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    Company commander reflects on upcoming NTC rotation

    Company commander reflects on upcoming NTC rotation

    Photo By Staff Sgt. Patrick Caldwell | Capt. Michael Phillips, La Grande, Oregon, commander of Company D, 3rd Battalion,...... read more read more

    LA GRANDE, OR, UNITED STATES

    04.08.2015

    Story by Staff Sgt. Patrick Caldwell 

    116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team

    LA GRANDE, Ore. - Success during an August rotation at the National Training Center will narrow down to overcoming a number of critical challenges for one tank company commander assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, Oregon Army National Guard.

    Capt. Michael Phillips, from La Grande, Oregon, commands the 3rd Battalion’s Delta Company and said the upcoming National Training Center (NTC) rotation is packed with challenges but will also present his unit with a number of opportunities.

    “As a tank company commander there is no better place in the world to practice,” he said of NTC.

    Phillips said one element of his command focus will center on squeezing as much knowledge out of the high-tempo schedule at the desert training center as possible.

    “The goal is for us to be better when we leave than when we got there,” he said.

    The 3rd Battalion will join its sister Army National Guard units in the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team – from Idaho and Montana – for a three-week stint at the NTC in early August. Phillips said he understands the built-in difficulty to an NTC rotation. One key piece to success for his company, Phillips said, is simple: preparation

    “It is important to make sure the unit as a whole is ready,” he said. “You know, you can’t afford to leave anything behind.”

    Preparation will revolve around crew skills honed during the past few years after the 3rd Battalion received, and began to train on the new M1-A2 Abrams System Enhanced Package (SEP) tank.

    The SEP is the newest most lethal armor weapon in the U.S Army inventory and the 3rd Battalion is one of only a few National Guard units in the nation to field the new weapons system. During the past two years the battalion conducted new equipment training on the SEP and then graduated to gunnery and maneuver trials during its yearly annual training session.

    In August, Phillips will deploy his tank company inside a harsh environment against a highly proficient opposing force, a fact he does not take lightly.

    “We will definitely be going against a force that has a better understanding of the terrain,” he said.

    While Phillips, 36, is the Delta Company commander, he is also the 3rd Battalion’s NTC project officer. His role as project officer, he said, means he secures the opportunity to view the upcoming rotation from two different leadership positions.

    “It is almost like a deployment,” Phillips, who deployed to Iraq as part of Operation New Dawn in 2010, said of the August NTC rotation.

    Phillips, who began his career as a platoon leader in the 3rd Battalion’s Charlie Company, said another big key to success in August will be managing personnel and the allocation of resources.

    “Everything we do revolves around allocation of personnel. It comes down to how you utilize your personnel most effectively,” he said.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 04.08.2015
    Date Posted: 04.27.2015 23:56
    Story ID: 161476
    Location: LA GRANDE, OR, US
    Hometown: LA GRANDE, OR, US

    Web Views: 241
    Downloads: 1

    PUBLIC DOMAIN