1-84 Soldiers arrive, train in Afghanistan

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Klutts | An improvised explosive device awareness instructor briefs soldiers with 1st Battalion, 84th Field Artillery Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team during IED awareness training at Camp Marmal, Afghanistan, Feb. 26. The training was part of the reception, staging, onward movement and integration phase of the 170th IBCT's deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.  

CAMP MARMAL, AFGHANISTAN

02.26.2011

Story by Sgt. Christopher Klutts 

170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team

CAMP MARMAL, Afghanistan – Less than nine hours after stepping foot on Afghan soil, Soldiers with A Battery, 1st Battalion, 84th Field Artillery Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team began their final training here, Feb. 26, before departing to Faryab province, which will be their area of operation and home for the next 12 months.

The training was part of the reception, staging, onward movement and integration, or RSOI, phase of the 170th IBCT’s deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Instructors briefed the soldiers on how to escape from a rolled over Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, how to counter improvised explosive devices, how senior leaders can use money as a weapon against enemy forces, and counterinsurgency fundamentals.

During Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, or MRAP, training, an instructor taught soldiers what can cause an MRAP to rollover and ways to mitigate injury. After the classroom portion of the training, soldiers participated in a practical exercise where they were flipped upside down in a mock MRAP and had to safely egress.

“It was just like Hoenfels where they put us in the worst position possible so we can see how we would react,” said Pfc. Michael A. Keefer, a Bowling Green, Ky., native, now a field artillery automated data systems specialist with A Battery. Keefer arrived to the unit in October 2010 during the brigade’s mission rehearsal exercise in Hoenfels, Germany, and the egress training here was the first he had done in an MRAP vehicle.
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The improvised explosive device, or IED, awareness training was tailored to Regional Command North, where A Battery soldiers, and the remainder of the Bayonet Brigade, will be conducting missions.

The IED awareness instructors update the training every 90 days based on intelligence reports from the battlefield, ensuring what they teach in class is as close as possible to what soldiers will see while on patrol, said Sgt. 1st Class James Hutchinson, a Lawton, Okla., native, now an IED awareness trainer here.

“IED’s are the number one threat in this part of the country. Until that changes, I think this refresher training is paramount,” said Hutchinson, who also trained Bayonet soldiers during the mission rehearsal exercise at Hoenfels.

Although some A Battery artillerymen have been training with the brigade for more than 18 months, all the Soldiers, whether multiple combat tour veterans or soldiers new to the Army, benefited from the RSOI training, said Sgt. 1st Class Eldred M. Stewart, a New Orleans native, now a platoon sergeant with A Battery.

“Being stationed in Germany, you go to the field and train for 45 to 60 days at a time and then you don’t go back out for a few months, so a lot of these guys forget this stuff,” said Staff Sgt. Jeremy L. Lacey, a Sarasota, Fla., native, now a section chief with A Battery. Lacey went on to say he hopes the refresher training helps him with his highest priority – his soldiers’ making it home safe.

“I am bringing seven soldiers down here with me and I need to make sure I bring those seven back. That is my sole purpose in life now,” said Lacey.

• Date Taken: 02.26.2011
• Date Posted: 03.01.2011 12:13
• Story ID: 66291
• Location: CAMP MARMAL, AF