KFOR’s Multinational Battle GroupEast: a multinational task force made up
of soldiers from nine different countries
as well as National Guardsmen from
?ve states.
Silver Saber brought a number of
these KFOR soldiers together with
their Kosovo Police and EULEX
counterparts to train on crowd and riot
control, relieving a multinational unit
currently engaged in CRC, breaching
various obstacles and medically
evacuating a casualty.
U.S. Army Col. David Woods, the
MNBG-E and 525th BfSB Commander,
said this exercise was important
because it gave KFOR, who operates
as a third responder, the opportunity to
work with the other security elements
in Kosovo.
“We [KFOR] are in a role as a third
responder- and that’s not typical for
us,” said Woods, a Denbo, Pa. native.
“We are typically the lead and that’s
hard for us sometimes to wrap our
heads around.”
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Musil,
the
Noncommisioned-Of?cer-inCharge for Detachment 3, Co. C, 1st
Sqdn., 38th Cav. Regt., said another
challenge the U.S. soldiers faced
was their inexperience in performing
CRC as a part of peace support
operations.
“Nine months ago, none of us had
done anything like this [CRC]
before,” said Musil, a Chicago
native. “We’re traditionally a light
infantry or recon element, so CRC
isn’t something we’re used to.”
Woods said that though the battle
group has been conducting CRC
training over the past several months,
the biggest thing they have learned
since arriving in Kosovo is how to
peacefully deescalate the situation.
“[Upon arriving to Kosovo] we lacked
the understanding of escalation. We
put equipment on and went straight
to shield and baton, stomp and drag;
right to a physical competition with
our competitor,” said Woods. “Now
our goal is not to engage you in CRC;
our goal is just to move you without
ever touching you, to deescalate the
situation.”
To help learn escalation the soldiers
from the 525th BfSB leveraged the
experience and expertise of their
multinational partners.
“The biggest [learning] part was
working with the foreign coys,” said
Musil. “The platoon on platoon CRC
events that we did really set us up for
success, because we saw how other
nations conducted their training, so
it gave us better ideas for tactics,
techniques and procedures as well as
how they conduct their operations.”
Woods said despite the language
differences between the various
multinational forces, communication
wasn’t a problem for the battle group
at Silver Saber.
“When you train together as much
as we do, you start to reduce the
challenges,” said Woods. “Silver Saber
highlighted that con?dence process
and development that we have gone
through from individual leaders to a
collective team and demonstrated our
capabilities.”
For Musil, one of the biggest bene?ts
of Silver Saber was putting their CRC
TTPs to the test and continuing to
develop their knowledge set.
Soldiers from Company C, 1st Squadron, 38th Cavalry Regiment attempt to block some demonstrators, played by Armenian soldiers, during the annual Silver Saber exercise at Camp Vrelo Oct. 16.
Members from the Kosovo Police, EULEX and Kosovo Forces took part in the three-day exercise
to help improve coordination between the different security elements in Kosovo and to test their
crowd and riot control capabilities. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Cody Harding, 4th Public Affairs
Detachment)
“Being adaptable and ?exible is what
really makes it count,” Musil said.
continued on page 8
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