Airborne Infantry train for future conflict and international stability

Photo By Sgt. Joseph Guenther | Mortarmen with 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division fire a test round during their battalion's ongoing field training exercise April 22, 2012. The 2-505th PIR Paratroopers conducted day and night operations as part of a two week field training exercise to ensure their readiness to deploy anywhere in the world on short notice as the U.S. Army's Global Response Force.  

FORT BRAGG, NC, UNITED STATES

04.27.2012

Story by Sgt. Joseph Guenther 

3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division

FORT BRAGG, N.C. – A group of young men sit around a fire in the center of what appears to be a small Middle-Eastern village. Bored after long hours of waiting, they tell jokes and exchange stories.

Suddenly, they become alert and begin moving around, peeking around corners and through windows. “They’re on their way,” one of them says, “about two minutes.” Their personalities change from soldiers out camping, to weary villagers about to receive a visit from a platoon of infantry paratroopers. They cover their faces, hide AK-47s, and position themselves throughout the mockup village.

In the nearby woods, American soldiers approach slowly and with caution. They’re unsure if these people are going to be friendly, or openly hostile. Only time will tell. Many of them are dirty, and smell like sweat and pine. They’ve guarded their patrol bases all night after completing exhausting raids on other objectives the evening before. They emerge from the woods, and approach the village.

The paratroopers of 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division conducted a two-week field training exercise to fine-tune their preparation for the variety of challenges they might face as part of the Global Response Force mission.

They began the exercise with an emergency deployment readiness exercise in which the soldiers were put on a short-term recall notice, said Maj. Jeffery Burroughs, the battalion’s operations officer. During that time, paratroopers reported to their units with all their gear ready to go, as if they were deploying to a real combat zone.

They moved to Holland Drop Zone to wait for a C-130; from which they conducted a parachute assault to Normandy Drop Zone with full combat equipment. After landing, the infantrymen activated their weapons, turned on their radios, and moved to their parachute collection points.

The paratroopers marched tactically across their battlefield to the first objective; a company attack on a range known as “Live Fire Village.”

“Every company lane began with a company attack,” said Capt. Hicham Bakkar, the battalion fire support officer. Once they complete the company attack, they establish their patrol base and prepare to move to one of three situational training exercises located throughout the battalion’s area of operations, he said.

Each of the lanes had a variety of scenarios the platoons could encounter ranging from day and night raids of hostile objectives, to key leader engagements with the local population.

“After a 24-hour cycle, we switch the platoons out to other lanes,” Bakkar said. “All three platoons get through all three lanes with their different scenarios on a rotational basis.”

Always available to support the infantry on the front of the battlefield were the forward observers and the mortar firing teams. Although unable to fire live rounds into their own training areas, training was still possible for these indirect fire infantrymen, said Bakkar.

“The purpose of the field exercise for the mortars is to exercise their tactics, techniques, and procedures for occupying a mortar firing point tactically, and moving from one point to another tactically,” Bakkar said.

It’s important to evaluate the ability of all the paratroopers in the battalion to do their troop leading procedures in training so they’re confident they can do them right if they were to deploy as the Army’s Global Response Force, Bakkar explained.

Regardless of the operational tempo, the paratroopers remained on guard because anything could happen at any time, a reality best understood by leaders who have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan before.

• Date Taken: 04.27.2012
• Date Posted: 04.28.2012 10:08
• Story ID: 87531
• Location: FORT BRAGG, NC, US