Foreign officers visit Fort Riley, see Army in action
Spc. Collin McCullough, 1st Bn., 18th Inf. Regt., discusses his role in the battalion’s TOC Sept. 5, to several foreign Army officers. The officers are participating in the IMSD’s Intermediate Level Education at the CGSC, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and visited Fort Riley to see training.
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Story by: Amanda Stairrett
1st Infantry Division Post
First Infantry Division noncommissioned officers got the opportunity to interact with officers from 88 countries across six continents Sept. 5, when the foreign officers visited Fort Riley.
The 114 foreign officers are attending the International Military Student Division's Intermediate Level Education at the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The CGSC brought groups of international students to Fort Riley 14 times in the last 15 years, said Michael J. Brettmann, field studies program manager, IMSD.
Although the officers are in the U.S. for a year, the visit to Fort Riley is the only time they will get to see an active-duty Army post and see live training – something not available at Fort Leavenworth, Brettmann said.
A majority of the group's time was spent at a tank gunnery at Douthit Range Complex with the 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., and a platoon situational training exercise with the 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd ABCT, 1st Inf. Div.
The visiting officers were particularly interested in the role of American sergeants – because many of their Armies do not have an NCO Corps – and the 2nd ABCT's upcoming role as the first brigade combat team to be regionally aligned with U.S. Africa Command.
"There is no substitute for seeing NCOS and Soldiers in person," Brettman said. "They saw the responsibilities that our NCOS carry out and the quality of our young Soldiers using the latest equipment in a training environment."
Some of the foreign officers commented about Fort Riley's size and the extensive duties of the NCOs they encountered.
"This is a huge difference for some of the officers that attended," Brettman said.
Sgt. Gregory Cotter, combat medic, 1st Bn., 63rd Armor Regt., briefed groups of foreign officers during their visit to Douthit Range Complex. They were mostly curious about his and his Soldiers' jobs, he said, and how they related to them as commanders on the battlefield. They wanted to know details about the medics' communication with their higher commands and how they tracked casualty movements, Cotter said.
Cotter said he liked showing the international officers how much American NCOs could be relied upon because it could give them more trust and confidence in their own enlisted forces.
Cotter knows a thing or two about the relationship between the NCO and officer corps. Not only is he an NCO with a deployment to Afghanistan under his belt, but his twin brother and older brother are officers with the 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd ABCT.
Cotter said he chose to enlist because he wanted to do something more kinetic, where he could get his hands dirty.
For the international officers, it was a powerful experience interacting with "Big Red One" NCOs, said Maj. Chang Ho Lee, infantry officer, Republic of Korea Army.
Lee and his fellow students spent a lot of time learning about doctrine, and it was good to see it in action in real combat units, he added.
This exposure to the 1st Inf. Div. will remain embedded in the visiting officers' minds for many years to come, said Command Sgt. Maj. Wendell Franklin, the division's operations senior NCO.
"This program is the first that I have seen that allows foreign country officers to see what both the Army and 1st Inf. Div. provides to close that educational gap between both officers and NCOs," Franklin said. "One of the division's goals by providing this training is that these officers will adopt and support similar programs within their Armies."
Feedback from the ILE staff and students said their intent of seeing NCOs "doing what they do on a daily basis" was met, Franklin said. That included training Soldiers and flawlessly executing orders from their superiors.
"The interaction at the range, (dining facility) and (Post Exchange) allowed them to interact with everyday Soldiers and ask them questions and receive honest ground truth feedback," Franklin said.
By Amanda Kim Stairrett
1st Inf. Div. Public Affairs