HOHENFELS, Germany - Though not on a deployment, some Soldiers of the Mississippi National Guard were far from home. They weren't enduring the hardships of a foreign war and they're not where you would expect to find these so called "weekend warriors."
The 66th Troop Command, Mississippi Army National Guard, took part in the NATO interoperability exercise Allied Spirit I, from Jan. 11-28, at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, or JMRC, in Hohenfels, Germany.
The unit's mission was to serve as the high command and control, or HICON, for a multinational brigade of NATO allies and partners consisting of the U.S. Army's 2nd Calvary Regiment, augmented by units and military representatives from Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
"We're here to facilitate the information flow from all the different staff sections," said Lt. Col. Jeffery J. Files from Madison, Mississippi, the acting commander of Troop Command during the exercise.
"There always has to be a HICON so there is another level of staff and command that force those functions at the subordinate, training audience staff," said Maj. Michael E. Fisher, fires observer, coach and trainer for JMRC.
The 66th Troop Command has many subordinate units at home in Mississippi, such as a theater aviation brigade, Military Police Battalion and a Special Forces Battalion. The unit brought many full-time military employees as well as the unit's traditional, part-time staff to perform this mission.
"The good thing about [the] troop command is that we have representatives that do some level of the same work, that we do here, back in the states," Files said.
The 66th Troop Command brought many people who work in these areas of expertise at home and were able to work with the JMRC in identifying how to stress the rotational training units to help them continue to develop as a staff, Fisher said.
The National Guard not only brings their military occupational specialty but their civilian skill and training as well which is a big combat multiplier in an operation like this, Files said.
The exercise also gave the 66th Troop Command the opportunity to develop because they were tasked with additional duties once they arrived.
"I'm never surprised by the professionalism of the military," Files said. "We were faced with some unexpected tasks that we were unprepared to do because we didn't know we were going to have to do them, but everybody just put their complaints aside and made stuff happen."
"The whole environment is a little dynamic and it requires people to be flexible because requirements change," Fisher said. "66th Troop Command did a great job of being flexible and adjusting to the missions so that we could make this a successful training event."
Although, adapting to this particular mission wasn't much of a stretch for the unit, it provided a great opportunity for them to practice for their state mission, which is responding to emergencies.
"It relates to our mission at home," Files said. "We gain good knowledge acting as a conduit between a higher level and a lower level unit which is the same thing [the] troop command would do at hurricane operations."
"It was a great opportunity for us," Files said. "We pulled it out really good and it's just a testament to the experience level that we have."