A Citizen-Soldier must always be ready to serve both their State and the country, whenever and wherever duty calls. Soldiers of the Idaho Army National Guard fully embraced this calling when their service took them literally around the world in just one year.
“It was eye opening to see how the rest of the world views Soldiers of the Army National Guard,” said 1LT Rausch.
In 2017, Soldiers of the Idaho Army National Guard collectively deployed to 13 different countries, totaling more than 87,000 miles of travel. Soldiers were offered opportunities for deployments to Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Guatemala, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Romania, Taiwan, Tanzania and Thailand. These were Overseas Deployment Training missions, which are dedicated to the development of Soldiers’ MOS skills in a foreign environment.
“Overseas Deployment Training missions are a great opportunity for members of the Idaho Army National Guard,” said BG John Goodale, commander of the Idaho Army National Guard. “It provides an opportunity to demonstrate [the Soldiers’] tremendous skills and abilities, and allows them to learn from our partner nations and bring that experience and knowledge back to Idaho.”
The abundance of training missions gave the Idaho Soldiers the rare experience of training under eight of the military’s nine geographic combatants.
“Idaho is known as a respectable, capable and willing partner to support different combatant commands by providing extremely capable and motivated Soldiers to complete these missions,” said LTC Scott Sheridan, Director of Operations for the Idaho Army National Guard.
Through these deployments, Soldiers participated in missions that spanned from one to three weeks, each with a focus on a different specialty. Soldiers completed a variety of tasks, including providing medical training, mentoring cadets and participating in large training exercises.
“Soldiers that volunteered for these missions had the opportunity to utilize their MOS with our allies and partners,” said LTC Sheridan. “Anytime you utilize your MOS, you increase your aptitude, as well as the interoperability with the host nation’s soldiers and our partners.”
1LT Jerry Rausch of Alpha Company, 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team, went on a Cultural Understanding and Language Proficiency (CULP) mission in Tanzania. The CULP program familiarizes Army ROTC Cadets with foreign cultures. 1LT Rausch was one of four Soldiers from the State to be chosen to represent Idaho in the program. He was selected as a team leader and had the task of teaching cadets about cultural- and self-awareness. Through his mission, he was able to work with civilians and instructors from Tanzania’s armed forces.
“The purpose was to connect cultural awareness training through immersion in a foreign culture to understand how culture and foreign language affects missions,” 1LT Rausch explained. “Part of the program is to provide training and opportunities for Cadets who are going to be the future leaders of our Army. It’s important that they understand the significance of having a good, strong relationship with not only military members of foreign nations, but also civilian members of foreign nations.”
Having never traveled out of the country on a mission, 1LT Rausch volunteered for this mission to grow personally as a Soldier.
“[The mission] was an opportunity to mobilize and deploy in a non-combat status in a foreign country for a short period of time,” 1LT Rausch said. “[Tanzania] is a developing nation in regard to infrastructure, economics and politics. It’s just a totally different experience. I wanted to gain an understanding of what it’s like to work with a host nation and to experience another culture.”
1LT Rausch said part of his development opportunity was teaching Cadets while also building relationships with Tanzanian soldiers and civilians.
“We began to create a bond with the soldiers, students and teachers down there,” 1LT Rausch said. “It was something I couldn’t have comprehended before I went there and experienced it. It went above and beyond anything I expected. It was a great experience, both professionally and personally.”
1LT Rausch noted his surprise at the reactions of the Tanzanian soldiers and civilians. Seeing how they responded to the presence of the Army National Guard gave him a greater appreciation for the opportunities he had been given.
“It was eye opening to see how the rest of the world views Soldiers of the Army National Guard,” said 1LT Rausch. “The people were friendly and open minded. They have almost an idolization of the American lifestyle and culture. I feel that so often we take things for granted in our everyday lives, and that we don’t always understand or appreciate the opportunities that are presented to us.”
SGT Matthew Kessler of Bravo Company, 145th Brigade Support Battalion, volunteered for a three-week mission to Germany, which he said presented an amazing opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience.
“The training mission is a great opportunity outside of [combat] deployment for Soldiers to see the rest of the world and actually do their job in theater or outside of their normal status,” SGT Kessler said.
With a team of 10 Soldiers, SGT Kessler’s mission was to support a reserve component by conducting services and repairs on vehicles.
“The unit we supported didn’t have any organic maintenance assets, so our purpose was to serve as their maintenance assets. We were to repair, troubleshoot, diagnose and service any type of vehicles they had,” SGT Kessler said.
With any mission, challenges might arise. For SGT Kessler, weathering the challenges presented during his mission involved using available resources and thinking outside of the box.
“There was definitely a language barrier that we had to overcome, but working with some Americans that lived there helped to work it out,” SGT Kessler said. “We also had minimal tools and parts to do the repairs, so a lot of it was trying different things, finding old parts and making do.”
Despite those small challenges, SGT Kessler and his team found the mission to be a positive experience.
“Everybody had a great time,” SGT Kessler said. “We were very comfortable and every question we had was answered. I think it was beneficial to a lot of Soldiers to do the hands-on training and be able to participate in a real-world activity. There was great leadership and we worked on quite a bit of vehicles.”
SFC Rusty Mewes of Foxtrot Company, 145th Brigade Support Battalion, traveled to Malaysia with 21 other Soldiers from the Idaho National Guard for Keris Strike 2017. The exercise gave Soldiers like SFC Mewes the opportunity to train with members of the Malaysian Armed Forces in an intense 10-day training exercise.
“During an exercise where we are there for only 10 days total and the training is only six of those days, you want to make sure all of the information is pushed out so everyone can have a [beneficial] experience,” SFC Mewes explained. “We had a very knowledgeable team that was able to make things happen and get everything out in time.”
Keris Strike 2017 was based around working with counterparts in a fictional scenario. “The scenario was basically a peace enforcement between two countries and, in the middle of that peace enforcement, we had to incorporate humanitarian aid or disaster relief due to a flood in the area,” SFC Mewes explained.
The inclusion of the flood in the scenario proved to be invaluable training for the Malaysian forces. A few months after the planners of Keris Strike first introduced the disaster relief component in the exercise, Malaysia experienced a large flood. Because they had just trained for this type of disaster, Malaysia soldiers were better prepared to respond.
“They were trained for it,” said SFC Mewes. “Malaysia now requests
that every year when we do this exercise, some type of humanitarian disaster relief and flooding is incorporated into the scenario just because of how much that [initial training] helped them [when the real floods came].”
The flood scenario turning into a real-life disaster illustrates how vital these exercises are. SFC Mewes commented on the importance of the knowledge shared through the training exercises – all while fostering positive relationships.
“One of the big impacts was just going over there, training with them and learning from them,” said SFC Mewes. “I think it’s important to train there to bring back some of their practices and let them learn our practices. It helps build relationships and allies.”
Outside of training, SFC Mewes was able to experience the Malaysian culture. The exercise included cultural days where SFC Mewes and his team were given tours of the area, followed by a ceremony. It was a chance for Soldiers to learn more about Malaysian culture and create bonds with their counterparts.
“[The ceremony] was very extravagant,” SFC Mewes said. “It looked like a big wedding. They had booths with food, music, shows and awards. It was very nice being able to talk to them and get to know them both personally and professionally.”
Developing professional and personal connections with foreign partner-soldiers was a focus for SGT Ray Montes of the Alpha Company, 116th Calvary Brigade Combat Team, during his 10-day mission in Cambodia. However, building and maintaining a healthy rapport with Cambodia’s soldiers initially presented challenges.
“The biggest challenge was trying to break that barrier,” SGT Montes explained. “Not just the language barrier, but showing that I am a Soldier like you, and if we work together we can actually learn from each other. That was the biggest adjustment to make, but it’s important because it creates a foundation between us and other forces.”
SGT Montes traveled with 10 other Soldiers from the National Guard, Air Force and Navy, each of them having a different mission in Cambodia. While SGT Montes taught convoy, other Soldiers focused on medical, legal and other specialties.
SGT Montes’ mission was to integrate a convoy operation with Cambodian forces. It was important for him to create an open environment where Cambodia’s soldiers could learn from his tactics while integrating their own unique strategies.
“I didn’t necessarily show them the way – I showed them a way,” SGT Montes said. “I wasn’t teaching them how to do convoy operations, but I was showing them how we do it so they could incorporate their SOPs and learn [from ours]. They could see the adjustments that could be made to make improvements and help them whenever they deploy.”
While there were initial challenges with building relationships, SGT Montes noted that those issues quickly subsided once they were all able to better understand each other.
“They were more standoffish at first, but once they understood that I do the exact same thing that they do, they became more comfortable,” said SGT Montes. “That interaction phase helped out quite a bit. I believe it was important because it creates a foundation between us and other forces, so that we can share our information and create better standard operating procedures.”
Armed with a passion for traveling and encountering different environments, SGT Montes said he appreciated the experiences this mission afforded him, though it was not his first mission of this kind. SGT Montes was previously stationed in Korea, where he went on integration missions with the task of building relationships with foreign soldiers.
“I was familiar with what to expect as far as a language barrier and trying to make them comfortable,” SGT Montes said. “I volunteered to go on this mission to engage with different people in different cultures and expand my knowledge of their lifestyles. It was one of the better missions I’ve gone on overseas. I integrated several of my interaction and communication skills to create the fundamental [relationship-] building that we needed.”
Towards the end of his mission, SGT Montes participated in a combined exercise that simulated everything covered over the course of his training time in Cambodia. SGT Montes said this final exercise showcased all they had learned and the progress they had made building those essential bonds.
“By the time of the combined exercise, the Cambodian soldiers were really comfortable with me and they had become very open to [the entire collaboration],” SGT Montes said.
With each mission, Soldiers from the Idaho National Guard demonstrated how important it is to cultivate relationships with their foreign counterparts. According to LTC Jon Frye, an Idaho National Guard operations officer, Guard Soldiers’ civilian skills and perspectives are what help in creating strong bonds and connections with foreign soldiers.
“It helps build bridges when they are first getting to know each other,” LTC Frye said. “It helps them find a common ground between them.”
These skills and experiences have long-lasting benefits to Guard Soldiers who could be activated and deployed to a foreign country at any time.
SFC Mewes explained, “We never know where we are going to go. If we train in different climates and different parts of the world, you can get an idea of what it’s about before you actually [deploy] there. It helps to strengthen our readiness and the readiness of our host nation.”
“This afforded me the opportunity to go to places I wouldn’t normally go,” 1LT Rausch said. “We got to experience how other armies are training and learn what they see as future threats domestically. These are soldiers that we could potentially run into again [as allies in combat] on another continent.”
When Idaho’s Citizen-Soldiers volunteered for these missions, they had a goal of training and sharing with their counterparts. However, when the missions were completed, the Soldiers found that they were able to bring back a host of specific techniques, training and experiences they could not have received through other means.
“Our Guard [Soldiers] truly benefit from being able to experience other customs and cultures while training with foreign military members,” BG Goodale said. “Participating in these [training experiences] definitely enhances the readiness of our Soldiers and the Idaho Army National Guard.”
By Staff Writer Tatyana White-Jenkins
