Photo By Nathan Rivard | A U.S. Army Soldier with 251st Engineer Company (Sapper), Maine Army National Guard,...... read more read more
FORT DRUM, N.Y. - Assaulting and clearing an objective. One of a Soldier's more basic tasks. The 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) put this to the test against opposing forces during their summer annual training at Fort Drum, New York.
The 86th's mission was to enter a town in the notional country of “Atropia” and clear it of enemy combatants. These enemy opposing forces, OPFOR, were played by the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum.
Enemy Soldiers are normally perceived as evil and heinous villains, but this enemy as looking forward to helping with training.
“We're trying to get the best training value out of this as possible,” said Lt. Craig Blonigen, rifle platoon leader, Bravo Company, 2-22nd IN Regiment. “We're trying to make it realistic for the Guard Soldiers coming in.”
Realistic training is the goal for the Multi-echelon Integrated Brigade Training (MIBT). The multicomponent, multi-echelon training event exercises Reserve and active component forces to achieve goals according to approved training models.
Down the road from the objective Blonigen was commanding, another OPFOR platoon guarded small village with heavy weapons and obstacles for the 86th IBCT (MTN) to secure.
Combat engineers moved with Bangalore torpedoes towards obstacles that were blocking troop movement. The engineers used gun trucks for cover as they approached their objective. Concertina wire prevented Soldiers and HMMWVs from easily navigating through the village. When the moment came to place Bangalore torpedoes on the wire, smoke grenades were thrown over the gun truck and provided cover for combat engineers to set notional charges on the wire.
After each detonation, heavy weapons moved closer and closer to clearing the objective. Coordination throughout a unit and its support elements is key to successfully completing a mission. Blonigen believes the National Guard vs. Active Army battles are a great way to measure training.
“It's good for a force of Guard guys to go up against active guys that do this on a daily basis, for them to test themselves against us,” said Blonigen. “After this, there is an AAR [after action review] to see what they can do to improve against a force like us that does this every day or to just see how well they have been training for the last year or so in preparation for this.”
Preparation and training is key to excelling in a training event like this, but it helps when you like what you do.
“You know, you just kind of learn stuff like this by enjoying what you do, so that's why this is really fun to do,” said Blonigen.
| Date Taken: | 06.22.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 07.02.2015 18:30 |
| Story ID: | 169010 |
| Location: | FORT DRUM, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 90 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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