New training brigade at Camp Atterbury

Courtesy Photo | Maj. Sherry Stenerson, an observer/trainer with 3rd Brigade of the 75th Battle Command Training Division, receives a back briefing from Soldiers of the 40th Infantry Division regarding status of an investigation. This training was a part of the mission rehearsal exercise for the 40th Infantry Division deployment to Kosovo.  

CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, UNITED STATES

02.02.2009

Courtesy Story

Camp Atterbury Indiana

By T.D. Jackson
Camp Atterbury Public Affairs

CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. – The 1st Battle Command Training Group, a part of the 3rd Brigade of the 75th Battle Command Training Division, recently set up shop at Camp Atterbury where they will be concentrating on battle command staff training of deploying brigades and battalions.

"We are observer/controller trainers of battalion and brigade staff processes such as military decision making process," said Lt. Col. Marc Duchette, the brigade OC/T for the detachment.

"Our Soldiers evaluate the effectiveness of a unit's command post or tactical operations center. We observe, coach and/or train the unit staff on their staff interactions and adherence to applicable regulations and field manuals," he said.

Duchette said currently 3rd Brigade is recruiting for Soldiers to help build the exercises at Camp Attebury that prepare mobilizing Soldiers for overseas deployments.

"We're offering senior slots to area guard and reserve Soldiers and we need to recruit quality Soldiers," he said.

Duchette said the unit primarily needs reserve or national guard master sergeants and majors with battle staff experience and a few lieutenant colonels and sergeants major. These are not full-time positions, he said, but positions for Soldiers who want to do their monthly battle assembly here.

Once the detachment of 3rd Brigade is at full staff, Duchette said the goal is to be able to set up Mission Readiness Exercises similar to those executed during the 40th Infantry Division's Kosovo Forces 11 mobilization process here.

Col. Randy LeCompte, the group commander, said their division is more than familiar with the requirements needed to get the job done.

"We are a division that does collective training across the U.S.," he said.

LeCompte said this is not a new mission for them since the division is used to training national guard and reserve Soldiers: they just want to make themselves more readily available and in larger numbers.

"We want to maintain a permanent presence here as we would anywhere else," LeCompte said. "We're here to support the mission for the increased op tempo at Camp Atterbury," he said, referring to the impending surge of Soldiers on post.

As Camp Atterbury increases in size and troop flow, so too will the number of trainers needed. By the spring of this year, the 205th Infantry Brigade – an Army Reserve unit here responsible for training the troops who deploy from Camp Atterbury –will be joined by the 3rd Brigade Soldiers and the 189th Infantry Brigade, out of Fort Bragg, N.C.

"This is a mutually beneficial partnership between the national guard and the reserve," LeCompte said. "This is our opportunity to show that we are all one Army. One team, one fight."

• Date Taken: 02.02.2009
• Date Posted: 02.02.2009 15:26
• Story ID: 29558
• Location: CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, US