AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — Civilian leaders from throughout the United States got insight Wednesday into how the U.S. Army in Europe prepares troops for combat and grooms soldiers in leadership skills.
Participants in the Defense Department’s Joint Civilian Orientation Conference visited the Headquarters Joint Multinational Training Command (JMTC) here at the U.S. European Command’s largest military training center.
Participants in the JCOC conference are business, civic, academic and community leaders, selected from hundreds of candidates nominated by military commands worldwide.
Col. Timothy Touzinsky, chief of staff, emphasized the importance of training for U.S. Army Europe’s 45,000 soldiers, about 35 percent of whom are deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo.
“Our focus is on training and preparing units for operations ongoing now, but they also have to be capable of conducting the full spectrum of conflict so they are prepared for future contingencies as well,” Touzinsky said.
The Grafenwoehr Training Area in eastern Bavaria offers the broadest training opportunities within JMTC, enabling soldiers to live-fire every weapon, from small arms to Bradley fighting vehicles, M1A2 Abrams tanks and artillery, Touzinsky said.
The JCOC group visited the small arms master marksmanship course, where they got to fire the M4 rifle, M203 grenade launcher, M249 squad automatic weapon, and 240B and M2 .50-caliber machine gun.
“It gives me a new respect for the firepower at the disposal of our young men and women,” said Jon Wolfshal, senior fellow for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Darrel Flanel, managing director for Merill Lynch Global Markets, said seeing the training U.S. Army Europe offers its soldiers dovetails with Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard activities the JCOC group observed earlier this week to show the full spectrum of EuCom operations.
“It puts perspective to all the high-tech operations we saw, and what it’s all about supporting,” he said.
Allen Joines, mayor of Winston-Salem, N.C., said the visit to Grafenwoehr reaffirmed the deep appreciation he’s gained this week for the U.S. military.
“I have been extraordinarily impressed with the level of technology being used by our armed forces,” Joines said. “I am even more impressed by the men and women who serve us. They are talented, well- educated and committed to service. We should all be proud of them.”
On Tuesday, the group was at RAF LAKENHEATH, England, to get firsthand and hands-on exposure to U.S. Air Forces in Europe’s multiple missions of supporting warfighters, building partnerships and strengthening its historic NATO ties.
U.S. Air Forces, Europe, or USAFE, is as critical to U.S. national defense today as when it was established as the 8th Air Force in 1942 and flew heavy bombardment missions over the European continent during World War II, Air Force Maj. Gen. James Hunt, its director of air and space operations, told 47 participants in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference.
Today a streamlined USAFE organization — five bases and nine forward operating bases, 250 aircraft and about 25,000 airmen — directs air operations in a theater spanning 20 million square miles, 91 countries and covering a quarter of the world’s population, he told the group.
While that’s down from 25 bases, 750 aircraft and more than 65,000 airmen in 1990, he said it’s no indication of a lesser role.
“The mission for USAFE is bigger than ever,” Hunt said, citing its transformation into an expeditionary force and the breadth of the missions it now conducts.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Albany Herald Publisher Michael J. Gebhart is participating in a Joint Civilian Orientation ConEurope. This is part of a periodic report of what the group is discovering during its weeklong tour. This is a conForces Press Service.
