BUTLERVILLE, Ind. - Members of the Ministry of Defense Advisors team - a Department of Defense initiative to help Afghanistan and Iraq stand up their own ministries are talking to a local Afghan governor while citizens protest outside the building.
Suddenly, the protesters grow quiet and leave. A member of the team's military escort, using a pre-coordinated code word, lets the MoDA team know that they are leaving ... now. Without question, the civilians get up and are escorted to their waiting military vehicles.
That's when the shooting starts. The civilians duck as low as they can get and, naturally, stop, not realizing that they had left themselves sitting ducks in the open. Their military escorts immediately pull or push them and tell them where to go. Once they get into their vehicle safely, the Officer in Charge of Training yells for an end to the exercise, or ENDEX.
Training at Muscatatuck Urban Training Complex in Butlerville, Ind., is known to be as real as it gets, but how does it get that realistic? In part, through the extraordinarily hard work of the Wolf Operations Group.
Wolf Ops, led by Army Lt. Col. Lawrence Terranova, is the only Army National Guard Active Guard Reserve Observer Controller Battalion at Muscatatuck.
National Guard soldiers with specific qualifications from across the United States are brought together at MUTC through the National Guard Bureau as part of a joint, interagency effort to support the Army Force Generation Model in preparing units for deployment.
"Our mission statement is simple," explained Terranova. "We were created to provide advanced urban operations training to Army units, both active and Reserve, as well as other services and government agencies for wartime combat, stability operations, and homeland defense."
The Soldiers of the Wolf Operations Group provide full-spectrum ops training for whoever requests it. Because of this, the professional skills of Wolf Ops Soldiers vary from gunners to Special Operations to camera operators, all with combat experience and the ability to teach what they know to the people who need their knowledge.
The concept of a Wolf Ops Group was created in 2007 by senior leadership, including then-Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Cody.
The unit was set up in mid-2009, receiving an official Unit Identification Code on Dec. 3, 2010. Unit members, under the National Guard Bureau G-3 Operations Office, have created a reputation for themselves as being some of the most professional trainers in the United States Army, says Terranova.
Earlier this year, Wolf Ops was invited to send trainers to Camp Shelby, Miss., in order to assist training the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team during their Exportable Combat Training Capability rotation. Given short notice, Wolf Ops executed the mission at Camp Shelby while still conducting training at MUTC.
David Norton, XCTC deputy exercise director, was thrilled with the 19 soldiers who led the training.
"XCTC would not have been able to execute the 37th IBCT rotation to standard without the support of the Wolf Ops OCs," Norton said. "Their ability to react on very short notice and quickly shift focus to support the rotation is a direct reflection on their commitment."
That commitment is what brings the Soldiers of Wolf Ops together and creates a world-class training unit ... even as the mission had to be built from the ground up.
"When we first started this unit, there was no template," explained Army Lt. Col. William Costello, Wolf Ops executive officer and one of the Soldiers who helped to stand up the unit. "Maj. Gen. Tooley and his staff provided clarity and guidance and we applied nothing more than our basic military decision-making process principles to help shape the training."
Training, which had been focused on the military aspect, morphed over time as the State Department and Department of Defense began conducting training at MUTC for civilians heading to overseas environments. Wolf Ops found itself working with civilian agency subject matter experts and contractors in order to develop a training program which would encompass the civilian and military joint exercises.
"We train the military aspect alongside the subject matter expert they are training the civilians," Costello said. "We may stand on this side of the doorway and they stand on that side of the doorway, but they all have to train together."
The training has created a culture of understanding between both sides of the equation - civilians understanding the language of the military and the military understanding the mission of the civilians. Wolf Ops leaders would like to see more of the units that are on the deployment bubble want to come to Muscatatuck in order to train with the civilians that they will be working with in Afghanistan.
For some members of the Wolf Ops team, the chance to train and work with an elite team brought them from other states. Army Master Sgt. Scott Cutter, acting command sergeant major of Wolf Ops, moved to North Vernon, Ind., from Atlanta, and has not looked back.
"The support we get from the local community is amazing," Cutter said. "When we are in town, people shake our hands and talk to us like they've known us for years. I love it here!"
Cutter's family quickly made themselves at home in the North Vernon community, as have all of the Wolf Ops Soldiers who have come from other states. Out of the approximately 30 soldiers in the unit, half are from Indiana while the remainders come from across the country.
The expertise of the Soldiers tells the story for the training conducted. Cutter, himself, is an Army dive master, while 14 members of the unit are Ranger qualified, 22 are Airborne qualified, six are Pathfinders, and two come from the special forces field. Over 90 percent of the Wolf Ops personnel have combat experience, some with multiple overseas tours.
"We want people who have a varied background and some experience under their belt," Cutter explained. "But we need Soldiers who are good teachers. They must be able to explain what it is they are trying to teach."
With the schedule that Wolf Ops has to keep, it seems that it would be easy to get burned out, but the Soldiers in the unit are constantly seeking new challenges. Two to three full weeks of every month involve training with civilian agencies and military together which leaves precious little time to plan, but Wolf Ops planners have worked for over a year to design training especially for a unit or as little as a week to plan and conduct training. Either way, they get the job done in a professional and well-executed manner, according to Terranova.
"I am very proud of all of the Wolf Ops personnel for what they do day in and day out every month," Terranova said. "The training is extremely important and has already paid dividends. Give us a challenge; these Soldiers will step up to it."