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Transition into the mission By Lt. Col. North Charles
The ADT III member, Master Sgt. Lilliman, Dr. Gary Hart, USDA, and Staff Sgt. Robert Pharris, an agriculture specialist with ADT IV, meet with community leaders from Rodat District to discuss a solar well project that was completed by ADT III, as part of the Advance Party “right seat ride” conducted in Nangarhar Province.
United States has been rotating armed forces in and out of the current overseas contingency operations since 2002. Over these eight years, the Army has developed a fairly robust set of procedures for preparing and transitioning units. Previous editions of The Muleskinner discussed the preparation – the PreDeployment Site Survey, Pre-Mobilization Training and PostMobilization Training – required to prepare a unit for operations overseas.
T hr ee separ at e and distinct elements make up the transition phase. The first component is an Advance Detachment. The second element is a Relief-In-Place. The final phase is a Transfer Of Authority. All Army units – Active
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Component, Reserve and National Guard – follow these same procedures. T h e Ad va n c e Detachment‘s task is to prepare for the arrival of the main body. Lt. Col. North Charles, Capt.Ken Huenink, Sgt.1st Class Damon Gates, Sgt. 1st Class Dean Travis, Staff Sgt. Keith Reynolds and Staff Sgt. Bob Pharris s e r ve d a s A DT IV ‘ s Advance Detachment. ADT IV‘s Advance Detachment departed Camp Atterbury on July 19 at 2 a.m. EST. On July 25, following stops in Louisville, Ky.; Dallas; Germany; Kuwait; and Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan; the Advance Detachment eventually arri ved at Forward Operating Base Finley-Shields. The Advance Detachment worked alongside ADT III to inventory property, learn the most current Tactics, Techniques and Procedures and, by way of video teleconference, share these up-to-date lessons with the Main Body, which was still participating in training at Camp Atterbury. The next phase in a typical unit transition is the Relief In Place. During a RIP, the incoming unit
accompanies the outgoing unit on missions. This is frequently referred to as t he ―r i ght seat r i de‖ meaning the incoming unit rides in the passenger seat while the outgoing unit drives. As the RIP progresses the outgoing unit t r ansit i ons mor e and more responsibility for the mission to the incoming unit. This is sometimes called the ―left seat ride‖ as the incoming unit takes over driving responsibilities, figuratively speaking. A typical RIP overlap can be as short as five days and as long as ten days, depending on the complexity of the mission, capability of the FOB to handle surge h o u s i n g , a n d transportation of incoming and outgoing troops. Due to transportation scheduling issues, ADT IV had no RIP with ADT III. To mitigate this shortfall, ADT III formed a Rear Detachment of 11 Soldiers and Airmen to remain at FOB FinleyShields to conduct an abbreviated RIP. Additonally, the commander, senior enlisted advisor and the (Continued on page 4)