1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs

Story by Spc. Richard Daniels Jr.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- What do you do when an immoveable object meets an unstoppable force?

For Bastogne Soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, the answer is simple: blow it up.

Spartan Soldiers of Alpha Company, 1st Special Troops Battalion held an urban breaching class July 28 to familiarize Soldiers with the art of the breach.

As the old adage goes, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but as any Soldier will tell you, that route is never obstacle-free and is often the most dangerous.

The two day class, broken down into three phases, was meant to familiarize Soldiers on the art of demolitions.

The first day tests Soldier's knowledge of the components of a charge and the ginger care it takes in its preparation. "They must score a 70 percent on all written exams to get a go, said Staff Sgt. Scott Barker, urban demolition instructor.

Barker, whose experience with demolitions in combat is vast, places a premium on the value of teaching Soldiers how to bypass obstacles on the battlefield.

"A lot of fighting is done in urban settings," said Barker. "Teaching these skills gives Soldiers another tool to accomplish their missions. Demo will give them the option and more options are always better out there," said Barker.

Being able to recognize and organize various types of explosives is a critical task in urban breaching training and the first step in the two day class.

"We learned about modernized demolitions," said Cpl. Stephen Robinson, 3rd platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment.

"They basically consist of five major categories," he said. "You got your C charge, linear charge, modern charge, silhouette charge, and the donut charge," he said. "We learned all the aspects and all the components for each charge and how to properly place them and how to figure out the standoff for each particular charge and how to get the formula and the correct distance so that you don't blow yourself up."

Spartan instructors made it clear to their students the importance of learning these skills for both their safety and combat effectiveness.

"The purpose of having to go through this class is so that you don't necessarily have to have a demolitions expert on-hand," said Robinson.

As Soldiers like Robinson become more skilled in a variety of jobs they enhance the overall capabilities of the unit and the Army.

"We will be knowledgeable in this just as Infantrymen rather than having a combat engineer attached to us. We can just have individuals just from our unit know how to handle this kind of equipment for breaches and things of the nature," said Robinson.

With another tool in their repertoire, Bastogne Soldiers are confident in their ability to navigate an uncertain battlefield.

Associated Images

Control Panel