191st Infantry Brigade

Story by Spc. Stephanie Bacon

By Spc. Stephanie Bacon
191st Infantry Brigade, First Army Division West

FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- In a training scenario, insurgents crouch down in the bushes with their weapons ready, waiting for the approaching convoy. The first High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle reaches a trigger point on the road, a training round simulating an improvised explosive devise explodes and the Sailors of the Navy Detachment 7802 find themselves in an ambush situation.

Staff Sgt. Shaun Southern is a trainer of the First Army, Division West, 191st Infantry Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 357th Infantry responsible for training deploying Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen. "They have to react to us," said Southern. "Either take us out or push through the roadblock."

Southern was deployed to Mosul, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. "We drill convoy scenarios until it becomes apart of muscle memory or automatized reactions, after a while it just becomes second nature to you and you don't even have to think about it. Everyone knows exactly what to do," he said

This three day convoy rehearsal exercise is assessing the Sailors in Navy Detachment 7802 to ensure their skills are ready for combat. Training has focused on performing detainee operations.

Sgt. Joshua Phillips also from the First Army, Division West, 191st Infantry Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 357th Infantry, enjoys role playing the opposing forces, and says it is his job to give service members a taste of what they may see in Iraq. "The training that we're doing out here involves a lot of people who have not seen combat," said Phillips. "It's our job to get them ready for the different experiences they will meet over there."

Chief Petty Officer Christopher Simmons, from Miami, Fla., has been training at Fort Lewis for almost two months and said it has been very beneficial for his whole team. "It's always awesome when you get to shoot at the enemy during training. In the Navy we don't get to do that very often,." said Simmons. He also mentioned the training with the Army is a new experience for him and that the language is quite a bit different but the trainers from the 191st Infantry Brigade have been helpful and patient. "Hopefully we can take what we have learned here and utilize it over in the sand box and do a great job for us all," Simmons said.

The 191st Infantry Brigade trains service members for the "warfight" to deploy to any theater of operations world wide.

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