Lt. Col. Mark Leighton (right) with SGM Benny Hubbard (center) brief COL David Hollands (left) on an ongoing mission during Key Resolve/ Foal Eagle.
Story by Sgt. 1st Class William Richards and Sgt. Roger Ashley
Annual Exercise Key Resolve/Foal Eagle from 9-20 March 2009 tasked 37 Soldiers assigned to the 412th with the primary goal to ensure the 412th is ready to perform in a war time environment as a new Theater Engineer Command (TEC). Key Resolve/Foal Eagle is an annual training opportunity for senior commanders to evaluate assets and test their capabilities. Formerly known as RSOI/ Foal Eagle, the defensive exercise combines both the Republic of Korea (ROK) and US military. The first week involves war planning and computer simulations which assess an initial response to a North Korean invasion. The following week is a combined command post with an ongoing field exercise assessing the later phase of the operation.
Key Resolve challenges leaders to form strong teams, learn new systems and produce results with little time to accomplish these goals. “Almost ninety percent of the staff were first-timers on the exercise and with somewhere around a million dollars of new technology upgrades in place, we had a good learning curve,” said SFC William Richards, the 412th’s daytime battle NCO for the exercise. “It was a whole new level of management for me. I learned the true mission capabilities of the 412th.”
Significant but very tolerant mentoring from the Chief of Staff, COL David Hollands also played a vital role. “Our training objective was to utilize new technologies and improve staff skills of all participating Soldiers,” said COL Hollands, “We had to learn the new VTC, video-teleconference system and the “Click to Meet”, computer-based conference system,” which allows simultaneous secure communication between commanders across the Korean Peninsula. “We never had this level of secure communication before.”
13 Soldiers assigned to the 412th were from the National Guard 35th Engineer Brigade from FT. Leonard Wood, MO. The 35th served as the brigades under the command. With five Engineer Brigades under its wing, the 412th TEC’s main mission is to supply construction assets to the 8th Army under the Pacific Command. “Its job is to task subordinate units and manage multifaceted construction projects. These projects can consist of anything from Main Supply Routes (MSR) construction/maintenance, Pipe Lines, Base Camps, Prisoner of War (POW) camps to Displaced Persons camps,” said Richards. “Foal Eagle/ Key Resolve is not an engineer focused exercise,” said COL Hollands, “So we had to add to the Soldiers’ workload to challenge them in new ways. We threw “obstacles” in their path to challenge them everyday.”
“We have a lot of lessons learned we’ll take from the exercise. We’ll have standard operating procedures (SOPs) to follow next time,” said Richards. COL Hollands said, “As South Korea takes more control (of military exercises) our future role as the 412th Theater Engineer Command is uncertain but nothing has changed our mission as engineer support for 8th Army (in the Pacific Command). The Soldiers met and overcame every mission that faced them. They take home a strong sense of accomplishment.”
