{"id":1785819,"date":"2022-12-24T06:30:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T11:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1785819"},"modified":"2022-12-24T09:49:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-24T14:49:41","slug":"a-look-inside-a-tactical-operations-center-in-poland-where-american-soldiers-train-to-defend-nato-territory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-look-inside-a-tactical-operations-center-in-poland-where-american-soldiers-train-to-defend-nato-territory\/","title":{"rendered":"A Look Inside a Tactical Operations Center in Poland Where American Soldiers Train to Defend NATO Territory"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fa-look-inside-a-tactical-operations-center-in-poland-where-american-soldiers-train-to-defend-nato-territory%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1785819&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">BOLES\u0141AVIEC, Poland \u2014 In the middle of the woods in below-freezing temperature, several hundred American soldiers trained furiously on a Polish military base in conditions they may someday have to fight in \u2014 in the middle of the European winter defending NATO territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">A small group of reporters, including from Breitbart News, were recently allowed to go behind the scenes into a U.S. Army war-planning command post, known as a tactical operations center (TOC), consisting of a large main tent and several smaller tents that could be quickly set up in expeditionary field conditions. Indeed, this one was set up amid a clearing on top of mud and snow.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_22889963\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/12\/IMG_2521.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-22889963\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_2521-1024x768-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"743\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">American soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division train in the winter terrain in Poland. (Photo credit: Kristina Wong\/Breitbart News)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In the center of the main tent was the \u201ccommand node,\u201d essentially several tables surrounding a giant map with markers and a large digital screen, all designed to give everyone a common operating picture in both analog and digital.<\/p>\n<p>Around the command node were sections dedicated to everything needed to run an expeditionary command post of a few hundred soldiers 24 hours a day, including: human resources, health support, weather forecasting, engineering, logistics, air and ground weapons systems, electronic and non-lethal warfare, biological and chemical warfare detection, legal support, and tech support. There was also a section specifically for allies, where several Estonian soldiers were spotted sitting and walking about. Allies could also sit with their counterparts at any of the specific sections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">There was a smaller tent attached for the commanding general and staff, which had a giant map mirroring the one at the command node. There were also separate tents for intelligence and planning personnel. The entry to the intelligence section was conspicuously closed off from the main floor.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The soldiers, who were mainly from the 1st Infantry Division (1ID) based in Fort Riley, Kansas, were in the midst of carrying out Command Post Exercise Winter Strike, where they were given various simulated scenarios over several weeks in the field to test their war-fighting readiness and skills in real-world fighting conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe train as we fight. And so everywhere that we fight isn\u2019t necessarily comfy and cozy,\u201d said Army Sgt. Maj. Stephanie Rodriguez, the 1ID\u2019s operations sergeant major.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a very unique environment to operate in,\u201d\u00a0added Army\u00a0Capt. Kamilah Cruz, the 1ID\u2019s signals, intelligence, and sustainment company commander. \u201cThis is a mission that you really can\u2019t simulate back home in Fort Riley. You can\u2019t really simulate NATO allies back home, you can\u2019t really work with the Estonians, Latvians, Romanians, and all these other countries that we work here in Europe with.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_22891218\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/12\/IMG_2553.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-22891218\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_2553-1024x768-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"743\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Army Capt. Kamilah Cruz, Signals, Intelligence &#038; Sustainment Company Commander with the 1st Infantry Division. (Photo credit: Kristina Wong\/Breitbart News)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The 1ID Headquarters is based out of Fort Riley, Kansas, but their particular area of responsibility is Eastern Europe, which includes Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia \u2014 all countries on the frontlines of defending NATO from a revanchist Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">Although soldiers acknowledged the existence of a hot war going on next door in Ukraine, they insisted the exercise was not aimed at any particular adversary.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_22891233\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/12\/IMG_2961-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-22891233\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_2961-1-1024x560-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"541\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Army Capt. Kamilah Cruz, Signals, Intelligence &#038; Sustainment Company Commander with the 1st Infantry Division, chatting with soldiers. (Photo credit: Kristina Wong\/Breitbart News)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe train to fight a very, very generic adversary of weapons systems all across the world, so it\u2019s nothing very specific that we\u2019re specifically training against,\u201d said Army Staff Sgt. Nathaniel Robles, an all-source analyst with the 1st Infantry Division.<\/p>\n<p>However, Army Maj. Chris Zaczyk, a strategic planner with the 1ID, did divulge that the \u201coverall scenario that we\u2019re participating in is we\u2019re working with our allies and partners to simulate a threat inside of NATO sovereign territory where we work together as a team to repel that threat and restore the sovereignty of NATO territories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That scenario is not so unthinkable as it was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, particularly given the widening scope of the war. Last month, speculation ran rampant as to whether the U.S. would enter the war after a Russian-made missile fell into Polish territory. Polish authorities later determined it was a Ukraine-fired air defense missile that malfunctioned.<\/p>\n<p>But the prospect of an attack on NATO is still something the U.S. military \u2014 and European militaries \u2014 take very seriously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">The Winter Strike exercise involved not only troops at\u00a0Boles\u0142awiec but across Europe and back home in the states.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Zaczyk said the exercise is also a unique opportunity for a U.S. Army division headquarters to conduct training at this scale.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the division level, we don\u2019t get the chance to train as frequently as smaller units do,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the scale of it and the ability of it to test our systems is what makes this particularly unique \u2014 and when you add the amount of allies and partners that we have participating with us \u2014 it makes for a really great training event.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the exercise, soldiers were given various simulated scenarios.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is anything from an attack, there\u2019s anything from a counterattack, there are air assault missions, it just really depends on the mission set, and realistically we don\u2019t get that information until the simulation turns on and we\u2019re receiving information from higher,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_22890018\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/12\/IMG_2528.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-22890018\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_2528-1024x768-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"743\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division at a Polish military base in Boles\u0142awiec, Poland. (Photo credit: Kristina Wong\/Breitbart News)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>While the purpose of the exercise is to train in real-world conditions, another is to build deeper relationships with NATO allies and partners as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which launched after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cComing out here is part of the U.S.\u2019s plan to help build that cohesion in the Baltic states, especially building those partner relationships, because we all operate in different ways, and we really need to build that to make us a better fighter force,\u201d said Robles.<\/p>\n<p>Army Col. John Mountford, deputy commanding officer for 1ID, told Breitbart News that building interoperability with allies and partner nations means many things:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Really when I talk about interoperability, it\u2019s whether my iPhone talks to their iPhone. That\u2019s a technical aspect of it. The procedural is if I say \u2018hello,\u2019 they say \u2018hello\u2019 back. But the human aspect is just working together, it\u2019s starting to build those relationships.<\/p>\n<p>We have opportunities in schools where we attend NATO schools together\u2026this is an opportunity to train together. So we learn about each other\u2019s families, we learn about where each other came from, and it just builds commonality among us, and it just strengthens that relationship.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>There are also other elements of the 1ID in Poland. The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT), known as \u201cDagger Brigade,\u201d is currently deployed to \u017baga\u0144, a city about an hour and 45 minutes north of Boles\u0142awiec. The brigade recently rotated in to replace the 3rd ABCT, 4th Infantry Division based out of Fort Carson. The deployments last about nine months.<\/p>\n<p>The 1ID headquarters falls under V Corps Headquarters, which has permanent basing in Poznan, Poland. V Corps falls under U.S. Army Europe and Africa (USEURAF).<\/p>\n<p>Currently, there are about 12,000 U.S. troops situated around the country in Poland.\u00a0There are several hundred U.S. troops based at the Polish military base in Boles\u0142awiec, which the Americans have dubbed simply \u201cCamp Boles.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_22891298\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/12\/IMG_2542-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-22891298\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_2542-1-1024x768-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"743\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division at a Polish military base in Boles\u0142awiec, Poland. (Photo credit: Kristina Wong\/Breitbart News)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAcross Europe, every single day, we have 1ID soldiers out there training with our allies and partners doing really incredible stuff from live fires to situational training then all the way up to staff level training, which is what we\u2019re dong out there,\u201d said Zaczyk.<\/p>\n<p>The soldiers acknowledge that being thousands of miles away from their families for the holidays can be tough but that they rely on each other to keep their spirits up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHonestly, the best thing that gets us by is a positive attitude for the most of it. A lot of us have that close bond out here, so that\u2019s really made it a little bit easier and more bearable to actually deal with,\u201d Robles said.<\/p>\n<p>As far as what commanders want soldiers\u2019 families back home in America to know?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey should be very proud, Mountford said. \u201cAll of us here are volunteers. We\u2019ve all volunteered to serve and part of that service is sacrifice.\u00a0So, no one likes to be away for the holidays, and we\u2019ve all missed way too many special family events being here, but we all understand that there\u2019s a need, and we all understand that we are here voluntarily, and we\u2019re honored and privileged to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Follow Breitbart News\u2019s Kristina Wong on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/kristina_wong\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@kristinawong\">Truth Social<\/a>, or on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kristinawongreporting\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BOLES\u0141AVIEC, Poland \u2014 In the middle of the woods in below-freezing temperature, several hundred American soldiers trained furiously on a Polish military base in conditions they may someday have to fight in \u2014 in the middle of the European winter defending NATO territory. A small group of reporters, including from Breitbart News, were recently allowed &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1785822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[6962,4123,5458,5488,7901,4152,4266,7624,7229,11622,3819,4187,6261,9225,9985,3798],"class_list":["post-1785819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-the","tag-american","tag-bongino","tag-center","tag-defend","tag-inside","tag-look","tag-nato","tag-operations","tag-poland","tag-report","tag-soldiers","tag-tactical","tag-territory","tag-train","tag-where"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1785819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1785822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1785819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1785819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1785819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}