Major William Rom is a combat engineer with an ROTC commission. Posted to an advisory billet as an Active Component/Reserve Component soldier with the 187th Engineer Battalion, Rock Hill, South Carolina, he helped prepare several National Guard units for Global War on Terrorism mobilizations. These units included an engineer battalion - part of the 218th Enhanced Separate Brigade - and an artillery battalion which deployed as a military police battalion. Success as an advisor meant exactly that: advising and mentoring rather than directing, demonstrating proficiency and understanding while fostering rapport. Engineer branch offered Rom his choice between a tour in Iraq and one in Afghanistan in late 2004. He chose Afghanistan, deploying in February 2005. Predeployment training consisted of a rotation through Fort Benning, Georgia's CONUS Replacement Center program. Training was not tailored for specific tours or countries, but a one-over-the-world mix of individual tactical skills and dated tactics, techniques and procedures, mostly from Iraq. Rom felt, in retrospect, that more focused cultural orientation on Afghanistan would have been beneficial. Arriving in March 2005 in Afghanistan, he became part of a five-man cell based in the American embassy advising and assisting the ambassador. A staff reorganization at Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan (CFC-A) soon provided Rom with an opportunity to be the operations officer with an interagency team under the Political-Military Integration Directorate. In this posting, staff coordination and facilitation were the order of the day in this civil-military operations directorate. Staff elements worked with Afghan national ministries on a range of issues. Here, Rom had an opportunity to observe not only combined operations with the Afghan government but joint and combined operations among US components as well as allies from the United Kingdom and Romania. Rom commented that national and service cultures required an appreciation for such differences and capabilities. Rom remained in this billet until his rotation home in March 2006. His principal lessons learned reflected the need for adaptability and an open mind to deal with a constantly changing mix of cultures, military and otherwise, Active and Reserve. Rom felt that more effort to match qualifications with assignments and reducing tour length would combine to increase effectiveness.

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