IW Training at Green Flag Little Rock

By Captain Joe Knable

19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

If you stumbled upon a man wearing a Muslim headdress, an Iraqi security police colonel and military officers from three coalition countries, you might think you're somewhere in the Middle East.

However, this scene was part of Irregular Warfare training at Little Rock Air Force Base this week as part of the Green Flag Little Rock exercise.

Green Flag Little Rock is held in conjunction with the Joint Readiness Training Center exercise based at Fort Polk, La., which is training 5,000 Soldiers "deployed" to an austere environment at Fort Polk. The Air Force is providing airlift and airdrop capabilities, aeromedical evacuation and bare-base set up and operations for the JRTC exercise.

The goal of Green Flag Little Rock is for aircrews to fly their first five simulated combat missions in a safe environment, said Maj. Earl Burress, the trainer/mentor in charge of irregular warfare training at Green Flag Little Rock. The irregular warfare exercises are part of the rigorous training the Air Force members receive to prepare them for theater operations.

Irregular warfare is "a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant population(s). IW favors indirect and asymmetric approaches, though it may employ the full range of military and other capacities, in order to erode an adversary's power, influence, and will," according to the U.S. Air Force Irregular Warfare Operating Concept, Dec. 1, 2008.

In this Green Flag Little Rock exercise, aircrews from the U.S., Canada and Belgium are participating in a series of IW scenarios. While the players know there will be IW training at some point during the exercise, they do not know when it will be, what it will be or who will be participating. Just like in real-world deployments, they must be ready at all times, said Major Burress.

This week at Green Flag Little Rock, Department of Defense security and intelligence agents dressed up as Iraqi nationals and engaged coalition players in a variety of IW scenarios.

On the first day, agents posed as a local sheikh, his security police colonel and a U.S. escort. The agents met with members of all four coalition teams, including the Air Force aeromedical evacuation team, to discuss a variety of topics ranging from military assistance, humanitarian aid, political sentiments and religious affiliation. Players were challenged to maintain their military bearing with many personal and controversial questions and statements including a marriage proposal directed at the female Canadian mission commander. The players focused on remaining professional, warm and diplomatic in their responses while gathering intelligence that might be useful to the coalition.

After the 45-minute meeting, Air Force intelligence trainer/mentors discussed what the players did well and what they might want to do differently "in country." The meeting was purposely long with uncomfortable pauses because the culture in Iraq is so different. Such a meeting could last six hours, one trainer/mentor explained.

This first meeting was intended to illustrate "wasta," a key concept in Iraq that translates roughly to the concepts of strength, honor and trust. "Building relationships is the bull's-eye" for meetings with Iraqi nationals, said Major Burress. Once they build wasta, the Iraqi nationals will provide invaluable help.

In the second encounter, the son of the sheikh was very angry because of what he described as an "immoral use of technology," Major Burress said. Players had to overcome a simulated language barrier to discover the true issue. The son was told the pilots were using night vision goggles to see through local women's clothing. Once players understood this, they brought a pair of night vision goggles in for the sheikh's son to look through and he discovered for himself that the allegation was not true since night vision goggles have no such capability.

The third IW exercise was the shortest of all. The U.S. agent rapped frantically on the door until players answered. He said the sheikh had something urgent to show the players and they needed to send their mission commander right away. The team assembled quickly and uncovered a significant cache of weapons the Iraqis had discovered. The most important thing discovered were man-portable air-defense systems which could destroy the coalition airplanes and foil their mission. The mission commander thanked the sheikh with a cash gratuity and asked that he please let them know when he finds anything else.

This training is very unique for U.S. Airmen.

"Green Flag Little Rock is the first and only exercise in the USAF that provides Irregular Warfare training that is tailored specifically to prepare American and Coalition Mobility Air Forces personnel (at the squadron level) for deployments to austere locations," said Major Burress.

He explained that successful training would result in "participants who understand that their actions influence the local population and therefore the war on the strategic level, they have increased skills in relating to Muslim and Middle Eastern cultures and they are actively influencing the battlespace in a positive way."