By Spc. Elizabeth Gorenc
Camp Atterbury Public Affairs
CAMP ATTERBURY, U.S. – Airmen and Sailors from all over the world joined at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center in January to compose joint services training operations. These reserve and active duty servicemembers from different bases came to CAJMTC to deploy under the same command in lieu of Army orders.
"I was a little anxious to be embedded with the Air Force at first. There are only five of us embedded with 60-70 Air Force members, but they have been completely inclusive and it really has been a great experience so far training with them," said Navy Lt. Giovinazzi Giles.
The combination of Airmen and Sailors are scheduled to be dispersed between different dockets, Army bases, and joint commands throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead of fulfilling their qualified individual jobs, they will be filling necessary slots needed within the countries.
Even though they are not Army components, Airman and Sailors complete Army training while here at Camp Atterbury. Weapons training and qualification was one of the first portions of training the service members received.
"Experiencing Army training, doing road marches, full battle rattle has opened my eyes and I have really grown to respect the Army mission and culture," said Giles.
"Camp Atterbury has opened my eyes for what to expect. I am nervous about the deployment, but I am more confident in my weapons training more than ever before because of the training here," added Airman 1st Class Amanda Lacy.
JTSO has also completed Army combatives training, country and language familiarization, Military Operations on Urban Terrain training and combat life saver courses.
"I am a little nervous about the deployment, but the training here has helped out tremendously," Giles said. "It supplies a chance to adjust to full time military life by providing full immersion training. Here at Camp Atterbury, I am finding the chance to get into the right mindset to get deployed."
Along with completion of training in reaction to simulated events, JSTO also completed preventative training, such as learning how to correctly search cars and people at traffic control points and how to spot improvised explosive devices from convoys.
"The instructors here are great. All of them have been on at least one tour, so they are able to share their experiences and relate personal stories to the material they are teaching us. This makes training more interesting," Air Force Tech. Sgt. Mark Schechter said.
The service members completed their training at Forward Operating Base Bayonet and classrooms within the barracks.
"The training at the FOB has been a little more austere than what I expected, but that is a good thing. This helps desensitize us to the possible living conditions that we may experience overseas," Schechter said.
JSTO will continue to complete full immersion Army training at Camp Atterbury until the service members are scheduled to mobilize to their next base where they will complete in-theater immersion training before traveling overseas.
| Date Taken: | 02.22.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 02.22.2008 11:44 |
| Story ID: | 16588 |
| Location: | CAMP ATTERBURY, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 274 |
| Downloads: | 257 |
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