Members of the Army Sustainment Command-Army Reserve Element who will support the 401st Army Field Support Brigade in Kuwait were brought here to prepare them for their duties downrange.

It proved to be time well spent, according to Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jason Miner, an ASC-ARE automotive maintenance officer who attended the exercise, dubbed CORE 22.1.

“I did this training 10 years ago and a lot of material is the same but I’ve learned that the surveillance and reporting requirements have kind of changed and been automated, so that’s a big difference,” he said. “We used to do this with paper, pen, and a clipboard.”

The two-week course will come in handy during the upcoming deployment, he added. “We will lean on this training when we go downrange,” Miner said. “We need this base of knowledge to perform our duties. Having this refresher is beneficial and by going over the changes that have taken place, I feel comfortable with the role.”

Like Miner, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Thomas Sattler brings experience to the position but still found the training valuable.

“It’s a refresher for me,” said Sattler, who serves as a senior ordnance logistics officer. “Our responsibility is to represent the contracting officer and be the go-between with the contractors. We’re learning the basics and responsibilities that go with that.”

It’s all about being set up for success, according to Lt. Col. Melissa Lutrick, ASC-ARE deputy commander.

“It’s part Soldier Readiness Processing, part training, and part team-building,” she said. “Most of these Soldiers will work with a handful of the others and this is a way to build cohesion, to make a battle buddy, and to build expectation for the upcoming mission.”

Consistent with that, CORE 22.1 serves to give the attendees an idea of what lies ahead.

“Some of it is familiarization because Soldiers come in from so many different units. Some are picked for the specialty they have and others volunteer from all corners of the Army Reserve,” Lutrick said. “ Coming here allows them to better understand the mission they are going to be a part of and afford them the opportunity to meet with the forward command and to discuss with the forward staff what the mission is and what things are like there.”