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Headquarters Allied Force Command Heidelberg Headquarters Allied Force Command Heidelberg Newsletter Newsletter

Congratulations to every member of Al-lied Force Command Heidelberg (FCHD) who contributed to the successful Com-b a t R e a d i n e s s Evaluation (CREVAL) of the Allied Rapid React ion Corps (ARRC). The FCHD CREVAL team accom-plished the objective of providing a thor-ough and profes-sional review of the ARRC’s capabilities in both phases of the CREVAL. The positive evaluation and feedback provided to the ARRC is critical to the Corps’ future mission as the Land Component Command (LCC) for the 2013 NATO Response Force (NRF).

FCHD continues to stand ready to execute mis-

sion if called. With only two more months in our 2012 NRF stand-by period, it is imperative to maintain vigilance and remain prepared to re-spond to the unexpected in this uncertain world.

FCHD’s transition to the Stand-Up Team (SUT)

in Izmir remains on schedule. Congratulations to all who have worked directly with the SUT and those who have provided valuable support from Heidelberg so the SUT is successful in its activa-tion of the new Land Command on November 30th. The collective efforts of the FCHD staff are appreciated.

Farewells and “lasts” have become the order

of the day as the headquarters looks forward to deactivation and closure. This is expected and each of us will carry special memories of Heidel-berg with us as we depart for other exciting mis-sions. With that said, maximize your opportunities to take advantage of the remaining time in this wonderful region.

And, as you do, stay safe and enjoy your holi-

days!

FCHD Contributes to Successful ARRC CREVAL

Commander’s Corner

C O N T E N T S :

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Maj.Gen. Michel Stollsteiner and LTG John W. Morgan III sign the CREVAL Final Evaluation Report declaring the Combat Readiness status of the ARRC Oct. 11.

At Royal Air Force base St. Mawgan, four kilometers from Cornwall England’s rocky Atlantic coastline, hundreds of military members listened carefully to Lt. Gen. James Bucknall, commander of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Oct. 6 during a morning brief on the eve of an operation.

His guidance sounds like what he might say if he were deployed on foreign soil but it is part of an exer-cise called Noble Ledger that ran until Oct. 12th. It was the ARRC’s Field Inspection for the Combat Readiness Evaluation or CREVAL. He knew that within a week his unit would be deemed Combat Ready or Not Ready by LTG John W. Morgan III, the CREVAL Team Leader and Commander of Allied Force Command Heidelberg (FCHD) along with Maj.Gen. Michel Stollsteiner, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE’s) Senior Monitor.

Lt. Gen. Bucknall’s staff had to first pass NATO’s criteria for all the tasks the headquarters might per-form. Among those listening were dozens of current and former members of Allied Force Command Hei-delberg who deployed to the U.K. to evaluate or par-ticipate in training. (continued page 3)

FCHD Contributes to Successful ARRC CREVAL 01, 03-04

Senior Enlisted Corner 02

Closure Corner 05

Civil Disaster Response Planning Workshop 06

Training / Holidays/ NSC Calendars 07

FSC Corner 08-09

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Senior Enlisted Leader Corner

“Four brave people who don’t know each other

wouldn’t frankly try to attack a lion. Four less

brave people, but who know each other well,

sure of their solidarity and thus of their mutual

support, would go with determination.”

SOLIDARITY :

Service in NATO entails promoting the highest levels of trust and confi-dence in our integrity, impartiality, loyalty, accountability and profession-alism.

These five core values – and the principles that exemplify them – form the basis of the NATO code of conduct, which guides all staff civilian or mili-tary, in all NATO bodies. But I would like to highlight another value which occurs to me : “solidarity”.

“Solidarity” is a word which comes from the French “solidarité”, from Latin “solidum” (whole sum), which has its roots in “solidus”, meaning “solid”.

Solidarity is a feeling which urges people to grant themselves mutual support, either by moral duty, or because a community of interests exists between them. We can be united around a common goal or against a common enemy. It also means the willingness to give psychological and/or material support when another person is in a difficult position or needs affection. The greater the average proportion of each member’s private resources contributed to collective ends, the greater the solidarity of the group.

Solidarity is one of the values civilians allocate to soldiers along with the team spirit or “esprit de corps”. As soon as he joins his regiment the new recruit learns that a soldier is never alone. For a deployed soldier it is vital to be able to rely on his teammates at any time and whatever happens. Never abandon a colleague, over-come obstacles and difficulties together, share everything … good times and bad times. These principles inspire the necessary mutual confidence.

This year’s Chicago Summit declaration (May 2012) stated once more that our Alliance is based on solidarity, cohesion and indivisibility. As soon as it adheres to the North Atlantic Treaty a nation knows that, with Art. 3 and Art. 5 mainly, it can rely on his Allies. How could NATO fulfill its three essential core tasks : collective defense, crisis management and cooperative security, if its member nations didn’t provide continuous and effective support and mutual aid ?

Solidarity involves commitment and work as well as the recognition that even if we don’t have the same feelings or the same lives, we do belong to the same Alli-ance and the same Headquarters. So, solidarity comes from solid, and although we are deactivating, let us strengthen the solidarity that binds us together.

ADC Fabien LeCamus, FCHD Senior Enlisted Leader

Serving the military, civilians and family members of

Headquarters Allied Force Command Heidelberg

LTG John W. Morgan III, Commander

Lt. Col. Götz Haffke

Lt. Col. Randy Martin

Editors

Lt. Col. Cyrille Zimmer

Assistant Editor

Maj. Peter Mientus

Assistant Editor

Capt. Tamara Gonzales

Assistant Editor

Adj. Aurélie Auzas

Layout and Design

Staff Sgt. Dwight Chaney

Visit our website at

www.nato.int/fchd

Like us at Facebook:

Headquarters Allied Force

Command Heidelberg

D I S C L O S U R E :

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For a few, like Maj. Gen. Richard Rossmanith, the Chief of Staff, it was a return trip to England and follow-on from an earlier, In Bar-racks phase. Maj. Gen. Rossmanith summarized a change in view-point characteristic of the more tactical setting at an address to the ARRC’s senior leaders.

“Before, everything centred on the evaluation team but now eve-rything is centred on you. As we observe, we are invisible,” Maj. Gen. Rossmanith said.

When that meeting ended, the ARRC’s leadership went back to work. Fatigue already showed from long days of wrestling with difficult issues.

The training scenario presented a crisis in the Baltic region and required the ARRC to simulate deployment to a NATO country. It’s a situation the ARRC could see again for real after it begins year-long duty as NATO’s Response Force in January. In the exercise the crisis could easily go from bad to worse if the ARRC wasn’t careful in response.

Riots were portrayed on the simulated television news. There were limited supplies that slowed the movement of digital soldiers in the computer model. There were threats from a hostile neighbour requir-ing defensive measures. And there was an ever-present risk of foreign sponsored terrorists and other difficulties.

One logistician from FCHD’s Joint Logistics Support Group, Maj. Pav-lina Cebakova monitored the ARRC’s status in a grand control room less than a kilometre from the ARRC’s own tented headquarters. She was one of seven Allied Force Command Heidelberg members who were participating in the higher control or HICON.

Her role was to check the ARRC’s supply status reports continuously as she might do for a real deployment. She also contributed to the training events in the exercise. She said that she inserted an experi-ence from her service with the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan so she could help train the ARRC’s own JLSG.

“A contractor was prohibited from entering the host country and the JLSG had to use their lawyer and resolve the problem.” Maj. Ce-bakova said. She had an opportunity to visit the ARRC’s newly organ-ized logistics unit and talk to its multinational members. “Communication was difficult but we worked it out,” Maj. Cebakova said.

Allied Force Command Heidelberg evaluators like Maj. Andreas Birk-hoff were positioned to check the reaction of ARRC counterparts. When the ARRC demonstrated proficiency for one of NATO’s Perform-ance Measures (PM), evaluators acknowledged the success.

“They have good working processes and if a problem comes along, they will be able to deal with it,” Maj. Birkhoff said. As one of 27 evaluators he focused on Information Operations, his specialty in FCHD, while the others looked at administration, operations, logistics and civil/military operations to name a few.

Maj. Peter Delong, Lt. Col. David Vautor, and Lt. Col. Frank Diener review performance measures with counterparts inside the ARRC's Main Com-mand Post.

FCHD Contributes to Successful ARRC CREVAL

Article by Lt. Col. Randy Martin, FCHD PAO Photos by Staff Sgt. Dwight Chaney, FCHD PAO Photographer

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FCHD Contributes to Successful ARRC CREVAL

Lt. Col. Rick Somers, the ARRC’s Civil Military Cooperation planner was hurrying through the command post’s maze of tents midway through the exercise. The CREVAL was a reunion for him with colleagues he’d served with during five previous years assigned to Allied Force Command Heidelberg.

He said that the CREVAL was an opportunity to display com-petencies, check systems and processes and bond with his new unit. “I’m surrounded by sharp people that expect the best from you,” Lt. Col. Somers said. “It’s a great experience coming to the ARRC to apply some of the things I learned in Heidelberg.”

Another former member of FCHD was visiting England from Izmir, Turkey. Lt. Col. Martin Schultz is now a Staff Officer on the Stand-Up Team for the future Land Command. As part of a larger group of Student Evaluators, he was at the core of a team that may execute CREVAL next year after FCHD is inacti-vated.

“We are here to observe the CREVAL process and learn from it,” said Lt. Col. Schultz. “It will become one of the main tasks of the Land Command.”

Finally, after months of preparation by both the ARRC and the CREVAL team from Heidelberg, LTG Morgan was satisfied that the ARRC had demonstrated that it met NATO’s stan-dards.

Noble Ledger ended and members of the ARRC and Allied Force Command Heidelberg turned their attention to their next missions.

Maj. Pavlina Cebakova, one of seven members assigned to HICON from Allied Force Command Heidelberg checks the ARRC's daily supply status reports.

“It will become one of the main

tasks of the Land Command.”

Maj. Gen. Richard Rossmanith addresses the ARRC's leadership and CREVAL Team on Oct. 6 during a morning brief.

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Closure Planning Phase (01 Jan 13 — 01 Apr 13)

During this phase, after the end of the NRF period, FCHD will no longer perform operational tasks. The support to the future LANDCOM will be the main focus. Activities in preparation of closure will only be subordinated to transition activities. All other framework activities being executed will have less priority and will need to be carefully de-conflicted with the preparation of closure. All activities described during the previous phase will continue to be executed.

Closure Execution Phase (01 Apr 13 — NLT 31 Dec 13)

The HD CP will be officially activated under SHAPE line of Command as the only NCS working structure in Heidelberg after FCHD deactivation.

To conclude, feel involved and be involved at your own level, it will contribute to the closure party mission and will facilitate your departure.

Everybody knows it: Allied Force Command Heidelberg will de-activate on April 1st 2013 and close no later than December of the same year. The FC HD closure working group was created to ensure everyone is prepared for this transition.

Who are we?

The working group is composed of a permanent body (Core Team) of six members and appointed representatives from the functional areas, working groups and cells/divisions which have a stake in the closure process.

The Core Team responsibility is to coordinate the closure activities both internally and externally (SHAPE, Host Nation, etc)

Who are we going to be?

After de-activation, the core team will join the Closure Party Peacetime Establishment (CPPE), comprised of 65 persons plus some additional NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) representatives. The CPPE will activate no later than April 1st under the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE).

The group will provide different resources including coordina-tion, security and force protection, human resources, logistics, infrastructure and real life support, communications and infor-mation services and finance.

What about closure phases?

Closure activities are divided into 3 phases:

Closure Planning Phase (08 Aug 12 — 31 Dec 12)

During this phase, FCHD is still a fully operational command within the NCS. Current operations and missions have priority over the closure process. Nevertheless, routine activities with a special focus in closure have been identified by the HCWG and have been/will continue to be supported by the rest of FCHD as, for example: Out-processing of departing personnel, vaca-tion of empty offices, removal of unused materiel, shredding actions.

The Herald Post, published Thursdays, the garrison website: http://www.bw.eur.army.mil, and Town Halls remain the best sources of information about services affected by the inactivation of Patton Barracks and PHV.

Results from Garrison Closure Town Hall Meeting can be found at:

http://www.bw.eur.army.mil/news/personnel.htm

The Closure Corner

Article by Lt. Col Renaud Caudron Photo by Adj. Aurélie Auzas, FCHD PAO Multimedia Technician

Headquarters Closure Working Group during their weekly briefing Nov. 07.

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The Civil-Disaster Response Planning workshop

Fortna, a subject matter expert at the Civil and Military Plan-

ning and Support office of the Operations Directorate of NATO

HQ in Brussels, gave a lecture to illustrate how NATO does

disaster response and supports disaster relief operations at a

strategic level. Describing the specific tool SACEUR has in his

hand, the civil and military assessment liaison team (CMALT),

Mr. Fortna explained that the mission of this team is to quickly

provide SACEUR with an assessment of the needs and to coor-

dinate between OCHA, the host nation, and NATO assets. This

coordination will then be done using the Euro Atlantic Disaster

Response Coordination Center of NATO.

After these presentations, three FCHD members shared their

own experience during different disaster relief operations. The

conference allowed every OLRT member to better understand

how he can be deployed and the kind of mission and support

he can receive.

Thanks to the 1949 Treaty and if the 28 nations agree, NATO

doesn’t need a UN mandate to intervene or support a disaster

relief operation. From a discussion concerning OLRT prepared-

ness it is clear that the design of the team has to be tailored to

the kind of operation that is to be launched.

As a conclusion for the conference, Col. Chris Sorenson stated that the workshop was the last preparation step for the OLRT. Being a reconnaissance tool, the OLRT is almost ready to fulfill any kind of civil disaster response operation that NATO might support.

With the NATO Response Force mission comes the Operational

Liaison and Reconnaissance Team. The OLRT is the tool the

Deployable Joint Staff Element has, to assess the potential

need to deploy a DJSE when and where a crisis is ongoing. This

includes any kind of civil disaster relief operation that NATO

would launch in support of one of its members or in support of

a UN operation.

Force Command Heidelberg held a Civil-Disaster response

planning workshop on September the 25th and the 26th, in or-

der to determine whether the OLRT needs more training in that

area of its potential missions. OLRT members and a lot of other

FCHD members attended this workshop.

Maj. Gen. Richard Rossmanith, FCHD chief of staff, highlighted

that such an operation is less about life saving – that’s a job

done by the UN and some specialized and experienced govern-

mental organizations (GOs) as well as non-governmental organi-

zations (NGOs). It’s about consequence management.

NATO did launch operations. In 2006 the NRF was activated to

support Pakistan’s government after a dramatic earthquake. In

2005 air lift support was provided to the USA after Hurricane

Katrina. NATO always deployed some days or weeks after the

event and always in support of national assets already de-

ployed.

The audience enjoyed lectures given by two external experts.

Mr. Marco Corstjens, representing the UN Office for Coordina-

tion of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) explained the missions and

the means his agency has and deploys when a disaster occurs,

using military and civil assets. OCHA complies with the Oslo

Guidelines to manage disaster relief operations. Mr. David

Consequence management includes the cleaning of the streets to help deliver aid. This picture is provided by Lt. Col Pierre Tenailleau who

presented a lecture during the workshop about the disaster relief operations in Haiti, March 2010

Article by Lt. Col Cyrille Zimmer Photo by Lt. Col. Pierre Tenailleau

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Training Calendar

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DATE EVENTS

19—22 NOV JLSG Course in Prague

26—30 NOV LC SUT Visit

26—28 NOV 19th Doctrine and Procedures WG Meeting

27—29 NOV MTEP Programming Board

30 NOV Land Command Activation Ceremony

03 DEC COM’s Christmas Address

05 DEC FCHD End of Year Event

Holiday Calendar

DATE EVENTS

22 NOV US Thanksgiving

NSC Calendar

DATE EVENTS

06 NOV

Social Dance instruction and beer tasting

31Middle at 1900hrs

Cost: 10 Euros for members

16 Euros for non-members

27 NOV

Learn how to make and make your own

advent centerpiece

31Middle at 1900hrs

Cost: 10 Euros for members

16 Euros for non-members

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FSC Calendar

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References to departing families info

DATE

03 DEC

DATE EVENTS

12 DEC Baden-Baden Christmas Market

Registration required by 30 NOV 12

Announcement:

Out processing Booklets are still available at the Family Support Centre.

The Booklet contains lots of advice on how to get ready to out-process the right way. Please come by the FSC Office to pick up your copy. If you

need more information or further help please do not hesitate to contact the Family Support Centre for assistance.

DATE

21 NOV

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Information on German Christmas Markets/Christmas Events If you and your children are interested in doing something more different or special other than the “regular” Christmas Market visit

during this year’s Christmas Season, make sure to check out the following:

EUROPA PARK, Rust

Germany’s biggest winter wonderland. With numerous winter attractions, festive decorations and fascinating show programmes, Europa-Park is

definitely worth the trip. The whole park is immersed in beautiful Christmas decoration. There is also a big Christmas Market as well as a wonderful

Christmas Parade at the end of each. Please note that due to the weather conditions some of the rides may be closed. But there still remains a lot

to discover.

Winter Wonderland will take place from 24 November until 06 January 2013 (except 24/25 December 2012), opening times are from 11:00 –

19:00 each day. www.europapark.com

Triberger Weihnachtszauber 2012 (Triberg Christmas Magic 2012)

This is a big spectacular Christmas event. Every year Germany’s highest waterfalls located in Triberg, Black Forest will be illuminated with over

900,000 Christmas lights, wood illuminated by countless lanterns, 100 meter long light tunnel, new village of lights, wintry fire productions and

various shows.

On the 20-meter high Ferris wheel, you can get a beautiful aerial view from above. You will have a spectacular view of the whole Christmas Magic

grounds with 800,000 lights as well as all of Triberg. Lighted snowflakes will show you the way through the dark Black Forest. There is also a life

size manger with real animals.

The spectacle takes part from 27 to 30 December 2012. There will be great fireworks at around 21:00 hrs each night. It is recommended to buy

tickets asap. For more information and detailed programme visit:

http://www.triberger-weihnachtszauber.com/en/index.html

Adventszauber Wildpark, Schwarzach

On 02 December 2012 from 12:00 to 18:00 h the Wildpark in Schwarzach will host its annual very cozy Christmas Market including attractions

and programs for the whole family. For more detailed information: www.wildpark-schwarzach.de

Romantic Christmas Market

The most romantic Christmas market in the Rheinland Pfalz Region is in Deidesheim. It only opens

on the following weekends: 30.11. - 02.12.2012, 07. - 09.12.2012, 14. - 16.12.2012, 21. -

23.12.2012

Opening hours: Fr. 17.00 - 21.00 h, Sa. 14.00 - 21.00 h, Su. 11.00 - 21.00 h

http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-deutschland.de/weihnachtsmarkt-deidesheim.html

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