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    We Are Soldiers First Company completes basic soldier skills course during annual training

    We Are Soldiers First Company completes basic soldier skills course during annual training

    Photo By Pfc. Haley Haile | Soldiers with the 871st Troop Command Headquarters and Headquarters Company end an...... read more read more

    FORT CHAFFEE, AR, UNITED STATES

    05.18.2015

    Story by Pfc. Haley Haile 

    119th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

    FORT CHAFFEE, Ark. – Soldiers with the 871st Troop Command Headquarters and Headquarters Company participated in Individual Movement Techniques training exercise during an annual training event here.

    The Individual Movement Techniques training is taught as a refresher on the basic soldier skills that include moving under fire, throwing grenades, assaulting the enemy, and casualty assessment and evacuation. Instructors from the Pre-mobilization Training Assistance Element discussed the course with the soldiers before they began. Then followed each group through the course, ensuring they were executing the movements properly and motivating them along the way.

    “After today there has probably been a new found meaning on all of the different tasks: How to move, communicate, shoot and treat patients,” reflected Capt. Samuel Moore, commander of the 871st Troop Command Headquarters and Headquarters Company. “Those are things that we don’t really focus on at HHC that much, but in a real-life situation, if they ever did get deployed, those are some of the basic skills they would use.”

    The course that the soldiers completed included movement and communication drills, three-to-five second rushes in open areas, high and low crawling, throwing grenades and rushing the enemy. These tasks were completed while the instructors were simulating enemy fire and mortar round explosions and tossing smoke grenades in the mix. Once the movement course was complete, the soldiers had to evaluate, secure and evacuate a casualty. The course is physically and mentally demanding, but also allows your group to learn to work as a team in combat situations.

    “It was awesome,” expressed Sgt. Melissa Withers, human resource noncommissioned officer for the 871st Troop Command. “I’m usually in the admin office, so it was a good refresher on basic individual movements and getting ready for combat.”

    “Doing our jobs, a lot of us are sitting behind a desk, we are making the TOC (Tactical Operations Center) and the ALOC (Army Logistics Operation Center) run, those are our tasks as a battalion; but we also have to understand that we are soldiers first, so we can’t lose sight of those basic skills,” stressed Moore. “If we don’t practice, we get out of practice, and if we get out of practice, we forget.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 05.18.2015
    Date Posted: 05.21.2015 12:02
    Story ID: 164052
    Location: FORT CHAFFEE, AR, US
    Hometown: NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR, US

    Web Views: 46
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN