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Below is a brief excerpt from a press briefing that took place today at Ft. Campbell KY. The presenters were Commander, 101st Airborne Division Maj. Gen. John Campbell and Commander, Joint Warfighting Center, Joint Forces Command Maj. Gen. Stephen Layfield:

JIM TURNER (spokesman, Pentagon Press Office):  Okay, Generals Campbell and Layfield, this is Jim Turner at the Pentagon Briefing Room.  Can you hear me? 

GEN. LAYFIELD:  Jim, we got you — got you loud. 

MR. TURNER:  Got me.  Great.  Well, let’s — let’s get started. 

This morning, we have with us Major General John Campbell, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division; and Major General Steve Layfield, commander of the Joint Warfighting Center at Joint — at Joint Forces Command.  Both officers are joining us this morning from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to discuss their participation in the Unified Endeavor 10-1 Mission Rehearsal Exercise. 

This exercise, which ends tomorrow, is designed to train the headquarters forces for their deployment to Afghanistan later this year, as Combined Joint Task Force 101. 

Generals Layfield and Campbell will provide some opening remarks, and then we’ll open it up to questions. 

General Layfield, let’s start with you. 

GEN. LAYFIELD:  Well, good morning to everyone out there; and want to thank you for the opportunity to talk about one of the key reasons that we in America do in fact enjoy the privilege of being protected by the finest military ever fielded, and that is our ethos of realistic and relevant training. 

As a member of our nation’s Joint Warfighting Center, I am proud today to join Major General John Campbell, commander of the Screaming Eagles, 101st Airborne Division, Air Assault, and to spotlight the training that General Campbell and his team are undergoing right now — training that is preparing this outfit to accomplish their upcoming mission in eastern Afghanistan. 

One of our learned keys to success in creating a training environment that is real for the training audience is to make sure that it’s current and relevant.  We do this through a continued reliance upon and a connection to the deployed force currently in Afghanistan and in theater.  We observe, we listen, and we learn from the deployed force, and we take their best practices and their lessons learned, and then we bring them back to the States and we blend them into a highly realistic training environment. 

This is a complex environment that the Screaming Eagles are up against, and it’s the relevance of that training that we have to replicate. 

During this exercise the 101st will have been training on and exposed to joint tactics, joint techniques, procedures and challenges that are in theater today.  On today’s complex battlefield, we do not fight alone, and our training reflects that.  We rely upon and we integrate with our multinational, our interagency and our nongovernmental partners in all that we do.  Therefore, they’re all present in this exercise this week. 

The final component of the training program is a follow-on staff assistance visit.  Our training and assistance to this great outfit does not stop here.  Joint Forces Command and our trainers from the Joint Warfighting Center, they will deploy with the 101st Airborne Air Assault at various points of time.  They’ll do so to gather those lessons learned I was talking about, and they will provide any follow- up assistance General Campbell and his team need.  We’re going to be with them through the exercise and during their deployment. 

Training is a continual process, and we continue to refine our training product to make sure that our forces in the field, your forces, have the latest and most relevant training available.  As far as the Screaming Eagles and the 101st Airborne Air Assault are concerned, they’re ready. 

Thank you very much. 

GEN. CAMPBELL:  Hey, Steve, thanks. 

And welcome to everybody out there in Washington, D.C.  It’s much better to be here at Fort Campbell than it is to be with you in the building, and I’m sure — I can’t see you right now; I’m not looking at a screen that shows you — but I’m sure we know some of the folks out there, and thanks for taking the time to be with us at this conference here. 

As General Layfield said, this our capstone event to get the 101st ready to go to Afghanistan.   

It’s been going on here for about the last two weeks.  We’re very appreciative of both the Battle Command Training Program out of Fort Leavenworth and the Joint Forces Command who’ve taken on the second week to get us ready to go. 

It’s a great opportunity for us.  It’s much like the brigades. And I’m sure you’re all aware of our CTCs, our Combat Training Centers, where our BCTs [Brigade Combat Teams] go to JRTC [Joint Readiness Training Center], or to the NTC [National Training Center].  For the division, the MRX [Mission Rehearsal Exercise] is our capstone event.  So as we get ready to go to Afghanistan, this is a completely awesome force. 

They brought in many resources, as Steve has talked about, both the interagency, civilian play.  The foreign plan — this thing is pretty incredible.  I’ve got 10 officers from Afghanistan; it includes four general officers.  We have the 201st Corps commander, the 203rd deputy Corps commander.  These are the same folks that I’ll build relationships with now and that I’ll work with in Afghanistan.  Now, that just shows you how much — or how important this is for Afghanistan to send those senior officers back here to Fort Campbell to help us train to get ready for that engagement. 

We’ve also got the general officer from Poland who will take over Task Force White Eagle; we have the general officer from France who will take over Task Force Lafayette; I’ve got Colonel Roy from the 86th National Guard out of Vermont that will be with me in theater, so an absolutely superb opportunity to build relationships that will be used in theater. 

The other great thing about the 101st going back into Afghanistan to follow the 82nd is that General Scaparrotti has provide a great number of SMEs, or subject military experts, that come back here to Fort Campbell to help apply the lessons learned they’ve seen during the rotation.  And they’ve been absolutely invaluable.  So to General “Scap” and his folks, we really appreciate that.   

But they’re here for us for two weeks.  They’re showing us the latest TTPs [Tactics, Techniques and Procedures], the processes that they go through.  And this will prove invaluable as we continue to rotate between the 101st and 82nd. 

We’re going to take over RC-East [Regional Command-East].  As you know, that’s 14 different provinces, 159 districts.  We’ll continue to try to maintain the momentum that the 82nd has had working with their Afghan national security forces.   

The biggest change since the 101st was there last June is three things:  One is you have a new commander in ISAF [International Security Assistance Force]; you have an entirely new headquarters at IJC [ISAF Joint Command] with General Rodriguez; and then the civilian uptick in all the country, but especially RC-East where I think it’s leading the way, I’ll have a co-lead senior civilian personnel currently from USAID that will work with me in RC-East.  So I think that’s critical to continue to build the governance and the development of the Afghan people there, and I really look forward to it. 

But would welcome any of your questions and stand by for that. Thanks. 

MR. TURNER:  Okay.  Thank you.

Bob. 

To view this press briefing in its entirety, please click here.

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