The program has expanded as our mission in the war theater has expanded. When Agent M. first went to Afghanistan, the few agents there mostly provided expertise to the military.
But now, working through our legal attaché program in coordination with the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bureau is involved with just about every kind of investigation in the war theater that we carry out domestically, from public corruption and kidnapping cases to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction matters.
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“What we strive for with pre-deployment training is that you shouldn't see or hear anything in country that you haven't already seen or heard here first."
Rick M.
Special Agent
Pre-Deployment Training Program |
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“We've given this training to agents, analysts, linguists, IT specialists—you name the discipline, they've come through the class,” he said.
Since the pre-deployment program was officially established at the end of 2004, hundreds of Bureau personnel have benefited from the instruction.
“For the FBI folks who raise their hand to go into a war zone,” Agent M. said, “we owe it to them to provide the most applicable and relevant training possible prior to their deployment.” |
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Next: Day 1 of Training
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/may10/predeploy_052810.html
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Nearly 70 men and women participate in the two-week pre-deployment training in Utah. View Photo Gallery |
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INTO THE WAR THEATER
Pre-Deployment Training, Day 1
06/04/10
The conference room in our Salt Lake City Field Office was filled with FBI employees who had traveled from around the country to be there. The nearly 70 men and women assembled had a variety of different skills and backgrounds, but they all shared one thing in common—they would soon be deploying to a war zone.
This was Day 1 of a special two-week pre-deployment training program created by our International Operations Division for Bureau personnel preparing for assignments in Afghanistan and Iraq. One of the first orders of business was for everyone to stand up, introduce themselves, and explain where they would be going and what job they would be doing there. The responses were testimony to our expanding role in the war theater.
One by one, special agents, intelligence analysts, and other support employees—all of whom had volunteered—described their assignments and their specialties: analysts collecting intelligence on terrorist networks, investigators heading to our task forces on major crimes and corruption, and Evidence Response Team members, polygraph examiners, bomb techs, |
Human Intelligence officers, biometrics experts, and others who would be involved in counterterrorism work too sensitive to mention.
“The terrorists are planning and plotting,” James McTighe, special agent in charge of our Salt Lake City office, told the group. “And make no mistake: they will continue their concerted efforts to kill our people. That's why your jobs on the front lines of the war zone—at the tip of the spear—are so critical.”
“You are going to be in a dangerous place,” added Special Agent Pete O., a veteran of multiple overseas deployments and one of the training program's managers. “But it will also be one of the most satisfying missions you will ever undertake for the Bureau.”
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Throughout the day, students received briefings from a variety of instructors who had been to the war zone and could speak from experience.
There was no sugar-coating about how difficult and demanding conditions could be.
Afghanistan—about the size of Texas—is not only dangerous because of terrorists and suicide bombers. Mountain ranges rise more than 20,000 feet above sea level while summer temperatures in the desert regularly exceed 110 degrees.
And because the country lacks modern amenities, the threat of diseases like tuberculosis and hepatitis can be just as deadly as enemy fire.
Learning to be flexible, to work under stress, and—above all—to stay safe in an unsafe environment would be constant themes during the next two weeks of 10- and 12-hour days.
Instructional components would move from classroom presentations to practice drills to outdoor role-playing scenarios with more stress and complexity progressively added at each level.
Some of those scenarios—drawn from real situations—would include simulated al Qaeda and Taliban attacks complete with realistic facsimiles of improvised explosives devices, rocket propelled grenades, and small-arms fire.
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“Our FBI personnel overseas are going to be working long hours, seven days a week,” said Special Agent Dave S., one of the program's managers.
“We hope our people will never have to contend with the situations they will face in training."
Dave S.
Special Agent
Pre-Deployment Training Program |
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“This training is only two weeks, but it's rigorous and demanding—both mentally and physically. We hope our people will never have to contend with the situations they will face in training,” he added, “but we are preparing them in case they do.”
Next: Crawl, Walk, Run.
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june10/predeploy_060410.html |
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In a war zone, the tactical aspect of trauma care is critical. Before being able to rescue and treat the wounded, students learned how to keep themselves safe by establishing a defensible security perimeter. View Photo Gallery |
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INTO THE WAR THEATER
Learning How to Save Lives
06/08/10
High in the rugged mountains outside Salt Lake City, FBI personnel preparing for assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan took their seats at rows of long tables inside a no-frills training facility and studied the first aid kits and CPR dummies in front of them. They were about to get a crash course in how to save a life.
“We're here to teach you how to do the right thing if something bad happens,” said Paul Vecchio, a retired Army Special Forces combat medic who was leading a group of instructors from the Medical College of Georgia.
“During the next few days we are going to give you valuable information we hope you never have to use.”
Tactical combat casualty care—far more advanced than routine first aid techniques—is an essential component of pre-deployment training. Students learn how to apply tourniquets, open airways, and quickly assess and treat serious injuries under battlefield conditions.
“If you're driving in Kabul and your vehicle is blown up by an IED, you don't have to be a doctor or have one there to keep someone alive until help comes,” Vecchio said.
The medical training is so realistic that students learning how to properly insert a needle to re-inflate a collapsed lung could feel actual tissue and bone because instructors inserted a rack of raw beef ribs inside the chest cavity of one of the plastic dummies. |
As they practiced using tourniquets in a quiet, lighted classroom, some students were surprised to hear one instructor's guarantee that before the training was over, they would accomplish the same task with one hand, in the dark, while under simulated enemy attack—and be able to do it in a matter of seconds.
It's all part of the “crawl, walk, run” approach the entire pre-deployment training program is based upon.
“Right now,” said Special Agent Dave S., one of the training program's managers, “we're crawling, learning basic principles like putting on a tourniquet, putting on a splint, checking airways. As we add layers of complexity and more stress to the drills, that's when we ‘walk' and ultimately ‘run'.”
“If you're driving in Kabul and your vehicle is blown up by an IED, you don't have to be a doctor or have one there to keep someone alive until help comes."
Paul Vecchio
Instructor
Pre-Deployment Training Program |
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“Walking”—and some dragging—began the next day on a cold and snowy morning. The class spent most of the day outside, repeating a variety of drills to hone their new skills. Some of those skills were being practiced on 185-pound, full-sized dummies. Often, the dummies needed to be dragged, sometimes by only one person, from attack scenarios to safety before teams could assess and treat their injuries.
In a war zone, the tactical aspect of trauma care is critical. Before being able to rescue and treat the wounded, students learned how to keep themselves safe by establishing a security perimeter and laying down suppressive fire if necessary. |
As everyone took turns being the lead medic or team leader, instructors—doctors and experienced combat medics themselves—monitored all the action, offering advice and providing additional challenges.
During the drills, instructors were seldom without squirt bottles filled with fake blood. If a tourniquet was not put on a dummy correctly or an injury was missed during the assessment phase, instructors would keep squirting blood around the wound until the correct care was given—only then would the “bleeding” stop.
“Next week we'll put students in an even more stressful environment, with people shooting at them,” Agent S. said. “We keep applying stress so that they can repeat these techniques instinctively. In an emergency situation,” he added, “a few seconds can mean the difference between life and death.”
Next: Making a Contribution
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june10/predeploy_060810.html
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A student inserts a needle into a "victim's" chest to re-inflate a collapsed lung.
View Photo Gallery |
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INTO THE WAR THEATER
Making a Contribution
07/01/10
Special Agent Pat S. stood before the pre-deployment training class and spoke in great detail about our counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan. He wasn't using notes because the material was fresh in his mind—it had been only 10 days since he returned from Kabul.
Agent S. completed the pre-deployment training course in 2007 before his first assignment in theater, and now he was back as an instructor.
“Less than two weeks after a four-and-a-half-month deployment, I was able to give our people almost real-time information about the counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan,” he said. “The environment there changes very rapidly, so to be able to provide that kind of current information is very valuable.”
One of the strengths of the pre-deployment training course is that most of the instructors—and everyone who manages the program—have had firsthand experience in the war zone and can offer “ground truth” to those who are about to deploy.
Agent S., who served as an assistant legal attaché in Kabul during his most recent deployment, reiterated what many had said before him about conditions in Afghanistan—the air quality is poor, the food can be dicey, and Bureau personnel there regularly work long hours seven days a week.
“But there's no question,” he added, “that this assignment has been the best in my career and given me the highest sense of accomplishment. Many of my peers feel the same way.” |
When the 9/11 attacks occurred, Agent S. was working narcotics cases on a task force in New York City. The task force office, located near the World Trade Center, was destroyed during the attacks. “From that point forward,” he said, “I felt a very strong sense of purpose about our counterterrorism mission and have been working Afghanistan and Pakistan matters ever since.”
Many in the pre-deployment training class volunteered for war-theater assignments for similar reasons. “If you work counterterrorism,” one agent said, “that's where you can make a major contribution.” Some younger analysts and agents who joined the Bureau after 9/11 said they felt it was their patriotic duty to volunteer for assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Others in the class have children currently serving overseas in the armed forces and want to support the military's efforts. One agent said he volunteered in the hopes that his work might help hasten the day when all our troops could come home.
“In a variety of ways,” Agent S. said, “there is a significant opportunity for our people to contribute in theater to help protect the lives of soldiers and other Americans, Western interests, as well as Afghans or Iraqis.”
Special Agent Rick M., one of the pre-deployment training program's managers and a veteran of multiple deployments to Afghanistan, put it another way: “All of us become FBI agents because we want to make an impact and serve our country. This is a great opportunity for our people to get experience on the front lines of the counterterrorism mission.”
Agent S. found the pre-deployment training very helpful in that regard. “When you have already mentally rehearsed all these scenarios, heard the military terminology, and have an idea of what the daily tempo will be like, it's a lot less you have to learn when you get there.”
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/july10/predeploy_070110.html
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INTO THE WAR THEATER
Staying Out of Harm's Way
07/06/10
The two-car convoy was moving slowly down a narrow mountain road when suddenly there was a loud bang. An explosion struck the first vehicle, and it was immediately enveloped by smoke.
Realizing that the first vehicle had been hit by an improvised explosive device (IED), agents in the second car prepared to get their wounded teammates to safety—but they soon had problems of their own. Emerging from their SUV, they were ambushed from the tree line. Small-arms fire in the form of bright red and yellow paintballs pelted the doors and windows of both vehicles, and the agents were forced to take cover and return fire before trying to rescue the injured. |
The IED, though loud and smoky, was simulated, and the paintballs were not deadly—although they could easily raise a stinging welt on the skin. But the scenario along that narrow mountain road was real enough: the convoy was under attack and in trouble.
In the war theater, there is no telling how or when the enemy might mount an attack. It could be an IED or a sniper ambush. It might be planned in advance or a spur-of-the-moment assault. Either way, knowing how to react is critical to surviving.
“First and foremost, we teach our people how to stay out of harm's way,” said Special Agent Rick M., one of the pre-deployment training program managers. “But because we are operating in a war zone, we also train for worst-case scenarios.”
The best way to stay safe is by exercising situational awareness—assessing and understanding your surroundings at all times. During the training program, instructors, some fresh from in-country deployments, offered firsthand information to students on how to avoid dangerous situations and how to react if attacked. Real-world examples from Iraq and Afghanistan—some with deadly outcomes—underscored the importance of these lessons.
“If you find yourself in danger or under attack,” Agent M. said, “the first rule is to react quickly and get out of harm's way.”
The convoy attack and several other scenarios that were run on the next-to-last day of the pre-deployment course combined all the medical, firearms, and tactical training students had learned during the program. Now their skills were being put to the test under the most difficult of circumstances.
“If you come under attack,” Agent M. said, “you know you have to act, but you need to remember everything that you're supposed to do. You have all your equipment that you must maintain possession of and not leave behind. You have your fellow agents in your car, some of whom may be wounded, and you have people in the woods shooting at you. It's a difficult situation.”
After each scenario, instructors briefed students on what they did well and where there was room for improvement. In two short weeks, the class had gained an impressive set of skills—knowledge that could save their lives or help them save someone else's life ( see video ).
“The whole point of pre-deployment training,” Agent M. said, “is that when our people go into theater, they can deal with whatever situation is presented and get out as safely as possible with everybody intact. Safety is always our primary goal.”
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/july10/predeploy_070610.html |
