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NEWS | Jan. 23, 2017

USARC CG visits Soldiers in Vicenza, Italy

By Sgt. Daniel Friedberg 7th Mission Support Command

LTG Charles D. Luckey, U.S. Army Reserve Command commanding general visited 7th Mission Support Command Soldiers from the 2500th Digital Liaison Detachment and Company A, 457th Civil Affairs Battalion, Jan. 21 at Caserma Ederle and Del Din.

Luckey began his tour of the 7th MSC at Caserma Ederle by meeting Col. Christopher H. Varhola, the 2500th DLD commander, who explained the function and purpose of his unit as a warfighting asset.

The 2500th DLD, which has fewer than 30 Soldiers, is charged with solidifying the communications architecture and the transfer of digital data between allied multinational military units in a deployed environment, Varhola said.

The unit's expertise has been used on several deployments within Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia with recent exercises happening in Poland, he added.

"We form a simple one-stop coalition coordination center," Varhola said during his briefing.

After asking each of the Soldiers of the 2500th DLD to introduce themselves, Luckey emphasized his message of personal Soldier preparedness and flexibility.

These attributes are needed now to face new challenges of potential strategic importance, especially in Europe, he said.

"Be ready personally," Luckey said.

Luckey added that he needs his Soldiers to go anywhere and to survive to win America's wars.

"The reality is we're sending Soldiers right now to places where they get re-tasked to do things, something other than what they thought they were going to do."

The Army Reserve has about 200,000 Soldiers working in more than 20 time zones, he said.

"The sun never sets on America's Army Reserve, " Luckey said.

Luckey also explained the need for more emphasis on the Army Reserve to "understand who we are."  

He also explained that today's Army needs to again re-emphasize its basic function as an expeditionary versus occupational force to be successful.

"Winning and being done," said Luckey about how the U.S. Army needs to deploy.

Luckey was then escorted by a Carabinieri police motorcade through busy Vicenza traffic across town to join Company A on Caserma del Din.

There, Luckey was briefed by the 457th Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Carlos E. Gorbea, his Soldiers and Thomas "Nick" Motto, a civilian contractor in charge of the Dynamic Marksmanship Training Simulator, one of the Army´s newest combat simulation technologies.

Motto explained to Luckey that the training simulator was designed to give Soldiers the opportunity to hone individual Soldier engagement techniques in a matter that safely saves time and money over using live ammunition.

Under the staccato firing of simulated weapons at the Gunfighter Gymnasium, Luckey himself took the opportunity to fire an M-4 Carbine facsimile in a test of marksmanship and tactical ability in a virtual combat scenario.  

Luckey then observed some realistic civil affairs training, as Maj. Kenyon A. Eyman, a Civil Affairs Team Chief of CA Team 711, conducted a simulated key leader engagement interview with an actor to demonstrate how CA Soldiers practice the art of introducing the U.S. Army to aid foreign civilian communities through interpersonal communication and trust-building.

"Civil Affairs Soldiers are able to connect the military community with the civil community," said Eyman who himself just returned from a deployment to Bulgaria in August of last year.

Eyman explained that CA Soldiers are charged to help local governments and leaders determine infrastructure needs and are able get execution on projects as varied as improving schools and public facilities with the help of civilian contractors or uniformed military engineering Soldiers.

Luckey, who took command June 30, finished his visit with a group photo before going to visit 7th MSC Soldiers in Germany on Sunday.