188th maintains deployment mobility

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Stephanie Widemond | Soldiers from the 188th Infantry Brigade help each other load a tent system onto the back of a generator trailer during training. The Soldiers are observer-coach/trainers who are train, advise and assist National Guard and Reserve units across the United States.  

FORT STEWART, GA, UNITED STATES

10.20.2014

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Stephanie Widemond 

188th Infantry Brigade

FORT STEWART, Ga. – The observer-coach/trainers of the 188th Infantry Brigade may be called to train, advise and, assist National Guard and Reserve Soldiers on common core skills anywhere. Not every location has hard structures to accommodate the O-C/Ts needs, but this is no longer an issue with a modular structure. Soldiers trained on the proper way to set up a rapidly deployable military tent.

“It increases the brigade’s capability by providing a command and control cell in an austere environment,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dennis Jones, property book officer.

The system will be employed next summer during a training mission to the Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, La.

“We plan to use this as a mobile AAR site, while we are out at Fort Polk,” said Jones.

Over the summer, the 188th's battalions supported reserve component units at Camp Grayling, Mich., Camp Blanding, Fla., and Fort Pickett, Va. In each location, they to rely on the support of the eXportable Combat Training Capability which had after action review tents set up in various locations around the training area.

XCTC is a concept first used in 2005 by the National Guard to help prepare its guardsmen for combat. The program of record is still used today to help maintain a ready and operational force, by developing training to meet the National Guard unit’s training objectives. The O-C/Ts primary mission is to provide professional feedback to reserve component partner units which allows them to develop and fine-tune standard operating procedures.

“This provides us with a facility we can use in all weather and all terrain to conduct our mission,” said Capt. Jamie Pittman, brigade logistics officer.

“We help solidify the core competencies of the training unit to ensure they remain readily deployable for the Army.”

The core competencies are the capabilities which allow the Army to carry out any mission, anytime, anywhere in the world. With the tent system, the brigade is more self-sufficient and enables the brigade to be more expeditionary, ready to deploy to any environment; providing the necessary support to keep its partner units ready to support the Army mission.

• Date Taken: 10.20.2014
• Date Posted: 10.23.2014 15:35
• Story ID: 145893
• Location: FORT STEWART, GA, US