Intelligence Specialists

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Comment by Jim Clemente on October 28, 2011 at 6:44am

I wish I were there to see this

Comment by Gil on October 27, 2011 at 10:20pm

Comment by Gil on October 27, 2011 at 10:14pm

Boarding team training offers simulated stress

 

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Oct 23, 2011 9:09:00 EDT

NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. — The Middle Eastern crew haltingly approached the helmeted, heavily armed men who’d climbed aboard their boat. The sailors ordered them to stop. After a brief standoff, the impasse softened and although just one of the four men spoke English, greetings and handshakes were exchanged.

The good feelings slowly ebbed as several members of the visit, board, search and seizure team climbed a ladder to the bridge to question the boat’s master. Other team members began searching compartments. On the main deck, a Navy intelligence specialist softly but insistently questioned the English-speaking engineer.

Some of the crewmen, loosely corralled by the armed sailors, tried to drift away and see what the others were up to, but were urged back. One crewman gestured to a sailor that he liked a piece of gear clipped to the sailor’s black combat vest, then raised his eyebrows and playfully rubbed his fingers together in the universal request to make a transaction. “Not for sale,” the sailor coldly replied. His tone — and lowered but brandished rifle — were clearly aimed at keeping the crewman at bay.

Finally, the word was quietly passed to the sailors guarding the crewmen: contraband — guns and drugs — had been found stashed aboard. The intel specialist turned to the engineer: “Sir, we just need you to lay down on the deck for awhile. We found some weapons on board. They may or may not belong to you.”

Two of the four crewmen raised their hands upward in frustration. “Why?” Angry words in Arabic followed. The intel specialist softened the command. “If I could just get you to get along the wall,” he said calmly, motioning for the men to kneel down in the shade of the port side deck wall.

An evaluator from Expeditionary Training Group interrupted. After some quick coaching, the scenario resumed, and the sailors became more assertive.

The request became an order to face the wall. The first two were stood up facing the sea, aggressively searched, cuffed and led off. At that point, the training was halted and a “hot wash,” or after-action review, ensued.

Visit, board, search and seizure, or VBSS, is a key component of maritime interdiction operations in which Navy ships are directed to intercept and inspect vessels suspected of carrying terrorists or terrorist-related material. The sailors taking part in the Oct. 13 training, all assigned to the Mayport, Fla.-based cruiser Vicksburg, had each gone through VBSS training with the Center for Security Forces in Mayport.

First time out

For the boarding of Landing Craft Utility 1657, at the far south end of Naval Station Norfolk, it was the first time those sailors had performed the mission as a group.

Naturally, there were some operational hiccups — not all on the team itself.

“This is Warship 69,” a woman’s voice intoned over the master’s radio, identifying the Vicksburg. “Our boarding team is en route to your vessel [arriving in] approximately five minutes, over.”

The master, a rugged-faced actor convincingly playing the role, looked out at the rigid-hulled inflatable boat speeding past a few dozen yards off his port side. “Roger, Warship 69,” he said in a droll, heavily accented voice. “They’re already here. Over.”

The team had received word that the vessel was carrying weapons and drugs and asked for permission to come aboard to conduct a “health and safety” inspection. Once on scene, the boarding began without incident. But the team’s boarding officer said the sudden approach of the crew members was unexpected.

“In an ideal situation, the crew’s mustered on the fo’c’sle, and they stay there,” said Lt. j.g. Jordan Bradford, normally the Vicksburg’s assistant weapons officer. “But these guys were coming to greet us ... they weren’t being aggressive but immediately, the dynamic had changed. ... We’re assuming that they’re friendly, but we don’t know for certain. So there was sort of an adrenaline rush ... and it took an effort to stop for a second and just think through everything.”

Operations Specialist Seaman Justin Rodriguez said he loved that rush.

“I wanted to jump into action as soon as I got on board,” Rodriguez said.

Pushing the ‘pucker factor’

He said that facing off with the foreign actors made for a high degree of realism. One of them — the crewman who tried to negotiate a sale — was particularly animated, at one point wordlessly mocking the sailors, shaking his hand back and forth and intimating that they were scared.

“It almost got me frustrated, realistically,” Rodriguez said. “He did a pretty good job.”

Trainers aim to create scenarios that will induce that sort of stress and “effectively simulate what they’re actually going to feel when they actually do deploy, so we reduce that pucker factor a little bit — so that the teams are comfortable, they’re professional, they’re knowledgeable, and they know exactly what force protection and self-defense measures they have to take to minimize those particular threats,” said Capt. Michael Napolitano, commander of Expeditionary Training Group, based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Va.

The VBSS team leader thought his young team performed pretty well. “I was very happy with the communications throughout the team,” Bradford said. “Keeping the boarding officer informed of everything that the team was encountering, both in engineering and in the ‘street’ team.”

Bradford also praised the team’s junior members, “showing everything they learned in school and also speaking up to the more senior members, letting them know what needed to be done.”

What needs work, he said, is the team’s interaction with foreign crews, and its nonverbal communication skills. “That was probably the biggest challenge for us — getting used to people who don’t speak English and interacting with them,” Bradford said.

In addition, Bradford acknowledged the perceptive evaluator’s training interruption, saying the team needs to work on establishing a stronger presence. “We still had the crew under control,” he said. But evaluators “wanted to see us have a little more control, have everyone secured.”

Part of the reason, Bradford said, was that this was the VBSS team’s first time working with an attached intelligence exploitation team — Navy Expeditionary Combat Command intelligence specialists who performed most of the questioning.

“It’s a fine line that we have to kind of practice,” Bradford said. “There was a little bit of getting used to, how far do you go to protect yourself, the safety of your boarding team members, without damaging the rapport the IET guys have already established?”

Comment by Jim Clemente on October 22, 2011 at 10:31pm

Hiya Gil, no I do not speak Spanish. Google transaltion. I had a program for a while that did many languages but it was getting expensive so I let it laspe. I'm a WOP from Brooklyn, and if you look at my friends list on Facebook you will see many people from PR there. Good ole Bedford Styversant, mostly Puerto Rican with the rest all mixed. Honestly, there was a time where I knew quite a bit, but being away from the old neighborhood I lost a lot. What I miss most about NY is the food. Definately NOT the same here in Maryland.

Comment by Gil on October 22, 2011 at 9:40pm

Jim, gracias mi amigo!!  Man, you're like a box of chocolate..you never know what you're going to get...lol..full of surprises!  So are you using google to translate or you actually speak Spanish..you even marked the accents..wow!

Comment by Jim Clemente on October 22, 2011 at 9:35pm

Hola Gil, y feliz sábado para ti. Veo que otro grupo comenzó bien, los Padres latinos. Le deseo mucho éxito con él,
Jim                           

Comment by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on October 22, 2011 at 9:32pm

Arrrrrrrrrgh........

Comment by Gil on October 22, 2011 at 9:30pm

Comment by Jim Clemente on October 21, 2011 at 8:38pm

Honestly Gil, I am tired of our military being used as the worlds police force. And our coward in chief bashing Bush for the wars "he" started, then goes on an eight month bombing run in Libya. But saying that, I am not sure if that or the fact that France took the lead role in this action upsets me most. Now let's see if Libya actually becomes a Republic/Democracy or another radical muslim country. Just look what is happening in Egypt

Comment by Gil on October 21, 2011 at 7:06pm

Lol!!  Ok Jim, how much money for those kind words!!  I don't have a fat wallet, just in case. 

So we got the crazy bast..d from Libya.  Another one down..many others more to go..Hooyah to our Intelligence guys!  Have a nice weekend "SPOOKY" Dads

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