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NEWS | July 25, 2016

75th Training Command at Eastern Accord 2016

By Staff Sgt. Tiffany DeNault Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa

Members of the U.S. Army 75th Training Command brought their observer controller/trainer expertise to Eastern Accord 2016, July 11-22, at the Tanzanian Peacekeeping Training Centre, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The U.S. Army Africa-led EA16 is an annual, combined, joint military exercise that brings together nine partner nations to practice and demonstrate proficiency in conducting peacekeeping operations.

“We are here to bring together multinational observer trainers to work with the training audience,” said U.S. Army Col. Randy Southard, 75th TC and Eastern Accord senior observer trainer. “It’s a shared understanding that what they bring to the table is to assist the training nations to improve themselves with peacekeeping operations.”

The exercise also gives the 75th TC team a different perspective on the Eastern African Standby Force’s standard operating procedures used in the region.

“The exercise allows us to see a different planning method being used, specifically for this exercise, they are using EASF SOPs for their planning process,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Andrew Rish, 75th TC observer controller/trainer and EA16 AAR and evaluations coordinator. “The EASF SOP is similar to the U.S. military decision-making process but with some differences.”

Rish also brings his experience as an observer trainer to EA16 along with being the after actions report and evaluations coordinator collecting feedback from the training audience.

One of the main focuses for the 75th TC is seeing the EASF SOP in action, understand it, and use the gained knowledge to bolster the U.S. military decision making process or MDMP, said Rish. The knowledge also helps the team to better themselves professionally in the joint and multinational environment.

Southard and his team provide unique experiences from the U.S. Army Reserves mentoring the exercise OC/Ts and guiding the command post exercise injects for effective learning, said Southard.

The two-week exercise brought together approximately 200 multinational military and civilian personnel to build readiness, maintain U.S. and African coalition partnerships, facilitate interoperability between partner militaries and build capacity of participating forces.

“We hope that they go home with some new tools in their toolbox to help them plan future exercises and to get better at working together as a staff overall,” said Southard.