TRAIN AND AID
numbering between four and six Soldiers at a time, who advised at the operational level to revamp doctrine and professional military education.
“Tere was minimal teaching in the traditional sense of standing in front of a classroom,” explained Lt. Col. Rob Nesbit, former detachment commander for the DEAG. “Te reality is that there is far more advising of senior Ukrainian leaders which, in an abstract way, is teaching. Having said that, what we modeled to the Ukrainians is effective long- and mid-range planning, and professionalism.”
If that sounds simple, Nesbit said it’s not. And he should know. Leading the DEAG until weeks before the invasion and continuing to consult at the start of the war, Nesbit has spent the majority of his life as an active-duty Army officer—37 years and counting—with multiple combat deployments under his belt. He is currently the deputy of current operations (G33) for the U.S. Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty, North Carolina (formerly Fort Bragg).
“Creating a climate for organizational change, altering the way a group has been thinking for generations, is a much bigger feat than teaching someone to follow orders or execute a task,” he said.
It’s a complete cultural shift, notoriously difficult even in the best of circumstances, and even more so considering the rigid, top-down style of leadership that was a remnant of Ukraine’s Soviet roots. Tis is in sharp contrast to the American military’s “mission command” doctrine, which delegates decision making to subordinates wherever possible, minimizing detailed control, and empowering lower-level initiative.
Despite the challenges, Nesbit began to witness a hopeful shift as senior Ukrainian officers, recognizing the value of standardizing planning, began using the long-range forecasting and prepara- tion that is a hallmark of successful organizations.
Te DEAG mission supported the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard Ukraine, the National Defense University, and to a lesser extent the Air Assault/Airborne Forces and Ukrainian Marine Corps and was a crucial test of what the future holds for a strong, independent Ukraine and regional stability through- out Europe.
“Within the realm of great power competition, the DEAG was really a component of U.S. and NATO efforts to counter Russian influence, not just in Ukraine but throughout Europe,” said
48 Army AL&T Magazine Summer 2023
Nesbit. “Te importance of the mission rested in its ability to set conditions that enable the Ukrainian military to serve along- side Euro-Atlantic partners in the future.”
CONCLUSION Col. Dan Miller, the former chief of the Office of Defense Coop- eration at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, described the DEAG’s work as leading edge, most notably its “development of new, NATO- interoperable doctrine and reforms to the professional military education system. Tis represents vital first steps to creating the sustainable and irreversible change needed for Ukraine to prog- ress on its desired path to NATO membership.”
No one knows how the story ends, but the beginning was clear. Te world watched in awe as a much smaller, lesser equipped Ukrainian military used extraordinary resolve and overwhelm- ing allied support to defy the odds against Russia.
“We won’t know the full impact of the DEAG and other inter- national support,” said SATMO’s Ukraine Foreign Assistance Specialist Pat Macri, “but we’re confident that it aided our part- ner and will continue, long after this war has ended, to provide tremendous benefit.”
For more information on USASAC and how its security assistance missions support U.S. foreign policy, go to
www.army.mil/usasac or to learn more about SATMO, go to
www.army.mil/satmo.
ADRIANE ELLIOT has served as a journalist, editor and public affairs specialist for the U.S. Army for more than 26 years, both on and off active duty in the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Before beginning her military public affairs career, she served as a freelance reporter and columnist for the New Bern Sun Journal tri- county newspaper in New Bern, North Carolina. She served as the director of public affairs for the Area Support Group-Afghanistan during a yearlong deployment in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel and the ongoing NATO-led Resolute Support Mission. She is the recipient of multiple military and national civilian journalism competition awards.
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