Photo By Sgt. Brian Johnson | Soldiers of the 1434th Engineer Company are spun upside down during rollover training...... read more read more
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CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait --Vehicle Rollovers. In a car or truck, they have the potential to cause serious injury. In the military, with a heavily armored vehicle, they can be fatal.
When a soldier has 50 pounds of extra gear, ammunition, a weapon, and doors that can weigh over 100 pounds, it becomes important for a soldier to know what to do in the event that their vehicle should rollover. Soldiers of 1434th Engineer Company practiced this type of rollover drill during their additional mobilization training in Kuwait in preparation for their mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The over 150 members of the Grayling, Michigan based National Guard unit was mobilized in June in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. They trained at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, before flying to Kuwait for the next phase of their training.
The soldiers participated in Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Egress Training, or MRAP-ET Training.
The MRAP is the new vehicle that the Army is putting into the field to help protect soldiers from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and Ambushes. The increased armor, weight (over 10,000 pounds more than a HMMWV) and height (over 13 feet) of the vehicles causes them to be top heavy and makes the MRAP more prone to rolling over. This makes the rollover training more essential.
The MRAP-ET Trainer is a specially equipped MRAP that has the ability to do controlled 360-degree spins. This allows soldiers to feel and experience a MRAP rollover in a controlled manner. As part of the exercise, when the MRAP is upside down or on its side, soldiers are required to find a working door and exit through that door. This helps simulate where after a vehicle has rolled over, if only one door was working and soldiers had to exit through that door. The MRAP-ET Trainer also gives soldiers the chance to know and feel what a critical rollover angle is for the vehicle. Anything past that angle the vehicle has a high likely hood of rolling over.
Staff Sgt. Chris Humphrey of Traverse City said that this training is extremely important. “Soldiers have lost their lives due to vehicle rollovers. This helps to get more soldiers prepared for the event of a vehicle rollover. They will also know how to react if it does happen. The more soldiers can rehearse something like this, the more their reaction becomes second nature. This will allow soldiers to be less surprised and shocked and will hopefully save many lives.”
Specialist Rick Lalonde of Cheboygan said the training was exhilarating. “Spinning around like that was a lot of fun. The training was outside of any normal training that I was used to because there was a lot of realism in this simulator. You were spun repeatedly multiple times. You were definitely disoriented when it came time to try to get out of the vehicle. They definitely tried to get you to feel the true effect of a rollover.”
Humphrey said that people were receptive to the training because of the realism. “Anytime that soldiers get to have hands on training like this, it is better remembered. Soldiers like something like this because it throws them around a bit and they think this is fun.”
Since the training has begun, there has been an 80 percent reduction in injuries to vehicle gunners.
The 1434th trained in Kuwait in early August. They recently moved to their final duty station in Iraq. The unit is anticipated to complete their mission in Iraq in June 2010.
| Date Taken: | 08.13.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 04.20.2015 21:23 |
| Story ID: | 160639 |
| Location: | CAMP BUEHRING, KW |
| Web Views: | 59 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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