Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Banzhaf | Soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st...... read more read more
Subscribe
CAMP STANLEY, South Korea – With technical manuals in hand, Soldiers moved into their respective motorpools ready to perform preventative maintenance checks and services on their assigned vehicles.
This was much like any other maintenance Monday for the Troopers of 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, except that for the next nine months, the unit is far away from home, having traded the flat terrain of Fort Hood, Texas for the mountains of South Korea.
The “Warhorse” battalion, conducted maintenance on their equipment and vehicles for the first time since arriving on the Korea peninsula, where the unit recently transferred authority from the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd BCT, 1st Cav. Div.
“Performing maintenance on the vehicles is the same as maintaining your M-4,” said Sgt. Ethan Gray, a Brattleboro, Vermont native and infantryman with the 3rd Bn, 8th Cav. Reg. “If you don’t maintain it properly, it’s going to break down and malfunction.”
With the charge of being able to “fight tonight” within a 12-hour notice, maintaining equipment and vehicles is a continuous effort the battalion will strive for during its tour of duty as a combined action battalion in South Korea.
Regardless of if it’s a M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle or a pair of binoculars, the unit must maintain mission readiness and be able to operate their equipment any time of the day.
The Bradley plays an important role for the battalion. Its ability to perform in various types of weather and terrain gives dismounted infantry Soldiers more mobility and firepower.
“Maneuvering here in Korea is going to be more difficult,” said Gray. “It’s different from Fort Hood. Soldiers will have to work through mud, ice and snow. Just another reason we need to maintain it.”
Gray is a Bradley gunner, who is also a trained driver just in case a situation arises where he might have to take on a different role within his team.
He described the Bradley as the bridge between the armored personnel carriers and the M1A2 Abrams tanks. It carries infantrymen in the back and can destroy vehicles with its 30mm chain gun.
“They could shoot about 2,000 meters away. They are very accurate,” said Gray. “They can be used anywhere and be effective.”
In addition to the unit’s vehicles, Soldiers perform key maintenance checks on other vital equipment.
The Warhorse cavalry scouts use a unique and powerful piece of equipment, the long range advanced scout surveillance system, or LRAS3. The LRAS3 is a long-range optic that enables the user to spot targets several kilometers away.
“If we have a good (vantage) point such as on top of a mountain, we will have a greater area that we can observe the enemy in,” said Spc. William Nybroten, a White Salmon, Washington native and a cavalry scout in the battalion. “After we identify the enemy and their equipment, we can monitor them.”
The optic is equipped with infrared and night vision capabilities allowing the scouts to spot the enemy in a variety of environments.
In order to be accurate, the equipment is calibrated, tested and maintained.
“We can get 10-digit grid coordinates with it,” said Nybroten. “We can use it to call for, and adjust fire.”
Checking vehicles and equipment, ensuring all function well, and taking necessary actions to sustain the force helps the 3rd Bn., 8th Cav. Reg. maintain its “fight tonight” readiness.
| Date Taken: | 11.05.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 11.05.2014 11:18 |
| Story ID: | 147035 |
| Location: | CAMP STANLEY, KR |
| Web Views: | 91 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Cav unit maintains ‘fight tonight’ readiness, by SFC Brandon Banzhaf, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT