FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska – Soldiers with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division left Alaska today for the warmer weather and a training opportunity found in Fort Polk, La.
More than 500 Soldiers of the Stryker brigade deployed today from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska en route to the Army’s Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk for a 30-day exercise. Over the next three days 1,100 Soldiers from the Stryker brigade will be deploying as part of this exercise at JRTC.
The 1/25th headed to JRTC to support the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. The 4/25th is scheduled to conduct their brigade-level maneuver exercise from April 12-30.
More than 200 Soldiers from the 1/25th will directly support 4/25 and provide additional combat power and mobility to their sister brigade combat team. The rest of the 1/25th Soldiers deploying will serve as opposing forces and exercise administrators through the four-week event.
Preparing a unit to execute an exercise of this caliber and magnitude requires an immense amount of planning, preparation and train-up by the unit and its members.
“It’s taken quite a bit of time to prepare for," said 1st Lt. David Weir, a platoon leader with A Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment and a native of Oswego, Ill.
The administrative and support aspects for an exercise of this size also requires a large amount of manpower, planning and allocated resources. In order to ensure 4/25th receives quality training that is as realistic and thorough as possible, 1/25th will provide observer coach trainers to help mentor 4/25th staff members and leaders; simulations controllers that create combat-like injects to the exercise; and an opposing force that accurately represents a real-world potential enemy force and well versed in current techniques and tactics.
Preparing for this exercise involves not only the units but also the family members of the 1,100 Soldiers deploying away from their homes for 30 days. Though this exercise only simulates real-world deployment activities in a combat zone, the impact on the units, the Soldiers, their families and the community is very much realistic and reminiscent of the combat deployments the 1/25th experienced over the past decade.
Said Weir, "[A Company spent] the past few weeks getting prepared in terms of our packing lists; getting all our gear squared away; making sure we got everybody that needs to be going, going; taking care of personal stuff in the Soldier's lives; making sure their families are squared away.”