Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\tArmy advisers in Africa following spike in combat<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \u201cSpecial Forces is very good at training tactical-type units; They\u2019re very good at accompanying tactical-type units," McConville said. \u201cBut SFABs build a professional military force, which is different."<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n
In a separate intel briefing as the SFAB soldiers and role players talk over a map, Bitzer, in character, bristles a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t worked with the [Americans] at all and I\u2019m really concerned they are going to leave us like they did in Afghanistan,\u201d Bitzer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While SFAB soldiers must acknowledge that thinking, their job is to show their partners that the U.S. military still offers the best partnership, training and advising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou may have to prove yourself,\u201d Johnson tells these soon-to-deploy soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Morales, you\u2019re the blood donor\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n Driving down a dirt road at the Miramar facility, the advisor team\u2019s white van is \u201ct-boned\u201d at an intersection. As part of the drill, 1st Sgt. Francisco Rodriguez, acts injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Staff Sgt. Emily Clymer, the team medical advisor, jumps into action, directing soldiers around her to help stabilize Rodriguez, get out the backboard and move him out of the van for medical transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As soldiers fly around, grabbing gauze, checking vitals and calling for support, bad news comes across the radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are riots in this Ziwa city. They\u2019re estimating six hours to get Rodriguez to the approved hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMorales, you\u2019re the blood donor,\u201d Clymer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team found another hospital, not on the approved list but closer and ready to accept patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once strapped to the board, they lift the injured first sergeant into the van and drive around to the \u201chospital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maj. Katie Westerfield, the 1st SFAB brigade surgeon, plays the role of a doctor who only speaks Spanish at the fictional hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clymer relays emergency info to the doctor. The doctor wants to know how they\u2019ll pay for treatment. Not all hospitals accept U.S. government health insurance. Sometimes soldiers need cash or a call from the embassy to get medical help.<\/p>\n\n\n\nU.S. Soldiers from the Florida Army National Guard’s (FLARNG) 2-54 Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents instruct Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Soldiers on room clearing tactics during Tradewinds 2021, Camp Seweyo, Guyana, June 19. SFAB Soldiers and DEA agents as advisors for the exercise where they broke down the steps to successfully clear a room as a team. Tradewinds 2021 is a U.S. Southern Command sponsored Caribbean security-focused exercise in the ground, air, sea, and cyber domains, working with partner nations to conduct joint, combined, and interagency training focused on increasing regional cooperation and stability. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. N.W. Huertas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nEach of the SFAB soldiers has gone through Tactical Combat Casualty Care. But Clymer has prepped her team with additional skills, sent them videos, even pestered them during downtime to sharpen their medical knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the event, she\u2019s impressed, they\u2019d never practiced the backboard movement, other than watching videos, but the team executed well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Latin America and the Caribbean, units might have hospitals a few blocks away. But for other teams in remote locations of Africa or on islands in the Pacific, a handful of soldiers may have to keep each other alive for hours, even days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rapid growth, more to follow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n These four to 12-soldier teams are at the center of a mission in which the U.S. wants to woo partners away from promises of gear and infrastructure funding that Russia and China dangle before less affluent nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kicking off in 2017 under then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, the SFABs were the professionalized, institution-driven way in which the Army was going to run security force assistance for allies and partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Security force assistance isn\u2019t a new concept. It\u2019s gone by a lot of names, including, \u201cforeign internal defense,\u201d and \u201ctrain, advise, assist.\u201d The United States conducted versions of this mission during the Vietnam War. Before that, British forces in World War II conducted partisan training and gave assistance to nations fighting the Germans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, for the U.S. Army, the SFABs were the first of its kind, \u201cpurpose-built\u201d formation for advising, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army stood up its 1st SFAB and deployed the bulk of the brigade, about 800 soldiers, to Afghanistan in 2018. But even before the U.S. exit from Afghanistan in August 2021, the command signaled that full brigade deployments wouldn\u2019t be the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, the SFAB command wanted to push small teams of four to a dozen soldiers, headed by a captain, to various partner nations to build long term relationships \u2013 and go back to those countries year after year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or, as Col. Jonathan Chung, 5th SFAB commander, put it to Army Times: \u201cHow did I know that my first date with my spouse was successful?\u201d he said. \u201cIt led to a second date.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nSoldiers must first complete SFAB Assessment & Selection before becoming an Advisors and being assigned to an SFAB. Candidates endured SFAB Assessment & Selection on May 10-14, 2021 in Fort Benning, GA. (U.S. Army Photos by Sgt. 1st Class Christopher E Walters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMaj. Gen. Scott Jackson, a career infantry officer, had spent time in combat zones in Iraq living alongside partners. That experience drove his own empathy for partner forces and making them better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In May 2017 he was tasked with building the 1st SFAB and getting it to Afghanistan by early 2018. The then-Col. Jackson had four captains, two majors and three staff sergeants. What began as an 18-month timeline shrank to seven months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a pure and simple startup. We built things from the ground up,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cYou\u2019re not only standing up a new unit. You\u2019re standing up a new type of unit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As they added soldiers, mostly volunteer senior enlisted with combat experience, Jackson noted some patterns in those who excelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery good advisor is a good soldier,\u201d he said. \u201cBut not every soldier is a good advisor. This is a different skill set.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SFABs went from one brigade in one country to deploying to 24 nations in the first two years. They\u2019ve since deployed to 54 countries, where they have a \u201cpersistent presence\u201d in 22 and an \u201cepisodic presence\u201d in 32, according to Security Force Assistance Command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2020, the Army \u201cregionally aligned\u201d the SFABs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– 1st SFAB to SOUTHCOM<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– 2nd SFAB to AFRICOM<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– 3rd SFAB to CENTCOM<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– 4th SFAB to EUCOM<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– 5th SFAB to INDOPACOM<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Army National Guard\u2019s 54th SFAB aligned to each combatant command where needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army sent 4th SFAB to Europe this past year after having conducted multiple rotations of assigned teams to areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Middle East deployment work began for 3rd SFAB in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\nStaff Sgt. Emily Clymer, (left) medical advisor with 1st SFAB, renders aid in training drill while Staff Sgt. Fabian Borja (right) assists during the unit\u2019s January validation exercise at the Ronald O. Harrison National Guard Readiness Center, Miramar, Florida ahead of their upcoming six-month SOUTHCOM deployment. (Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nJackson shared anecdotes of small teams having big impacts across various regions. One very small team managed to poke some big adversaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A four-soldier team from 5th SFAB ran the unit\u2019s first deployment to Mongolia in 2020. They laid low for most of the deployment, keen not to cause any friction for their Mongolian hosts. They trained Mongolian soldiers in field artillery and helped build a training center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, when the Mongolian chief of land forces held a ceremony to honor his soldiers, he specifically asked the SFAB team to present those awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sitting in the stands? Russian and Chinese delegates. That small presence, Jackson said, shows adversaries that the United States is on their periphery, even where they\u2019re not aware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Culture matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n Because SFAB teams are so small, they not only have to know their job at an expert level, but they also need to know how the whole team operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And sometimes, everyone needs a refresher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s how members of Maj. Eric Cannon\u2019s team out of 2nd Battalion, 5th SFAB, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, found themselves doing waterborne training with rubber boats ahead of their deployment to Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team had to conduct beach landings during Exercise Garuda Shield 2021 with their partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That small unit work is part of what drew Cannon to volunteer for the SFAB assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLance Cpl. Lincoln Benard with the Guyanese Defense Force (GDF), left, is advised by U.S. Army Soldier Sgt. Tyler Hammond, an infantryman with Team 6230 of C\/2-54 Infantry Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) during Tradewinds 2021, Camp Stephenson, Guyana, June 15. Florida Guardsmen with the SFAB provided GDF Special Forces members insight on marksman drills designed to test speed, accuracy, and movement. Tradewinds 2021 is a U.S. Southern Command sponsored Caribbean security-focused exercise in the ground, air, sea, and cyber domains, working with partner nations to conduct joint, combined, and interagency training focused on increasing regional cooperation and stability. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. N.W. Huertas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cIn the small teams everybody has to be mature, professional, everybody\u2019s an NCO or an officer. We hold everybody accountable, [and] have a lot of hard conversations,\u201d he said. \u201cWe work together and learn a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sgt. 1st Class Robby Batongtong, also with 5th SFAB, was part of the SFAB teams that deployed ahead of the large-scale Exercise Balikatan in the Philippines last year. During the event, other SFAB teams came in for short trips to assist with training for things like artillery and engineer work, a kind of training \u201csurge\u201d to add capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While both spent time almost daily with their counterparts doing military and physical training, a lot of time was spent alongside partners at cultural events, getting to know what was important to them both personally and professionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cannon said their Indonesian partners loved to dance and perform karaoke in their off time. And they made sure their American teammates participated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey were pretty persistent about getting us on stage,\u201d Cannon said. \u201cWe did it but we definitely need to practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tactics: the key difference<\/h2>\n\n\n\n A huddle of about a dozen soldiers and role players watches the screen in near silence back at the Florida Guard training center where SFAB soldiers round out their pre-deployment training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blue icons shift across the screen, tracking the movements of the \u201cZiwa\u201d forces alongside their U.S. counterparts in this simulated air assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo here we\u2019ve hit phase line red,\u201d said Capt. William Michitsch, 1122 team leader, who wears a 3rd Ranger Battalion combat patch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLlame otro comandante,\u201d said retired Lt. Col. Rich Bautista, a Green Beret veteran of global deployments, including Latin America, as he plays the role of \u201cCol. Cortez.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLet higher know,\u201d his translator said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michitsch relays the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few minutes later, during the attack, \u201cCortez\u201d asks if there are any wounded in the fighting and how Charlie Company is doing in the assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019re still engaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaj. Marcos Traverzo, (far left) logistics advisor\/company commander with 1st SFAB, conducts remote briefing during the unit\u2019s January validation exercise at the Ronald O. Harrison National Guard Readiness Center, Miramar, Florida ahead of their upcoming six-month SOUTHCOM deployment. (Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLess than 15 minutes later, the assault is complete. Three companies have taken the objectives, with the help of U.S. air support and advisors like Michitsch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCall the brigade and tell them that the bridges are secure and they can pass through,\u201d Michitsch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cExcellente,\u201d Bautista said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the event, Bautista explained that what Michitsch did was very similar to what a young officer or NCO might face, providing support and coordinating but letting the partner commander make the calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That scenario was a kind of culminating event for the team, showing they could rapidly plan and execute a successful mission with their partner. But it took a year of training, weeks or months of relationship building and clear communication to make it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s making decisions, he walks in the room, he commands the fight, he commands the plan. Every once in awhile he looks over to me,\u201d Michitsch said. \u201cUsually, I concur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s where top leadership wants these small, dispersed, captain-led teams \u2014 in the middle of complex areas that have strategic importance, strengthening partners while nibbling at the edges of adversaries in their own backyards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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