Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Felix Fimbres | Master Sgt. Leilani Toilolo, and 2nd Richland Chan, Capt. Robert Albain, and Staff...... read more read more
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DUBLIN, Calif. - Army Reserve soldiers from the 304th coordinated a multifaceted training mission here which incorporated a simulated-scenario-driven training mission along with real world operations to hone skills in the event of a major earthquake hitting the Bay Area at Camp Parks and the Port of Alameda starting July 23, 2014.
"The soldiers at the Port of Alameda are honing their military occupation specialties on vehicles like cranes and Kalmars, but also conducting harbor master duties which involves tracking and monitoring the port with cameras to be the eyes and ears for the commander,” said Maj.Erik Mccall, Brigade Operations Officers, “meanwhile, the staff sections here at a Camp Parks are working their military decision making process in a simulated scenario driven event to provide disaster relief, caused by an earthquake, to the Bay Area.”
Capt. Robert Albain, of the 483rd in Mare Island Vallejo, California said that even though this is his team’s first time working in a simulated humanitarian support capacity, his soldiers kept things running smoothly.
“It’s because have outstanding noncommissioned officers.”
One of those noncommissioned officers is Master Sgt. Lelani Toilolo, 483rd Transportation Battalion, who is enjoying the opportunity and is part of the six-person team which runs the Tactical Operations Center 24-hours a day.
“When we’re hit with the mission we’ll task our eight subordinate units to accomplish the mission on the ground. We’re in control of the transportation companies, floating craft, maintenance vehicles and craft, heavy and medium boats, and a Sea Port Operations Company,” said Toilolo. “We’ll be using their capabilities to offer humanitarian aid, offload supplies from the port and transfer them inland.”
Monitoring the unit’s manpower will be the battalion Human Resources section.
“We collect the reports for the commanders to relay the status of the soldiers on the ground,” said Sgt. 1st Class Julie Nunez, Human Resources section sergeant. “If our soldiers sustain injuries, casualties, or anything which degrades mission capabilities we ensure that information gets filtered up so adjustments and reactions can be made to ensure the mission succeeds.”
Meanwhile, ensuring the logistics run smoothly and the soldiers are taken care of is Chief Warrant Officer Cecilio Avides, the battalion property book officer, “My section coordinates things like meals, lodging, transportation, and fuel,” said Avides. “Basically we’re the life support of the Army Reserve units in the operation and the scenarios will try to break those lines in order to challenge us.”
In addition to the humanitarian mission, the soldiers also maintain their soldier skills in the areas like land navigation, leadership, and combatives training, to name a few.
Staff Sgt. Micheal Portillo, 304th Sustainment Brigade in Riverside, California, is one of the trainers helping the soldiers maintain and learn new skills. “I first learned the combatives program while deployed to Iraq during Operation New Dawn; I came home and received my level-2 training at Camp Pendleton, California, and offered to teach it to our soldiers,” said Portillo. “You never know when an enemy is going to attack you, so it’s important to be able to defend yourself regardless of your job or the mission. With the help of Sgt. 1st Class Roland Solis and Spc. Glenn Luman, the 304th soldiers will be ready.”
1st Lt. Jay H. Yoon, 311th Chaplain Candidate, really appreciated the training from a student’s perspective.
“The instructors have really made the training accessible to everyone at all levels, even those martial arts experience, so we can all take something away,” said Chan. “This is good. I think units should have more combatives training even in reserve units it would be a good thing for more soldiers to be a part of.”
In addition to new skills, soldiers in the unit were also excited to get a chance to work on skills they haven’t be able to practice since basic training said Master Sgt. Heshimu L. Faggins, of the 304th.
“Every group said this is something they want do and they want to do more of,” said Faggins, “We made it as in depth as possible with the time we had. In the morning 8 to 12 we’re in the classroom learning and in the afternoon we’re out here applying the skills in groups under the watch of an instructor.”
With such a varied training schedule across many different locations, Maccall is happy with how well his soldiers handled and performed.
“Normally we’d have a lot more people in order to make this kind of training happen and we’ve asked the soldiers of the 304th to wear a lot of different hats,” said Maccall. “But they got it done and have made this exercise happen. I’m really proud of our soldiers and staff.”
| Date Taken: | 07.24.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.04.2014 12:19 |
| Story ID: | 138221 |
| Location: | DUBLIN, CA, US |
| Hometown: | LOS ANGELES, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 308 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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