Nation's Premier Combatives Training Prepares Soldiers for the Unexpected in Combat

SPRINGFIELD, IL (01/26/2012)(readMedia)-- A group of spectators gathered staring intently, clenching their teeth, pumping their fists in the air, and yelling as they encircle two warriors standing toe to toe; knowing that it will soon be their turn to step inside the circle. Those gathered were cheering for their fellow Soldier to take down his/her attacker by successfully completing a clench and ending the barrage of punches.

A total of 22 Soldiers from Iowa and Illinois National Guard units came to the Illinois Military Academy (IMA) at Camp Lincoln in Springfield Jan. 23 to 27 to receive instruction in one of the premier combatives locations in the country. The goal is to become level one certified within the Modern Army Combatives Program.

"We were the first National Guard site to hold a level-three combatives program class outside of United States Army Combatives School (USACS) at Fort Benning, Ga.," said Staff Sgt. Thomas A. Luca of Carrollton with 935th Aviation Support Battalion in Chicago, working for the Modern Army Combatives Program. "No other National Guard unit has ever done that. I know not too many Regional Training Institutes have a combatives program."

The Illinois Army National Guard Modern Army Combatives Program is conducted at the IMA and can provide housing, food, and combatives training at one site. In addition to the first-class facilities, the instructors, which include Staff Sgt. Steven Owen of Moline, Staff Sgt. Nick Grant of Caseyville, Sgt. First Class Robert Fehrholz of Springfield, Staff Sgt. Jae Russell of Springfield, Staff Sgt. Josh Lipa of Mount Zion, Sgt. Bernard Dickneite of Mount Vernon and Luca. Many of these Soldiers are award winning and have won several combatives tournaments themselves.

The Modern Army Combatives Program is in response to the ever-changing environment that Soldiers have found themselves in while in combat.

"We have found through reports that Soldiers go into a room and if their weapon misfires they don't know what to do," said Luca. "Or sometimes they are doing detainee operations and the detainee tries to go after them and they are not real sure what to do."

Life on the battlefield changes, which means techniques used by our military must adapt.

"The old hand-to-hand that we used to learn is not conducive to what is going on in the battlefield," said Fehrholz, a recruiter in the Recruiting and Retention Command and combatives instructor. "We are trying to teach them how to keep someone controlled, detain them, and get a dominant body position on them so they can hold them until backup shows up."

This has become such an important initiative that the Army has made learning it mandatory.

"The Army demands that there will be a level-one certified Soldier in each platoon, one level- two certified Soldier in each company, one level-three certified s Soldier in each battalion, and one level-four certified Soldier in each brigade," said Luca. "It's a pyramid training structure that guarantees that Soldiers are getting trained on combatives."

With that structure in place the Army can validate that collective learning is taking place. This training ensures that each Soldier can handle themselves in the midst of combat; ultimately instilling confidence.

"One of the things this combatives program does is instill confidence in Soldier; especially those who have never been punched or done ground grappling," said Luca. "They have a sense of confidence when they come into those situations. They know that, in the instance where this might happen, they have these skills to rely on and are not just fighting blind."

"It did give me confidence," said Spc. Katie A. Kastel of Bourbonnais with Company E, 634th Brigade Support Battalion in Joliet. "I had all these big instructors telling me even though I was little that I did a really good job. It makes me want to go back to my unit and teach others what I learned. I encourage other smaller people out there not to be afraid. I think it's something every Soldier needs to know."

Story by Sgt. Jesse Houk, 139th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

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PEORIA, IL (01/23/2012)(readMedia)-- Members of the Illinois Air National Guard's 182nd Airlift Wing in Peoria are scheduled to return home Monday after serving in Operation Enduring Freedom since early November 2011. Approximately 90 members of the 182nd Airlift Wing were activated in early November and deployed with three C-130 aircraft to Afghanistan. Around 20 of the members will be returning Monday evening to the Airlift Wing. Most of the returning members are aircrew who have been flying C-130 missions within the Afghanistan Theater of Operations. Approximately 70 members and three C-130's still remain deployed and are scheduled to return in the spring.

The 182nd Airlift Wing flies the C-130 aircraft which is primarily used to transport cargo, personnel and aeromedical evacuees. Since Sept. 11, 2001 the 182nd Airlift Wing has deployed more than 1,500 members to support operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. Many of the wing's members have deployed numerous times. The wing has flown more than 12,500 hours in direct support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom and tactical air controllers have controlled over 15,000 close air support sorties, many in support of "Troops in Contact." Additionally, the wing houses various mission support units that have provided base operating support, supply chain logistics, combat air support control and combat communications while deployed. This deployment cycle is one of many in the wing's history of supporting Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom.

The members are expected to return at between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m., Monday, January 23, to the 182nd Airlift Wing located in Peoria.

Belleville Workshop Gets Public Involved in Helping Servicemembers After They Return from Deployment; Story by Spc. Dan LoGrasso, 139th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

BELLEVILLE, IL (01/17/2012)(readMedia)-- Military counselors, Illinois National Guard members and counseling professionals from across central Illinois met at Lindenwood University in Belleville for the pilot program to help servicemembers following deployment. The Illinois National Guard partnered with the East St. Louis Vet Center and St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center for the program.

The Jan. 13 workshop was designed by the National Guard's Service Member and Family Support Services to educate civilian counselors on the realities of mental health issues like post-traumatic stress and survivor's guilt affecting military members and their families.

The new workshop is part of Lindenwood University's Professional and School Counseling Continuing Education Program. Ken Kubicek, division chair of the Education and Counseling Division at Lindenwood and a Vietnam veteran, said professional counselors in Illinois must have continuous education to keep their licenses, and many have begun looking for military-specific education to meet the needs of returning veterans and their families.

"It was hard to believe that this presentation was a pilot program," said Kubicek. "It was very well-prepared and polished."

More than 1.9 million servicemembers have been deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom and an estimated 30 percent have or will have psychological injuries.

Maj. Gen. William L. Enyart of Belleville, Adjutant General of the Illinois National Guard, said the Department of Veterans Affairs needs assistance and educating civilian counselors and local communities will ensure help is rapidly available to servicemembers and their families.

"Many people ask me, 'What can I do to help?'" said Enyart. "And the fact that 40 professionals came [to the workshop] despite weather shows that this country values their veterans."

Eric Murray, chief of Service Member and Family Support Services for the Illinois National Guard, organized the workshop. He said he feels good about the pilot program and will follow up with the attendees to see how they are applying the workshop's material professionally and improve the program.

"The community reaching out to us to host shows how eager people are to help and support service members." said Murray. "They understand that being home from theater does not mean troops are done needing help."

During her lecture on post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor's guilt, Illinois National Guard Director of Psychological Health, Juliann Steinbeigle, described military mental health issues as injuries, not illnesses. Guy Spooner, registered nurse and case manager at the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said working with veterans can be challenging because of the stigma attached to mental health issues, which the Department of Veterans Affairs is working to erase.

"[Mental health professionals] need to look [veterans] in the eye and tell them, 'You're normal. You're having a normal response to an abnormal problem.'" said Spooner.

December marked the 10th anniversary of the Coast Guard's formal entry into the national intelligence community, although many had long perceived the Coast Guard as a de facto member.

The Coast Guard began its long involvement with the work of intelligence in 1790. Tariffs imposed on goods imported to the United States, in order to raise revenue, caused lawless merchants to unload their cargoes at isolated locations to avoid paying the tariffs at customs houses in ports. Identifying this as a threat within the new nation's maritime domain, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton requested and received 10 revenue cutters to patrol the coast to identify smugglers and ensure tariffs were paid.

Modern intelligence operations began developing as a discrete service in the Coast Guard around 1915. By the time Prohibition became the law of the land, the Coast Guard had developed into an effective force against the smuggling of liquor and narcotics. This caused crime syndicates to use clandestine radio stations to communicate between their smuggling vessels and land-based operations. Coast Guard intelligence forces broke the smugglers' codes, enabling the service to battle the smugglers and break up criminal syndicates. A Coast Guard intelligence unit was established in Boston in 1934 and in 1936 an Intelligence Division was created at Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, D.C., both a result of the service's successes.

Members of Coast Guard intelligence were involved in efforts to minimize sabotage and espionage throughout World War II. Coast Guard intelligence worked to secure, evaluate and disseminate information pertaining to Coast Guard and maritime matters, including assisting in identifying known and potential enemy agents and sympathizers. Coast Guard intelligence personnel were involved with counterintelligence support for the war effort in many critical ports throughout the United States. Because of the efforts of Coast Guard intelligence during the war there was not a single known instance of foreign-inspired sabotage on vessels or waterfront facilities in the U.S.

The Coast Guard continued its efforts against narcotics smuggling in the decades following the war.  The 1980 Mariel Boatlift, the mass exodus of Cuban migrants from their island nation to the U.S., reinforced the need for intelligence capabilities to further develop and become more structured. Federal officials realized the nature of many threats facing the United States were seaborne and the Coast Guard, with its unique capabilities and intelligence work, was seen as the agency that had much to offer against those threats.

"Intelligence is a force multiplier and a hedge against risk," said Rear Adm. Thomas F. Atkin, assistant commandant for Intelligence and Criminal Investigations. "Intelligence support is at the heart of the Coast Guard motto: Semper Paratus [Always Ready]. We work to create decision advantage to protect and advance U.S. interests. We accomplish this by conducting intelligence operations and activities to provide timely, relevant and actionable intelligence to shape operations, planning and decision-making. In a time of dwindling resources, it's important to have appropriate levels of intelligence to identify and warn against the next threat on the horizon."

The U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Committee on Select Intelligence discussed the Coast Guard's role in counter-drug intelligence and in the late 1990s began discussions about making the Coast Guard part of the broader intelligence community. The incidents of Sept. 11, became demonstrative of the kind of close-to-home, national security issues in which the Coast Guard would play a vital role. The Intelligence Authorization Act of 2002 formally brought the Coast Guard into the intelligence community.

Formal inclusion in the intelligence community has resulted in additional authorities and resources for the Coast Guard, enabling the agency to expand its capabilities to include a cryptology program (codebreaking) and a counterintelligence service.  The counterintelligence service helps preserve the operational integrity of the Coast Guard by shielding it from the intelligence activities of foreign powers, terrorist groups, and criminal organizations.

Coast Guard Intelligence applies its capabilities to all Coast Guard mission sets and has provided support for major operations including the response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Intelligence personnel provided the earliest port infrastructure damage reports, which supported multi-national efforts to provide relief and port recovery. Coast Guard Intelligence also produced threat assessments and briefings that supported force protection decisions and other national and interagency operational decisions.

In addition to numerous drug and human smuggling cases, Coast Guard Intelligence has provided critical support to Coast Guard commanders wrestling with non-traditional intelligence needs, such as the interdiction of the Bangun Perkasa fishing vessel and its use of illegal driftnets.

Coast Guard intelligence has matured during the last 10 years and its focus has solidified. In addition to the cryptology program and counterintelligence service, Coast Guard intelligence includes a robust criminal investigative service, experienced intelligence fusion centers, and a developing cyber capability. Coast Guard intelligence specialists in the field are a critical component of the enterprise, working in units across the nation and throughout the Coast Guard chain of command to provide operational commanders with the intelligence support they need.    Today's Coast Guard intelligence encompasses a wide range of activities and capabilities, all striving to provide decision advantage to support senior Coast Guard leaders in their policy-making role, the Department of Homeland Security and its components, and other national intelligence or federal law enforcement agencies.

"Coast Guard intelligence provides operational commanders with the understanding they need to make decisions on how best to deploy assets and conduct operations," said Adm. Bob Papp, commandant of the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard's persistent presence in the maritime domain, due to its diverse mission sets and broad legal authorities, fills a unique niche within the intelligence community. As a member of the armed forces, the Coast Guard is at the intersection between homeland security and national defense. As a federal law enforcement agency and national intelligence community member, the Coast Guard is also positioned as a bridge between these two important groups. Because of the service's unique access, emphasis and expertise in the maritime domain - an area where other U.S. government agencies typically are not present - it collects and reports intelligence that supports its own missions as well as national security objectives.