Photo By Adam Holguin | Soldiers from Battery A, 1st Battalion, 113th Field Artillery Regiment, North Carolina...... read more read more
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FORT BLISS, Texas --Battery A, 1st Battalion, 113th Field Artillery Regiment, North Carolina Army National Guard, departed the Silas L. Copeland Arrival Departure Air Control Group airfield May 19, for a deployment to Bahrain.
The upcoming mission on the island country in the Persian Gulf is a pivot for the studies of Btry. A, 1st Bn., 113th FA Regt., who will work a different mission than the normal field artillery mission set.
“Our mission is a security force mission to protect the naval air base in Bahrain,” said 1st Lt. Richard Carter Lemmerman, executive officer, Btry. A, 1st Bn., 113th FA Regt. “We are going to be doing roving patrols, gate guard, entry control points, things of that nature.”
In preparation for this mission, the FA unit spent time training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and Fort Bliss, Texas in advance of their deployment. While training at Fort Bliss, the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization, and Security coordinated Btry. A, 1st Bn., 113th FA Regt.’s training, which included joint forces training with U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force service members.
“The training while we have been here at Fort Bliss has been fantastic, we got hands on training with subject matter experts that Fort Bliss provided for us,” Lemmerman said. “The culminating training exercise was really great. We got practice securing a forward operating base and worked with Navy and Air Force personnel integrated into our units. It was great practice for the deployment.”
“A lot of our work over the past month has been working with some the Navy (and Air Force), getting that joint forces collaboration,” said 1st Lt. Thomas Wakefield, platoon leader, Second Forward Platoon.
“In addition to the Navy, we will be working very closely with the Bahrainis, as well as civilian contractors,” continued Wakefield. “So that has been our main focus, trying to organize that collaboration.”
The training completed at Fort Bliss benefitted the unit in other ways than practicing a joint forces effort, such as refreshing and expanding skill sets, adjusting to a hot climate, and creating unit cohesion.
“Being out here has absolutely helped with the unit morale,” said Wakefield, “we started as a battery and then the mission got changed and we ended up pulling people in from all over the state of North Carolina...Everyone is working well with one another and has really come together as a conglomeration of people from different units.”
Spc. Andrew Moore, assistant team leader, who previously deployed to Afghanistan, has noticed a change in the unit since training began.
“It’s been cool to watch some of the younger guys that haven’t deployed, over the course of the training in Fort Bragg combined with the training here, to see them mature and really grow as soldiers,” said Moore, “It’ll be cool to see the final product when we get downrange.”
| Date Taken: | 06.04.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 06.04.2015 13:14 |
| Story ID: | 165492 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TX, US |
| Hometown: | LINCOLNTON, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 473 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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