribbon and have earned the right to be a full active member of their squad and the unit! This is merely the first step in their career here at 3rdID, we look forward to your continued success! Hooah

Graduates :

           PFC J.Allen

PV2 Z.Ditto  

                     PFC J.Finlayson 

PV2 T.Hobbs   

PV2 R.Legacy  

Instructors : 

SGT A.Shocked           

SPC Q,Clayton           

SPC P.Byrde              

WO1 J.White              

PFC I.Bar-tal             

SPC D.Hughson        

CPL H.McMahon        

PFC T.Anderson        

Congratulations to the soldiers of OSUT class #24-13 (Arma3) for successful completion of training! These soldiers have been awarded the Army Service Ribbon and have earned the right to be a full active member of their squad and the unit! This is merely the first step in their career here at 3rdID, we look forward to your continued success! Hooah

Graduates :

 PV2 R.Veneer    

            PFC Z.Snow  

Instructors :

  SGT J.Nicholas       

 SPC P.Byrde          

 SPC Q.Clayton     

 SPC G.Plunkett   

 SPC D.Hughson  

 WOC J.White       

End of the Somalia Campaign

The United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II) was the second phase of the United Nations intervention in Somalia and took place from March 1993 until March 1995, following the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991. UNOSOM II was a substantial multinational initiative, uniting over 22,000 troops from 27 nations. This operation marked the largest multilateral force ever assembled for peacekeeping, and at that time, it was the costliest UN operation. Notably, it was the first UN mission authorized from the start to use military force proactively, beyond self-defense. After the infamous Battle of Mogadishu took place, the end of the hunt for Aidid and military operations in Somalia shortly after. The United States withdrew six months after the battle, and the remaining UN forces departed from Somalia in early 1995, concluding the operation. UNOSOM II faced heavy criticism for alleged human rights abuses, violations of international law, and the use of excessive force, attracting scrutiny from a wide range of humanitarian organizations, academics and journalists. Furthermore, the operation was widely criticized for an overemphasis on military operations, diverging from its original humanitarian intent. The humanitarian efforts were heavily called into question following the operation leaving many in doubt of the effectiveness of the United Nations peacekeeping force.