Small Wars Journal

What it's Like to Serve in the Army’s New Adviser Brigade

Fri, 02/23/2018 - 12:23am

What it's Like to Serve in the Army’s New Adviser Brigade by Meghann Myers - Army Times

FORT POLK, La. — The Army has been training, advising and assisting foreign partner nations for the better part of a century.

But in 2017, for the first time, the service announced that it would stand up an all-volunteer brigade for noncommissioned officers and post-command officers to spend two or three years training and deploying for that mission only.

The Army offered a handful of cash and administrative incentives, but for many, the chance to share and sharpen their skills — and deploy — was motivation enough.

“My personal interest and loves are culture and language,” Capt. Christopher Hawkins, the executive officer of C Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, told Army Times on Jan. 18. “The way this was pitched is, this is a way to marry that tactical experience with language and culture, to a bigger extent than you would in a typical deployment.”

The plan resembled a handful of forebears, like the Security Force Advisory and Assistance Teams and the Military Transition Teams of earlier years, temporary solutions that gave many soldiers a taste of combat advising as a job…

Read on.