The 416th Theater Engineer Command and U.S. Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Engineer (ODSENG) hosted the Resolute Castle 2022 (RC22) final planning conference, at the Parkhurst Army Reserve Facility in Darien Illinois, from Feb. 23-25, 2022.
Multi-units, components, and allied partner nations participating in RC22 came together to solidify operations before the exercise starts in Spring 2022.
The exercise will have units performing construction projects throughout countries of Greece, Poland, and Romania.
Lt. Col. Katie R Fidler, ODSENG Chief of Troop Construction Operations, spearheaded the final planning conference.
ODSENG provides Army engineer expertise to USAREUR-AF commanders, staff, units and sister services, and synchronizes engineer efforts across the theater to fulfill requirements of the USAREUR-AF campaign plan.
“We handle all the engineering construction throughout Europe and Africa. Specifically, the stuff that is not on an installation. If it’s off on a contingency base, ODCSNG, controls, oversees and manages [construction].”
The objective for the planning conference “we’re looking to essentially confirm that all of our sustainment and logistics requirements are locked in, that we have all of our movement requirements or solidified timelines, requests for the movement support, especially because it’s in OCONUS [Outside the Continental United States],” said Fidler.
During the conference multi-component and British Army Engineer unit planners synchronized rotations for RC22 construction projects that will begin in May 2022. “Because it’s an engineer-specific exercise, we’re doing actual construction work, we have a lot of units that are rotating into the construction projects, and out and so one of the big things is making sure that we’re synchronized.”
There are two parts of the construction projects units will perform during RC22. First is the actual construction operation that will take place in Tinku, Romania at the National Joint Training Center and in Smardan Training Area.
“The other portion, because engineer construction designs take time,” plans are being designed for projects in 2023, said Fidler. Forward Engineer Support Team-Advance will provide technical engineer plans and designs for construction and will travel to Poland and Greece to survey projects for the follow-on year.