Photo By Terrance Bell | Second Lt. David Grant, a Transportation Basic Officer Leader Course student...... read more read more
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FORT PICKETT, Va. (Sept. 13, 2017) – The Transportation Basic Officer Leader Course’s capstone field training exercise has a new venue located far from its previous zip code.
Now conducted at Fort Pickett – the National Guard installation situated roughly 45 miles west of Fort Lee – the site is spartan compared to Joint Base Langley-Eustis, the former location for the Army Logistics University course. That, however, is a good thing, said the course manager.
“The change from Fort Eustis to Fort Picket has allowed us a more austere environment,” said Capt. Nicholas G. Doms. “It also has increased the amount of available training area from about 15 kilometers of usable roads to over 50 at Fort Pickett.”
Pickett stretches across four rural counties and consists of 45,000 acres compared to roughly 8,200 acres of the Newport News installation.
The five-day FTX, called Operation Overland, has gone through five iterations at the new location since May. It is designed to test “the skill-sets students have learned the previous 11 weeks,” Doms said. “That includes basic Soldier tasks and troop-leading procedures all the way through to movement control, convoy operations, command post operations and battle drills.”
On Sept. 7, the training scenario featured a surprise attack at the students’ logistics support camp that required a mass casualty evacuation via simulated rotary aircraft, said Capt. Chris Quantock, the class training advisor and counselor. As a result, students were required to return fire, maintain security and perform first aid among other tasks, making for a chaotic scene.
“We’ve simulated a lot of real-world activity (throughout the exercise), but this was probably the most intense,” said 2nd Lt. Jessy Green of Arkadelphia, Ark. “I felt the pressure today.”
Doms said the surprise attack was one of 45 different missions included in the exercise play, which also included how forces would set up sustainment operations from scratch.
Second Lt. Daniel Keenan, also a transporter in training, said the planning stages were just as useful as the exercise play itself.
“With the Army’s No. 1 priority being readiness,” he said, “it helps us achieve that because we moved into an environment and set up all of our equipment much like we would opening up a theater (of operations).”
Following the evacuation, students conducted convoy missions.
Doms, noting that 30 iterations of the exercise have taken place since 2014, said the schoolhouse is vigilant in its efforts to produce graduates who can fulfill real-world requirements. He said the sentiment from field commanders was a factor in focusing on field skills, thus changing the training venue.
“We constantly got feedback from division commanders and battalion commanders who were saying, ‘Hey, your lieutenants need to know more field craft,’” Doms said, “so, what we are trying to do here is allow them to exercise those skills in a platoon-sized element before they get to their unit.”
Has the new training emphasis and environment made a difference to students?
Absolutely, Doms said.
“I’ve seen big improvements in their attitudes when they get (at Fort Pickett),” he said. “Fort Eustis … is not as austere, and they see civilian traffic when they’re participating in the exercise. Here, they are fully immersed. All they see is military, military, military. I think it improves their mindset and allows them to really accomplish this at 100 percent rather than 70 or 80.”
Roughly 540 Soldiers per year graduate from the 16-week TBOLC based at Fort Lee.
| Date Taken: | 09.13.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.13.2017 17:05 |
| Story ID: | 248155 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 278 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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