412th Engineer Company participates in 2011 WAREX

Photo By Sgt. Donna Hickman | Spc. Ryan Rymdeko from Albrightsville, Penn., assists his unit, the 412th Engineer Company in Scranton, Penn., with building a dining facility as part of the 2011 Warrior Exercise. The 2011 WAREX presents realistic and challenging scenario-based training for Soldiers and units preparing for deployment.  

FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

08.14.2011

Story by Sgt. Donna Hickman 

84th Training Command

FORT MCCOY, Wis. – The 412th Engineer Company (Vertical) of Scranton, Pa., is participating in the 2011 Warrior Exercise held here. The 2011 WAREX presents realistic and challenging scenario-based training for soldiers and units preparing for deployment. For the 412th, that means surveying, then building a 16-by-80 dining facility along with other projects.

Although Warrant Officer Candidate Matthew Hunter’s unit has experience in building, they have yet to build a structure of this size. In addition, the 2011 WAREX experience provides his younger soldiers, especially, familiarity with moving to then working in a Contingency Operating Location as they will once in theater.

“We are getting good training oriented toward how to set up a COL. A COL gets them used to working with a variety of units which is what you would see in theater,” says Hunter, from Hazleton, Pa. He says the major goal for his unit is “100 percent completion of projects.” He expects to see his soldiers make this happen: “Right now we’re pretty pleased with them. Things are going pretty smooth.”

One of his soldiers, Sgt. Adam Sweet, a carpentry and masonry specialist, agrees. “There’s a lot of good guys in this unit. They know their stuff,” he says. Sweet is from Lake Winola, Pa.

Hunter also says he feels morale amongst his soldiers is pretty good. Spc. Ryan Rymdeko from Albrightsville, Pa., echoes this belief when he says, “I know a lot of [our soldiers] out of basic training are loving it.” He says practice of working in Kevlars instead of hard-hats and responding to the mock artillery is especially helpful to the soldiers who have never before deployed.

According to Staff Sgt. Christopher Shermer from Lansdale, Pa., also with the 412th, the 2011 WAREX is “one of the more realistic situations that I’ve been to—the FOB actually calling the Medivacs in.” Shermer says the training for the convoys as well as the convoy operations is especially valuable since his unit will do a lot of moving in theater, moving where the projects are—“a couple of weeks here, a couple of months there.”

“It’s been great. Everyone’s really stepping up,” says Sgt. Kevin Patrick Cogan from Reading, Pa. Cogan is a squad leader for the 412th. Cogan’s focus for his Soldiers involves a balance between safety and efficiency. On their third day into their building project, his soldiers have done some excavating. They are now getting the trusses, walls, and layout ready for the dining facility they are building on Fort McCoy.

More significantly, the 412th Engineer Company’s work is being accomplished while supplying a medic team and a four to five-man Quick Reaction Force. Cogan says that this training is “one of the best” he’s been involved with. He added, “The 2011 WAREX has enabled my unit to train like they will fight.”

• Date Taken: 08.14.2011
• Date Posted: 08.16.2011 12:40
• Story ID: 75428
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US