Enhancing basic warrior skills while deployed

Photo By Maj. A. Sean Taylor | Staff Sgt. Mitchell Tull II, communication and electronics specialist with the 82nd Sustainment Brigade attached to the 310th Forward Advise and Assist Team, provides security while practicing reaction to contact as part of unit battle drill training exercises in Iraq. The 310th A&A team is made up of about 40 Soldiers from the U.S. Army Reserve 310th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), Indianapolis, and the active Army 82nd Sustainment Brigade, Fort Bragg, N.C. The team came together at Fort Hood, Texas, at the beginning of the year and was “boots on ground” by the beginning of February. Their mission is to advise and assist the Iraqi armed forces with logistics operations.  

IRAQ

04.10.2015

Story by Capt. A. Sean Taylor 

310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command

Iraq - For Soldiers with the 310th Forward Advise and Assist Team serving in Iraq, combat training does not stop because of deployment. On Fridays, typically a day off for Iraqi troops, Soldiers with the 310th A&A kit up and run through basic warrior tasks and battle drill skills consisting of the “3 to 5 second buddy rush” or “reacting to an ambush.”

“Even though we brief what to do in case of contact prior to every mission, we still need to practice it,” Sgt. Maj. Terence Clay, the 310th A&A sergeant major, explained. “It needs to become second nature, muscle memory, should we be required to act.”

Battle drills are taught and rehearsed on a weekly basis. One week you may find Soldiers low crawling across the parking lot behind the headquarters or practicing convoy procedures through the vacant buildings and lots on base.

“You never know when you need to use these skills,” Sgt. 1st Class Michael Bowman, the battle noncommissioned officer in charge of the training, said. “We may be prepared, but when you don’t use it, you lose it.”

During one training scenario, two vehicles with eight Soldiers inside rolled down the tiny dirt roads through a section of the base filled with abandoned living quarters. As the vehicles approached a narrow passage, trainers jumped out blanketing the vehicles with a cloud of white baking soda from fire extinguishers followed by simulated small arms fire.

“I wanted to see how the teams would react to an ambush,” said Master Sgt. Gerald McIntyre, A&A NCOIC and instructor for the training. He wanted to see basically six things: 1) their action on contact, 2) how they reacted to a disabled vehicle, 3) how they dismounted from the vehicles, 4) how they communicated with each other and whether they radioed back reports to headquarters, 5) how they fought through the contact and 6) whether they followed the basic individual training techniques they have been taught throughout their careers in the military.

The 310th A&A team is made up of about 40 Soldiers from the U.S. Army Reserve 310th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), Indianapolis, and the active Army 82nd Sustainment Brigade, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The team came together at Fort Hood, Texas, at the beginning of the year and was “boots on ground” by the beginning of February. Their mission is to advise and assist the Iraqi armed forces with logistics operations.

“Battle drills enhance our ability to be a well-oiled team,” Clay explained. “A Soldier’s unspoken mission is to serve and protect their brother and sister to their right and left.”

“The more you practice, the better you get and the safer you’ll be,” Bowman included. “It also gets us working together as a team. During the week, we are all doing different things and this helps us be more cohesive.”

Almost daily, different team members travel to meet with and work side-by-side with Iraqi Security Forces. Their main goal is to win the fight against ISIL and, to win, an army needs superior logistic support.

The 310th A&A is a team of very talented logisticians ready to enhance ISF logistical needs. They are also skilled fighters, ready to respond to an enemy threat, if required.

• Date Taken: 04.10.2015
• Date Posted: 04.17.2015 12:55
• Story ID: 160368
• Location: IQ
• Hometown: FORT CAVAZOS, TX, US
• Hometown: FORT LIBERTY, NC, US
• Hometown: INDIANAPOLIS, IN, US