An impromptu Town Hall was called together at the last minute to play host to the 98th Civil Affairs Battalion. This group of Army soldiers, based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was told by Dr. Neiman Young, County Administrator, that the local citizens just wanted to talk to them and get to know them. He sold it as more of a meet and greet and that the public was singing their praises for the group’s presence in the County.
In reality, it was part of the week-long training exercise and the local citizens that attended were told to be more aggressive and pointed in their questions in an effort to simulate a more stressful environment. There weren’t many “gotcha” moments during the evening as the soldiers did well in handling themselves and answering questions. However, as one King George High School student noted later, they gave a lot of “non-answers.” I have to concur with the young lady and was impressed that a Senior in high school would be present enough in the conversation to pick up on that, not to mention just being present for such an event. As I heard later, and agree with, “there’s hope for our future” if these are the students we have in our local school system.
The mock Town Hall began with Board of Supervisors Richard Granger, Cathy Binder, and Ruby Brabo making introductions along with Dr. Young. Granger and Dr. Young gave some opening remarks before turning things over to Major Hernandez. The Major gave an overview of their operations but mainly focused on the Company’s motto of “the bridge between” by saying they were here to act as the bridge between the community and their needs. Major Hernandez introduced his staff from Headquarters and the teams that were present. Each team consists of four people and is led by a Captain with the other three being Sergeants. Most of the teams have a designated Medic but not all.
At the Town Hall, each of the five teams participating in the exercise were represented by the Captain and one of the Sergeants. Captain Babb worked under Major Hernandez in Headquarters. Captain Perez led the team focused on Recreation. Captain Enicks led the team focused on Security and Health. Captain Cruz led the team focused on Transportation. Captain Baskelwhite led the team focused on Economic Development. And Captain Chua led the team focused on Tourism. In the audience were several observers that were there to monitor each team and to provide them with feedback as part of the exercise. These observers were not introduced and did not participate by asking questions but simply sat there taking notes on their teams.
With the introductions out of the way, the questions from the citizens in the audience began to flow. I was a little disappointed that the first question was one that I had posed to some of the teams earlier in the week, specifically about a military take over. The Major answered by saying that no, it was just a training exercise. From there, the questions began to get a little harder and a lot less scripted.
For the most part, the teams were able to answer fairly well. There was clearly a dearth of available time for them to find out all of the facts about their assigned tasks, but in the short amount of time they had, they did fairly well. They were also honest enough to be upfront in how a week was certainly not long enough but they felt confident in their skills to be able to provide the County with an end product that would benefit everyone.
There were some questions that, scripted or not, stood out among the rest. One student from the High School asked if they would attend the walk-out planned for April 20th as he felt there were concerns over security. Major Hernandez said they were not planning to do so based on their schedule but would certainly be willing to see if there was an opportunity to do so. Another question raised by Yvonne Richard had a bit of a surprising answer [EDITOR'S NOTE - Neil Richard, a co-founder of Project94, is the spouse of Yvonne Richard.]. None of the teams was working with, or appeared to plan on working with, the Service Authority. Many in the audience seemed surprised but Major Hernandez again said time was a severely limiting factor. He did provide some hope though by saying that if 98th Civil Affairs Battalion returned in the future for more exercises, they would be happy to explore the needs related to the Service Authority or anything else we could recommend.
Another question that sparked an interesting answer was regarding school security at the local elementary schools. Captain Enicks said his team had met with Dr. Boyd at King George High School but had not visited any of the elementary schools. Dr. Young asked Major Hernandez if that could be added in place of another area of focus. The Major said he could certainly make a recommendation on which topic could be replaced but deferred to Dr. Young’s judgement on the decision. It wasn’t clear if this was part of the training exercise in the sense of putting the soldiers in stressful situations by making last minute changes. At the end of the exchange, I didn’t feel confident that there was a final decision to have a team visit an elementary school but I did feel confident in the group’s ability to react to sudden changes in their mission.
The last set of questions that caught my attention was from the young lady mentioned earlier. She asked the teams where they had visited but the answers never specified any exact location. Brabo chimed in and tried to redirect the conversation by pointing out that they never gave an actual answer and Major Hernandez stepped up to have each team talk about where they went and what they learned. Again the teams struggled a bit to pinpoint exactly where they went and who they had worked with but with enough prodding finally began to get into specifics.
After nearly 90 minutes of questioning, Dr. Young called a “tactical pause” and announced an end to the staged Town Hall. The audience applauded but the troops didn’t appear too fazed at being duped. In fact, I would say some of them were not. There was mention of the recent Free Lance-Star article announcing the mock Town Hall and it appeared Major Hernandez knew about it. Regardless of how much foreknowledge the soldiers had, I was confident enough in their performance, and the audience’s, that they learned something. Dr. Young even asked the citizens for their feedback.
For me personally, this event was another enjoyable experience. Just like the interviews I held earlier in the week, asking pointed, sometimes difficult, questions was exactly what the soldiers needed to endure. As I told a few of them after the meeting, when running these exercises stateside, it’s hard to simulate a stressful environment. Regardless of where they are deployed, from Afghanistan to Thailand, the people, languages, and cultures they encounter may not be as welcoming as we were. My advice was to keep it human. Using military jargon takes away a little bit of the personal connection they may need to make to accomplish their mission.
UPDATE: Photos of the event added. Credit Yvonne Richard.
In reality, it was part of the week-long training exercise and the local citizens that attended were told to be more aggressive and pointed in their questions in an effort to simulate a more stressful environment. There weren’t many “gotcha” moments during the evening as the soldiers did well in handling themselves and answering questions. However, as one King George High School student noted later, they gave a lot of “non-answers.” I have to concur with the young lady and was impressed that a Senior in high school would be present enough in the conversation to pick up on that, not to mention just being present for such an event. As I heard later, and agree with, “there’s hope for our future” if these are the students we have in our local school system.
The mock Town Hall began with Board of Supervisors Richard Granger, Cathy Binder, and Ruby Brabo making introductions along with Dr. Young. Granger and Dr. Young gave some opening remarks before turning things over to Major Hernandez. The Major gave an overview of their operations but mainly focused on the Company’s motto of “the bridge between” by saying they were here to act as the bridge between the community and their needs. Major Hernandez introduced his staff from Headquarters and the teams that were present. Each team consists of four people and is led by a Captain with the other three being Sergeants. Most of the teams have a designated Medic but not all.
At the Town Hall, each of the five teams participating in the exercise were represented by the Captain and one of the Sergeants. Captain Babb worked under Major Hernandez in Headquarters. Captain Perez led the team focused on Recreation. Captain Enicks led the team focused on Security and Health. Captain Cruz led the team focused on Transportation. Captain Baskelwhite led the team focused on Economic Development. And Captain Chua led the team focused on Tourism. In the audience were several observers that were there to monitor each team and to provide them with feedback as part of the exercise. These observers were not introduced and did not participate by asking questions but simply sat there taking notes on their teams.
With the introductions out of the way, the questions from the citizens in the audience began to flow. I was a little disappointed that the first question was one that I had posed to some of the teams earlier in the week, specifically about a military take over. The Major answered by saying that no, it was just a training exercise. From there, the questions began to get a little harder and a lot less scripted.
For the most part, the teams were able to answer fairly well. There was clearly a dearth of available time for them to find out all of the facts about their assigned tasks, but in the short amount of time they had, they did fairly well. They were also honest enough to be upfront in how a week was certainly not long enough but they felt confident in their skills to be able to provide the County with an end product that would benefit everyone.
There were some questions that, scripted or not, stood out among the rest. One student from the High School asked if they would attend the walk-out planned for April 20th as he felt there were concerns over security. Major Hernandez said they were not planning to do so based on their schedule but would certainly be willing to see if there was an opportunity to do so. Another question raised by Yvonne Richard had a bit of a surprising answer [EDITOR'S NOTE - Neil Richard, a co-founder of Project94, is the spouse of Yvonne Richard.]. None of the teams was working with, or appeared to plan on working with, the Service Authority. Many in the audience seemed surprised but Major Hernandez again said time was a severely limiting factor. He did provide some hope though by saying that if 98th Civil Affairs Battalion returned in the future for more exercises, they would be happy to explore the needs related to the Service Authority or anything else we could recommend.
Another question that sparked an interesting answer was regarding school security at the local elementary schools. Captain Enicks said his team had met with Dr. Boyd at King George High School but had not visited any of the elementary schools. Dr. Young asked Major Hernandez if that could be added in place of another area of focus. The Major said he could certainly make a recommendation on which topic could be replaced but deferred to Dr. Young’s judgement on the decision. It wasn’t clear if this was part of the training exercise in the sense of putting the soldiers in stressful situations by making last minute changes. At the end of the exchange, I didn’t feel confident that there was a final decision to have a team visit an elementary school but I did feel confident in the group’s ability to react to sudden changes in their mission.
The last set of questions that caught my attention was from the young lady mentioned earlier. She asked the teams where they had visited but the answers never specified any exact location. Brabo chimed in and tried to redirect the conversation by pointing out that they never gave an actual answer and Major Hernandez stepped up to have each team talk about where they went and what they learned. Again the teams struggled a bit to pinpoint exactly where they went and who they had worked with but with enough prodding finally began to get into specifics.
After nearly 90 minutes of questioning, Dr. Young called a “tactical pause” and announced an end to the staged Town Hall. The audience applauded but the troops didn’t appear too fazed at being duped. In fact, I would say some of them were not. There was mention of the recent Free Lance-Star article announcing the mock Town Hall and it appeared Major Hernandez knew about it. Regardless of how much foreknowledge the soldiers had, I was confident enough in their performance, and the audience’s, that they learned something. Dr. Young even asked the citizens for their feedback.
For me personally, this event was another enjoyable experience. Just like the interviews I held earlier in the week, asking pointed, sometimes difficult, questions was exactly what the soldiers needed to endure. As I told a few of them after the meeting, when running these exercises stateside, it’s hard to simulate a stressful environment. Regardless of where they are deployed, from Afghanistan to Thailand, the people, languages, and cultures they encounter may not be as welcoming as we were. My advice was to keep it human. Using military jargon takes away a little bit of the personal connection they may need to make to accomplish their mission.
UPDATE: Photos of the event added. Credit Yvonne Richard.
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