188th helps Army save money with MIBT

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Stephanie Widemond | Col. Christopher Ramsey, 188th Infantry Brigade commander, asks the audience who has been to a rotation at one of the Combat Training Centers during a Multi-echelon Integrated Brigade Training planning conference. As a First Army Division East training brigade, 188th will provide the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Vermont National Guard, and the 116th IBCT, Virginia National Guard, with a CTC-like experience this summer at Fort Drum, N.Y.  

FORT STEWART, GEORGIA, UNITED STATES

02.03.2015

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Stephanie Widemond 

188th Infantry Brigade

FORT STEWART, Ga. – The 188th Infantry Brigade maintains a training partnership with both the National Guard and Reserves by training advising and assisting them with collectives tasks necessary to remain deployable. Even though the mobilization cycles for both components have been greatly reduced as the mission in Afghanistan winds down, the need for proficiency remains and Multi-echelon Integrated Brigade Training is a way of doing it.

“We are going to do everything we can to ensure that the two organizations that we are training see us a professional organization, focused on their readiness, that is competent and capable and has developed a plan for them to be better,” said Col. Christopher Ramsey, 188th Infantry Brigade’s commander, during the opening remarks at a MIBT planning conference, Feb 3-5, 2015.

He addressed a leadership task force comprised of the 188th, the 205th Infantry Brigade, and their subordinate units responsible for planning and executing the MIBT taking place this summer at Fort Drum, New York. The training units are the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Vermont National Guard; and the 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Virginia National Guard.

Most Soldiers expect a month-long rotation in "the box" as part of the Army Force Generation cycle, but not all National Guard and Reserve units have the opportunity rotate through the Joint Readiness Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, or the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, because the number of slots available are limited. The MIBT provides a similar experience in the limited time that the reserve components have.

“The easiest way to think about the MIBT is to take an XCTC and a brigade warfighter and put them together at the same time. We are using a lot of lessons learned that we used before at these warfighters and xctcs in order to understand how we would do it as First Army,” said Maj. Joshua Clark, plans officer, 205th Infantry Brigade out of Camp Atterbury, Ind.

A brigade warfighter exercise combines forces from across the Army, focusing on each units command capability to adapt its operations on a complex battlefield against a capable opposition force. The warfighter mimics what units would do during combat operations as closely as possible.

An eXportable Combat Training Capability is a Brigade field training exercise designed to certify proficiency for platoons. It provides a similar experience to the CTCs and lasts either 15 or 21 days. The XCTC relies on private contractors to provide the entire training package, so that the National Guard focuses solely on the mission.

With budgetary cuts and the Army downsizing, First Army is using the MIBT as a way of offering the National Guard and the Army a less expensive alternative, using the accumulated institutional knowledge and experience of its observer-coach/trainers.

“That is the most beneficial part of the MIBT. There are only a certain of rotations available a year for units to train on. The MIBT opens up the opportunity for anywhere between two and four brigades to participate and have a CTC-like experience. It’s going to increase readiness and provide more opportunities for the training unit," said Clark.

“They are going to have world class O-C/Ts covering down on them who are going to be focused on helping them see themselves better and ultimately increase readiness,” said Ramsey.

The exercise is designed to be a Combat Training Center-like experience which enables the training unit to maintain a high state of readiness, even when they don’t have a mission to mobilize.

“The biggest difference between the combat training centers and the MIBT is that at the CTCs the lanes are already established. The units come in and train with minor changes to the pre-established terrain. With the MIBT, we completely tailor the lanes. We build them from scratch,” said Capt. William Bader, executive officer, 1-306th Infantry Regiment, 188th.

The focus of the MIBT planning conference was to make sure the exercise in the summer helps both the 86th and 116th remained trained and readily deployable.

“Whether the training takes place at JRTC, NTC, or the MIBT, the individuals training are going to get trained,” said Bader.

“This is a huge task that First Army is taking on. We own it! At the end of the day, it’s not about us, it about the Army and it’s about readiness,” said Ramsey.

• Date Taken: 02.03.2015
• Date Posted: 02.06.2015 15:02
• Story ID: 153811
• Location: FORT STEWART, GEORGIA, US