Photo By Master Sgt. Lynette Hoke | Soldiers from Task Force 34 join together in an agressive training exercise to form...... read more read more
By 34th Combat Aviation Brigade
CAMP YANKEE, Kuwait - Crawl, walk, run... is the Army's official training motto and attitude for its Soldiers. Usually met with rapid succession, Soldiers are shown a task; they practice the task and then are expected to execute it as professionals.
For the Soldiers of the Rapid Reaction Force for Task Force 34, running was their only option during a recent training exercise.
The Soldiers, who have never met prior to the training set, were required to form Task Force 34's first ever RRF and Protect Services Team. A training event which usually would take a week or more was condensed into three days due the high demands of the Soldiers, who were all in the process of deploying to Iraq.
"When we initially put the team together we were looking at combat arms military occupation specialties. But as those got hard to find, then we looked at civilian experience, such as police, SWAT and paramedics," said Sgt. Jacob Long, Protective Services Team non-commissioned officer in charge.
"After the initial search we still needed people, so we took the mindset that 'if we can find motivated Soldiers who may not be combat arms, we can make them proficient combat arms Soldiers and that is exactly what we did."
Despite the Soldiers on the team varied with their demographics, cultural backgrounds and military experience, there was a common ground with each of the team members.
"We have diversity on a physical and cultural basis, but emotionally we are all on the same page," said Long, a qualified 1st Army instructor. "When we were training there was never once a disagreement; we got our mission, we accomplished it, and had no problems."
The quick cohesion of the new team members made for a smooth training set, especially when the demands were high for the Soldiers as individuals and as a team. The training began very early in the morning and would last until long after dusk.
The team would be forced deal with the 110-plus degree temperatures of training in the middle of Kuwait's desert, but they never quit and never left a Soldier behind.
"We all love our job and our fellow Soldiers and when needed, we will go into harm's way to retrieve and safeguard them until we can all get back as one team," said Long. "We are willing to put our lives down for others, train when others are not, and dedicate 110 percent to the mission."
After the training was completed, the team members went back their separate battalions, to their primary Soldier responsibilities, but many are anxious to get back to training again with the team.
"I look forward to more training with the guys as a whole. We have a good group of Soldiers on the team and that just makes the whole training environment and experience better," said Spc. Wiering.
Overall, the team became an impressive group to run through the training course near Camp Yankee, Kuwait.
"We had a great time working with them and they were really good," said Mitchell Jones, observer controller trainer for PST team.
The RRF and the rest of the Soldiers from Task Force 34 will spend approximately one year in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and are expected to return to home next summer.
| Date Taken: | 08.28.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2008 06:18 |
| Story ID: | 24121 |
| Location: | CAMP YANKEE, KW |
| Web Views: | 503 |
| Downloads: | 298 |
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