Oregon Guard unit preps for NTC

Photo By Staff Sgt. Patrick Caldwell | A Bradley fighting vehicle assigned to Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, Oregon Army National Guard prepares to negotiate a gunnery table at the Orchard Combat Training Center south of Boise, Idaho. This month the 3rd Battalion will begin the first phase of an ambitious logistical exercise in preparation for its rotation at the National Training Center (NTC) in August.  

LA GRANDE, OR, UNITED STATES

04.15.2015

Story by Staff Sgt. Patrick Caldwell 

116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team

LA GRANDE, Oregon – The 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, Oregon Army National Guard is scheduled in April to kick off one of its largest logistical efforts since the end of the war on terror.

The battalion will begin an ambitious operation to stage equipment in two geographic locations in preparation for an August deployment to the U.S. Army’s National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California.

The combined arms battalion – consisting of Guard units from eight towns stretched across the state – will begin to move its tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and other equipment to the former Umatilla Army Depot in Oregon throughout April. From there, the equipment will be transferred by rail to the Orchard Training Center south of Boise Idaho. After gunnery trials in June, the battalion’s equipment will be shipped again by rail to Fort Irwin, situated on the edge of the Mohave Desert.

“This is a substantial logistical undertaking,” the commander of the 3rd Battalion, Lt. Col. Brian Dean, said.

Not since the unit’s last combat deployment – in 2010 to Iraq – has it tackled this large of a logistical challenge.
“It is huge. It is like a deployment,” Sgt. 1st Class Shannon Hively of La Grande, said. Hively, who is the battalion’s logistical non-commissioned officer in charge ¬said the movement of equipment will be a challenge.

“It is seriously like prepping for a deployment. Obviously, one of the biggest worries is getting everything down there,” he said.

Hively said the battalion will load and then ship more than 200 pieces of equipment. Later, as the August deployment to the National Training Center arrives, the battalion will also be responsible for transporting more than 800 Guard members to California.

“It is all about how we get people from point A to point B,” Hively said.

Dean said his unit will be compelled to juggle a series of competing priorities from April until the August NTC rotation. Even now, final plans regarding how to move more than 800 men and women in the 3rd Battalion to the NTC are being finalized. He said in early August, Guard members will converge on their armories and then either fly or travel by bus to the U.S. Army training center in California.

“That’s with all of their field gear, weapons, optics and other systems required for them to complete their combat and support missions in a deployment environment. Once we arrive we must organize, get our vehicles and systems ready to deploy and conduct local training,” he said.

Hively pointed out the regional Guard unit will actually tackle two large logistical challenges, with the first one arriving in June when the battalion conducts its gunnery trials south of Boise.

“June is a big undertaking as well. It is like an annual training before an annual training,” he said.
However, he said that he isn’t worried about whether the battalion can accomplish its mission.

“We don’t fail. We are used to adversity and we always succeed,” he said.

Dean said a great deal of preparation will be necessary to move the eastern Oregon Guard unit.

“The amount of coordination and prior planning is enormous. You can’t afford to forget anything. Then imagine doing it with more than 800 soldiers from as far away as Medford or Helena, Montana,” he said.

The 3rd Battalion’s three-week rotation through the NTC will also include other Guard units from Idaho and Montana. The NTC is considered the premier training area in the world, Dean said, and the eastern Oregon Guard Soldiers will face some of the toughest training in their careers there.

Hively said he is eager to begin the three-week test on the Mohave Desert.

“I am looking forward to the challenge so we can go down there and prove ourselves,” he said.

Then he paused.

“But I will be glad when it is over,” he added.
The 3rd Battalion consists of Oregon Army National Guard units from Woodburn, Hood River, The Dalles, Hermiston, Pendleton, La Grande, Baker City and Ontario. The battalion is part of the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team, made up of Guard units from Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

• Date Taken: 04.15.2015
• Date Posted: 04.16.2015 23:59
• Story ID: 160303
• Location: LA GRANDE, OR, US