Photo By Staff Sgt. Jamieson Pond | Soldiers with Alpha Company, 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion practice door...... read more read more
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POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA, Hawaii - One of a Sapper’s favorite phrase is ‘Fire in the hole!’ So it is an understatement to say it has been a good week for the Sapper platoon of Alpha Company, 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion while they conduct their annual training at Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii.
The engineer soldiers of Alpha Company are getting a chance to practice their skills that range from the most basic demolition undertaking, like prepping C4 explosives, all the way up to more advanced demolition skills including practicing counter-mobility and door breaching techniques.
Demolition training at PTA spans three days with more than 300 pounds of C4 explosive being detonated, and 220 pounds of it detonated in a single day.
“We build it and then blow it,” said 2nd Lt. John Dunn Jr., a recent graduate of the Sapper Leader Course and the 1st platoon’s platoon leader with Alpha Company, 29th BSTB. That, in a nutshell, is what the engineers are doing while training at PTA for their tentative deployment to Afghanistan in 2013.
There are three main areas of the engineers’ job that Alpha Company will be training on: mobility, counter-mobility and survivability. The first two involve using demolition.
The first day utilizing explosives begins at PTA’s Range 9 with mobility training.
“The mobility part of our training teaches us how to get through any obstacle we come across so that we can keep going with the mission,” explained Dunn. “We have set up a triple-standard of concertina wire that simulates a real world obstacle. We go in there with a Bangalore torpedo and blow a path through the obstacle. The Bangalore will blow a path large enough to drive a vehicle through.”
By late afternoon Alpha Company is ready to move on to counter-mobility training. “Counter-mobility is when we create obstacles to limit the movement of enemy forces. We can do this by using shape charges and cratering charges to create large obstacles that make enemy movement very difficult,” said Dunn. “We can make obstacles large enough to deter a tank.”
It’s important to the engineer company to let every troop, from the brand new soldier straight out of initial training to the more experienced soldier to get a chance to get some experience with the explosives. “We are trying to get everyone to handle the demo,” said Sgt. Paul Kainoa, the supply sergeant for Alpha Company, 29th BSTB. “We like to take the newer guys who are not as seasoned and build up their confidence. We want to get them comfortable with their calculations.”
The engineer training is not just about blowing stuff up, there are also important soldier skills that are being integrated into the demolition range.
“You have to remember that there are people out there who want to harm you. You need to pop smoke to give yourself concealment and quickly move forward, plant the demo and quickly move out,” Dunn said to his platoon before moving forward to place the Bangalore torpedo.
The benefit of training at PTA is the freedom to train with far more demolition.
“The important part of doing demo is location, location, location,” said Kainoa. “Here at PTA we don’t have as many limitations compared to Schofield Barracks. At Schofield we can only detonate two pounds of C4 in a single detonation. Here we can detonate 50 pounds.”
“This is the first time in nearly 10 years that we have been up here at PTA doing this,” said Sgt. 1st Class Angel Aponte, an engineer with Alpha Company, 29th BSTB. “This is a great opportunity for these soldiers.”
Spc. Anthony Silva, who has been with the unit for six years but has never been to PTA was excited to train.
“We’re actually doing everything I’ve wanted to do. AIT (Advanced Individual Training) was the last time we did this and that was a long time ago. We’re actually doing our MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) training, which is great,” he said.
When it comes to explosives and engineers there is no such thing as wasted demolition. As Dunn pointed out, “the key when you are a Sapper platoon is to utilize all the demo.”
Judging from the gaping holes in the ground and the smiles on the engineer’s faces they accomplished their mission.
| Date Taken: | 06.11.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.30.2011 19:32 |
| Story ID: | 73055 |
| Location: | POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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