>War in Bayraq
>It begins
>Through the lens

Printable version

Email article

Combine 300 troops speaking 17 different languages and it would be safe to assume chaos would reign. But that's not what happened during a military exercise called Operation Peace Shield 2005.

There are few old men to be seen on the streets of Kiev, Ukraine, an ancient city on the Dnieper River in the former Soviet republic. The elderly are mostly widows. At the outset of World War II, Hitler’s Wermacht invaded from the west, and 10 days after the Germans took control of Kiev, executions began at Babi Yar on the edge of the city. More than 33,000 Jewish residents of Kiev — civilians — were killed the first day. An additional 150,000 died in the following months. Hundreds of thousands were shipped to slave-labor camps. Then Stalin’s forces surged in from the east following the decisive tank battle at Kursk in Russia. Many surviving civilians were assumed to be collaborators, so the killings continued. Historians estimate Ukrainians accounted for 20 percent (10 million) of World War II casualties, higher losses than those suffered by either Germany or the Soviet Union. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine has grappled with its status as an independent republic. In recent times, what has become known as the Orange Revolution took place following protests about allegations of fraud and voter intimidation during the November 2004 presidential elections. The Ukrainian Supreme Court ordered a second vote, and pro-West candidate Viktor Yushchenko was declared the winner in January 2005. Things began to settle down, and in July 2005 this emerging democracy hosted a military gathering that would have been considered impossible a generation ago.

Operation Peace Shield 2005, a computer-assisted exercise, was centered in Kiev and involved 19 nations, many of which have been bitter enemies in times past. As CWO Derek Klimozak from the Polish army pointed out, “Six hundred years ago, Kiev was a Polish city. Their national heroes are considered guerillas by us.” About working with Ukrainians now, he added, “It’s another step in our politics … a good one.”

On July 12, 2005, units from the multinational force participating in the program began assembling in Kiev at the Ukrainian National Defense Academy, a historic facility first bombed, then occupied as a headquarters, by the German general staff during World War II. Inside the academy, the Ukrainians made a computer simulation complex available for the exercise. Obtained through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, it included several hundred interconnected PC terminals spread throughout the third floor of the main building. NATO provided travel funding for its member countries and the United States assisted the non-NATO participants.

War in Bayraq

This year’s program involved a scenario built around the mythical nation of Bayraq. The country’s dictator had been overthrown, and civil war had erupted. Insurgents were entering the nation from neighboring countries. A multinational force was deployed to stabilize the country.

Overall commander of the effort was Col. Scott Johnson from the 100th Joint Combat Support Command, U.S. Army National Guard in Illinois, and his Ukrainian army counterpart, Col. Alexander Koshlachov. They monitored Division Commander Col. Charlotte Miller, from the California National Guard, and her deputy, Col. Alexander Luk’inachuk. The division command post (CP) under Miller provided the focal point for all multinational tasking. Col. John Munoz-Atkinson, U.S. Army National Guard, and Ukrainian Lt. Col. Yuri Kolesnichenko shared brigade-level command. Units were further divided to battalion, company, and working-cell levels.

Backing up the division CP was Lt. Col. Rob Kirchubel, USA, who worked in the rear command post alongside Lt. Col. Alexander Trushkivsky from the Ukraine and Capt. Vladimir Trofimov from Moldova. Kirchubel pointed to his European cohorts and said, “All the field grade officers here were in the Red Army once.” In fact, Kirchubel and Trushkivsky served on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall in the 1980s. “We were opponents,” Trushkivsky said. “Now we work together.” He flashed a big grin. “Much better now.”

Notable countries represented included Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Latvia. Determined foes in past and recent times — and in some cases, still (Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to have skirmishes caused by border issues) — these nations are finding ways to join in pursuit of peaceful coexistence. “After serving in Afghanistan and Kosovo [with former enemies], yes, we can work together,” said Maj. Rashid Muslumov from Azerbaijan.

One of the more important elements within the Battalion Response Cell is the Civil-Military Cooperation Group. The Polish contingent was tasked with that responsibility. Of the three men on duty, all had served in at least one combat zone. Klimozak had experience in Lebanon and the former Yugoslavia and has completed two tours in Iraq, where he will soon be returning for a third tour. When asked about his frequent deployments, the married father of a 17-year-old daughter shrugged and said, “It’s my job.” These men are not novices when it comes to dealing with terrorism, and it showed in the way they responded to tasking.

It begins

The first full day of the exercise involved simulations designed to expose coordination and planning glitches. Problems cropped up with radio communications, along with the discovery that two conflicting systems were being used to plot map coordinates. The latter, a particularly serious issue, could have resulted in friendly fire incidents had it not been identified and corrected early on in the exercise.

The second period of the deployment was called the computer-assisted exercise. During this phase, “enemy” inputs were made by the scenario management team headed by Ron Miller and Hans Fichtl, both Northrup-Grumman contractors assigned to Headquarters, U.S. Army, Europe. Their element interjected problems associated with insurgents, displaced persons, and the surviving military forces of the former regime.

Evaluating the exercise was the Observer/Controller Cell (OC) headed by Col. Bill Enyart, an attorney in the civilian sector, now deployed with the Illinois National Guard. With members from the United States and Canada, OC personnel roamed working areas, taking note of reactions to the scenario management cell’s inputs.

It quickly became apparent that the main goal of the evolution was not to train novices, because a high level of recent combat experience is brought to the exercise by each participating nation. What was sought was an improved degree of cooperation, cultivated one person at a time, unit by unit, and country by country. As exercise codirector Koshlachov said at the opening ceremony, “The Ukraine will put [forth] all [its] efforts to conduct the exercise [toward the] perfection of professionalism, battle-craft, and to consolidate the participants’ cooperation.”

One of the U.S. participants was Army Maj. Michael Chekevdia from Royalton, Ill., who speaks fluent Russian. His grandparents both came from the Ukraine. Chekevdia surveyed the assemblage at the “friendship dinner,” a lavish affair with caviar, a multitude of Ukrainian dishes, and unlimited libations, held in the main dining facility at the academy. “Look around this room,” Chekevdia said as he swung his arm in a wide arc. “It’s a melting pot. You could see the same people in Chicago on any street corner on any given day.” Who could argue when Americans sporting name tags that read “Piazzoni,” “Nowicki,” and “Kirchubel” stood nearby, toasting European counterparts with similar-sounding names?

Through the lens

Because the Ukraine is seeking entry into the European Union and NATO, an exercise of this nature is of significant interest to the media. On the third day, representatives from more than a dozen news groups, including international outlets from as far as Japan, arrived to observe and conduct interviews. In addition, Johnson and Koshlachov held a press conference and took questions. When asked how the coordination between the Ukraine and the international force was going, Koshlachov said, “Since the start, the level of cooperation has become easier and easier.” Johnson added a point about working with Ukrainian military officers: “We have had a partnership with the Ukraine since 1975. Right now, I feel we’re about 50 percent into it and are still evaluating where we stand. When the exercise is complete, we’ll do a final review and apply the results to the future.”

At the conclusion of the weeklong exercise, Deputy Division Co-Commander Luk’inachuk said, “Before, we didn’t have enough knowledge about working together, now we do.” Charlotte Miller also was upbeat about the results. When she queried her staff about the degree of cooperation they felt they had achieved from the international staff, the room erupted in a flurry of thumbs-up.

“During my opening comments,” Charlotte Miller said, “I mentioned that in terms of the exercise, you get what you give, and most of us got a lot out of it.” Her summation of the result at the close of the program was simply, “Absolutely marvelous.”

Although everything seemed to go well, about midway through the exercise I queried the Polish civic military cooperation cell about progress. Klimozak reported, “the attitude toward the multinational force is quite negative.” Later that morning, when asked about the same subject, Charlotte Miller indicated, “things were in good shape.” The picture so often seems rosier at the top than at the working level. With such an important issue — winning the hearts and minds of the local inhabitants — that status should have been better communicated and had higher priority. But, such are the lessons learned that can be applied to current problems facing the world.

One can only wonder what historians a half-century from now might conclude about the end of the Cold War and the current shift in geopolitics. If the results of this exercise are any indication, however, it will be marked as one of the greatest transformations in history, unique in that it occurred without a worldwide conflagration.