Transformation Through Training • Issue No: 10 • September 2017 • 39 Resolute Support Training Event 16-4 Successfully Completed Another group of NATO soldiers got ready for their deployment to Afghanistan. The Joint Force Training Centre (JFTC) conducted its fourth 2016 Resolute Support training event between 18 and 27 October. More than 150 soldiers from 17 NATO and partner nations gathered in Bydgoszcz to participate in 2016 last pre-deployment training executed by JFTC – half of them to get ready for their future assignment, the other half to support the preparation process. The RS TE, designed and delivered by JFTC, has been prepared in close cooperation with the Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS). The event aimed at educating the training audience in the specifics of the mission, at training personnel assigned to advisory roles and at creating conditions for team building. It consisted of both an academic part and practical exercises. Such a design of the event allowed the Bydgoszcz NATO training centre to provide the Commander of the Resolute Support mission with uniformly trained staff, fully ready to fulfill their role within a NATO-led operation. Already on the first day of the event the participants received a broad spectrum of in-depth information about the environment they were going to be deployed to and their future work. It was possible thanks to the presence of two generals representing the RS Headquarters - Major General Paul Brier, the Deputy Commander Civil Outreach, and Major General Martin Smith MBE, the Deputy Advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Interior. They both provided the training audience with key facts and figures on RS and shared their experience which gave future members of the mission a solid background they would need during their deployment. “Regard your future assignment as a relay race.” – said Major General Wilhelm Grün, the JFTC Commander, during his closing remarks. He encouraged the Training Audience not to focus on their time in Afghanistan only. “Make use of accomplishments of your predecessors and pass the knowledge, with a little bit more from you, to your successors.” The JFTC Commander emphasized that pre-deployment training delivered by JFTC created a perfect opportunity to learn from experience of former members of the mission, who augmented the events as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). “The fresh memory can only come from those who have just returned from Afghanistan or from those who are still there” – General Grün highlighted and invited the Training Audience to come back to Bydgoszcz as SMEs to support their successors in the future. Major General Hans van Griensven, the Deputy Chief of Staff Plans of the Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) also thanked SMEs for their devotion and assistance. “Some of you have already started your hand over/take over with your predecessors who were here during the training” – the JFCBS Chief of Staff Plans turned to the Training Audience underlining the value of support provided to the event by current members of the Resolute Support mission. Focusing on soldiers’ future deployment, General Griensven stressed the need to change the way of thinking while fulfilling the train, advise and assist mission. “Your biggest enemy is your reference – we all think in a western way. Start thinking in the Afghan way” – the JFCBS Chief of Staff encouraged the soldiers. Yet again JFTC used its vast experience in pre-deployment training, its modern facility and tools to prove the Centre’s key role in supporting NATO missions. The future Resolute Support members gained better situational awareness and understanding of Afghan Security Institutions’ as well as Afghan National Defence and Security Forces’ structures and processes. They received a high level preparation that would allow them fulfill their mission professionally and successfully from the very beginning. New Year’s Reception at JFTC Continuation of the Resolute Support training program and increasing involvement in exercises for multinational corps were presented as the Joint Force Training Centre’s (JFTC) main plans for 2017. Major General Wilhelm Grün opened another busy year of training for JFTC during the annual New Year’s Reception. The event took place on 12 January and gathered close to 80 JFTC partners and friends. “Our training calendar is full throughout the year, and we will very quickly find ourselves heavily engaged in critical planning efforts for all the training events” – said General Grün. As the event was held two weeks before the start of the first 2017 training for future members of the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, the General added: “Resolute Support will continue throughout the year preparing more than 1000 staff members for their deployment (…) I expect us to provide our best professional training during each iteration” – the JFTC Commander underlined. General Grün also emphasized JFTC’s role in building interoperability of the Alliance by continuation of hosting and engaging in the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise. He also marked that the Centre 2017