Constructive planning
By Lt Kris Gardiner

IT WAS every soldier’s nightmare. An angry crowd baying for blood after a small child was crippled by an armoured vehicle.
But no one was actually hurt that day and the “child” was actually a woman in her mid-20s.

This was not a small rural village under conflict, but a simulation created for Exercise Afghan Dusk - a rehearsal for a very real deployment to Afghanistan.

Roadside bombs, the Taliban and TV crews challenged soldiers from Reconstruction Task Force 2 during a mission rehearsal exercise (MRE) at Wide Bay Training Area.

This corner of Queensland became Oruzgan Province for seven days, populated by soldiers who role-played Afghan citizens, Taliban and the Dutch Army.

Visiting Dutch officer Major Auke Krakau De Jong was impressed by the soldiers’ professionalism.
“The Australians did a very good thing when you see how they re-enact everything,” Maj Krakau De Jong said.

“They put a lot of effort into making the villages and even dressing soldiers in our uniforms - it’s great to see.”

Soldiers destined for Afghanistan as part of the RTF made daily forays to the simulated villages of Shan Mansur and Baluchi.

Patrolling and clearing improvised explosive devices, the Kevlar-clad diggers in ASLAV and Bushmaster convoys were baked in heat and dust.

The Townsville-based Combat Training Centre runs highly realistic and demanding MREs for battle groups deploying on operations.

Afghan Dusk director Lt-Col John Simeoni said the exercise replicated what forces could expect in-country.

“The MRE is basically the culminating collective training event for the RTF before they go to Afghanistan,” Lt-Col Simeoni said.
MREs are constantly updated and tailored to suit each deployment, and the current Taliban threat was written into the Afghan Dusk scenario.

New Zealand, the US and Dutch, exchange officers enriched the MRE with their own perspectives and experiences.
US officer Lt-Col Colin Fortier has been posted to the CTC for two years and called the MRE concept a capstone event of individual and collective training.

“The MRE is almost more important here than in the US as a lot of the task groups Australia puts together aren’t usually units that perform together,” Lt-Col Fortier said.