Troops learn to play by the rules

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
  • 421st Combat Training Squadron
FORT DIX, N.J. (AFPN) --  Airmen, Soldiers and Sailors attended the Air Mobility Warfare Center here for the Rules of Engagement/Rules of Use of Force Tactical Training Seminar.

The seminar held from Dec. 6 to 8 and hosted by the center for the first time, familiarized more than 40 students with the legal and tactical lessons learned by the U.S. Department of Justice and civilian law enforcement about the application of the use of force.

Classroom training focused on wound ballistics, the law and psycho-physiological reactions to high-stress tactical environments.

In tactical training sessions on Fort Dix ranges and the New Jersey National Guard Joint Training Center, instructors from military and civilian police units presented “hands on” situational training allowing students to experience high stress tactical environments. Students used M-4 rifles and 9 mm pistols to practice marksmanship skills during move-and-shoot live fire drills. They also engaged in force-on-force encounters using simulated munitions.

“A lot of the lessons we’ve learned in the civilian law enforcement community can help troops in the deployed environment,” said retired Baltimore Police Department Maj. Jeff Rosen, a volunteer instructor. “Whether it’s teaching about wound ballistics or tactical movements, the seminar allows us as instructors to get down on a personal level with the students and help them understand some threats they could face in places like Iraq or Afghanistan.”

Students at the seminar came from varied careers, included judge advocate and civil affairs, to public affairs and air transportation.

Lt. Col. Allen Goshi, the 1st Army headquarters director of deployed judge advocate topical training at Fort Gillem, Ga., was an instructor. He said the training not only can benefit deploying Airmen and Soldiers, but personnel of all services.

“What this training does is increases their readiness,” Colonel Goshi said. “When students can exercise and practice skills we teach, then it will stay with them. It’s this training methodology that helps prepare them for the deployed theater.”

Lt. Col. John Taylor, a seminar instructor and officer in charge of the law center at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., said the seminar is a “good fit” for the AMWC training environment. He said it also shows the growing development of training between Department of Defense and other government and civilian agencies since Sept. 11, 2001.

“The global war on terrorism is a joint war,” said Colonel Taylor, who also serves as the deputy staff judge advocate for the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. “The war is not just joint --it’s interagency. All of us are involved in the good-guy fight and we should all train together.

“The Air Force has shown it’s open to new things like this seminar -- it’s a forward-looking effort,” Colonel Taylor said. “By adding this course to the Air Mobility Warfare Center, I think everyone will benefit from it.”

Master Sgt. Jeffrey Kirkham, an instructor from 1st Battalion of the 19th Special Forces Group at Buckley, Wash., said the seminar helps military students understand how federal law applies to them in combat situations.

“The concepts and lessons learned in rules of engagement and use of force are vitally important,” Sergeant Kirkham said. “For military members, it helps answer the question, ‘What do I do?’ It helps troops first understand what their rights are and secondly, how federal law protects them.

“Whether you work in supply or you’re a truck driver, you can be in a situation in the deployed theater where you might need to use force to defend yourself,” he said. “That’s where this training is most helpful and vitally important.”

Capt. Robert Jarman, the Air Mobility Warfare Center staff judge advocate and course director, said the training went “exceptionally well.”

“Judging from course critiques, students gained a much better appreciation of the different factors -- legal, psychological and physiological -- involved in a use-of-deadly force encounter,” Captain Jarman said. “This, they say, will allow them to better understand and apply rules of engagement if and when they are ever confronted with the decision of whether to use deadly force.”

Captain Jarman said as one example, one judge advocate student told him every judge advocate who provides briefing on the law of armed conflict and rules of engagement should be required to go through this training.

“That says a lot when you look at how this affects everyone across the board -- whether they’re judge advocate students or from another career field,” Captain Jarman said.