Qualification course helps Soldiers in honing warrior skills

By Amber Avalona
Paraglide

June 30, 2011

	Photo by Amber Avalona/Paraglide Officers and noncommissioned officers negotiate a culmination exercise in the final days of the Military Information Support Operations Qualification Course, Camp Mackall. June 8.

Throwing Soldiers into hands-on conflict, where emotions run high and movements are unpredictable, is the culmination exercise trademark for the Military Information Support Operations Qualification Course. It’s also the best predictor of troop behavior and unit success.

According to Fort Bragg special operations cadre at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, each student must feel confident in his or her ability to perform above the expected standard. Soldiers were tested in scenario-driven exercises like the one given to Staff Sergeant Casey Clark and his MISOQC team. The task — negotiate a radio contract with cultural role players in Freedom Village.

Wearied by the heat and humidity, Clark entered the negotiation room with a strict plan in mind. Sweating from head to toe, he struggled to develop a positive rapport with the station manager and negotiations faltered as a result. The manager refused to broadcast coalition messages on his airwaves, so after a lot of back and forth, the sides made concessions and finally reached an agreement.

“I could have just left the gate but I chose not to, I chose to stay and engage with the local populace — the leadership in the village — and ensure them that we are here to help,” said Clark, who persuaded the mayor and the police chief to join forces with coalition troops. In an effort to remove the insurgency, village leaders agreed to promote the campaign. “So that not only built my credibility but since I was referring all of the call-ins from the radio station broadcast to (village leaders), I was gaining their credibility within their own people. It was a win-win,” he added.

Throughout the course of the CULEX, Clark positioned himself as one of the natural leaders to emerge from MISOQC; but for the focused NCO it’s more a matter of remembering to dot his I’s and cross his T’s because, in the realm of MISO, everything is linked.

After three years as an Army recruiter in Sarasota, Fla., Clark needed a new challenge. Rather than return to a scouting unit, he chose to drive the information-communication vehicle of warfare.

In the closing stages of the CULEX, Clark thought the pieces of the training program were finally fitting together but it had been a long, sometimes demanding, journey. The basics, though, were fairly similar to what he learned in recruiting school — mine for information until you find a motivating factor, then address how to the Army can meet those needs.

“You have to learn to adapt to who you’re talking to, and you have to be quick on your feet because they’re going to ask questions that could just catch you off guard … that you may not know or you may not have prepared for,” said Clark. “So being able to speak is the most important aspect of that job and bringing that into here, the majority of what we do is (communicate). That’s how you learn about who your target is,” he explained.

Students like Clark must be Airborne qualified, physically fit, hold a Secret Security Clearance and meet language proficiency requirements to even be considered for a slot in the course.
According to SWCS command, core training includes marketing and advertising principles, social and behavioral science, adaptive thinking and leadership, public diplomacy, political-military analysis and information gathering.

“I think this branch does a very good job of training you to pay attention to your environment and, of course, listening in all sorts of ways — whether it’s listening through your ears or monitoring body language or understanding cultures,” said Capt. Amy Shomette, one of the few females in this class of MISOQC students.

Shomette, who joked that she was PSYOPed by the posters, collected promotional materials while waiting to apply for the military occupational specialty (officers are eligible to join after reaching 1st Lt. promotable). For Shomette, who helped develop a tool to measure cognitive complexity and conversational listening span in college, the tactical and relational mix of MISO seemed a perfect fit.

Shomette barely stepped off the University of Maryland graduation stage before lacing up her combat boots on her first deployment — one that rewarded her with a steady dose of reality and a good measure of on-the-job training.

Marching face first into conventional warfare helped build a foundation for future training like that seen at MISOQC. For 38 to 42 weeks, students live, breathe and sweat the eight core attributes that form the pillars of MISO training — integrity, courage, perseverance, personal responsibility, professionalism, adaptability, capability and a team player mindset.

“The unknown is sort of appealing to a lot of us too,” Shomette said. The ability to hone their strategic influence on an international playing field is a big draw for many Soldiers, and most will steadily rise to the challenge. The goal, regardless of how it evolves, is to maximize influence in areas of high impact and cultural unrest.

“This last exercise here, for a lot of people, is putting a stamp on it and I think we’re able to claim we know more,” added Shomette, who will soon fill a slot at the National Defense University satellite campus which is also operated through SWCS. When she graduates with a master of arts in strategic security studies, Shomette’s skills will be even more valuable to an evolving force of influential warriors.

She considers MISO her niche, and commanders see her — and those like her — as force multipliers on the battlefield. Language capabilities and doctrinal expertise give special ops Soldiers an edge in negotiations and influence operations (they can build rapport where others might cause rifts) … but each exchange is only as good as the information it stems from, which requires a vigilant attention to detail.

“In the engineer field, you know that you can go and build bridges, you know that you can go and build roads, you know your main concepts. With this branch, the main idea (is) that things are changing. We’re going to live — and work — in a constant dynamic environment all the time,” Shomette explained.

(Editors note: This is part two of a two-part series)

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