Photo By Staff Sgt. Candace Mundt | Military vehicles line up in a staging area in preparation for a ground assault convoy...... read more read more
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The 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of 3rd Infantry Division kicked off an all encompassing brigade training event with a joint forcible entry, or JFE, operation June 26, at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
A JFE is meant to seize, hold and expand a lodgment, where an organization intends to insert itself, while operating in enemy territory.
The Spartan Brigade conducted the JFE operation as part of Marne Focus, a division level training exercise that 2IBCT is using to test their ability to coordinate in an austere environment from the out stretched companies, through each battalion, and up to the centralized brigade headquarters' tactical operation center. They are also being validated for an upcoming rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana.
"There are so many moving pieces and parts," said Army Maj. Paul McKinney, 2IBCT brigade aviation officer. "We have every battalion in the unit doing something out here. Sequencing and organizing them to move at the right time is really complex."
The main effort for this exercise fell on 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, who entered the training area via UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters in complete darkness and moved through a heavily wooded area on foot to secure the lodgment.
"This training puts leaders in a very uncomfortable place, in that we don't necessarily know where the enemy is," said Army Capt. William Horan, commander of Company C, 3-15. "We have ideas of where the enemy is and what his task and purpose might be, but the reality on the ground could be a little different."
In addition to keeping an eye out for opposition, Horan said gaining situational awareness of friendly forces was also a challenge due to the terrain and limited communication channels.
"It's a process of being more comfortable with knowing less," Horan continued. "Sometimes there's going to be that ambiguity. Sometimes there will be that uncertainty. You've got to rapidly move to gain and maintain the initiative against an uncertain enemy."
After the lodgment was successfully secured, ground assault convoys moved into the area to set up a base of operations, and an airdrop was conducted to test airborne resupply assets and procedures.
"We'll come in and drop a container delivery system, or CDS, which can hold anything from bullets to food. In this case it's going to be food and concertina wire," said Air Force Lt. Col. Richard Clark, senior air mobility liaison officer with the 624th Mobility Support Operations Squadron.
Clark said transporting supplies by air alleviates most of the risk to troops on ground because they can receive shipments from a safe environment. McKinney added that it is also the quickest way to get supplies into the battlefield.
"It's what's actually going on in Afghanistan, and it's happened in Iraq," Clark said. "We've been doing it since World War II, and It's something that is, for air mobility, where we hit the cutting edge."
Clark said each CDS can weigh up to 8,000 pounds, and one C-130 Hercules aircraft can drop off 16 CDSs during one trip.
The men and women of 2IBCT not only took this opportunity to refine their tactics and procedures, but also to foster teamwork.
"There's a lot of camaraderie you're going to build," McKinney said in regards to units training together in the field. "These are the same people we've worked with over and over again."
"You can predict how people are going to react in certain situations. So, you know when you go to JRTC or a real world operation, what you can count on someone for, and what kind of decisions they're going to make."
Horan has noticed the esprit de corps in his company after training and working together, led to operational success.
"I think organizations work better when people feel comfortable, just because they take initiative and are more audacious," Horan said. "I think in this company we all feel very… I don't think it's relaxed, it's comfort that comes from confidence."
The 3-15, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment and 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment also rotated through a combined arms live fire exercise throughout Marne Focus, allowing each battalion to run a security mission.
| Date Taken: | 06.26.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 07.08.2015 10:36 |
| Story ID: | 169388 |
| Location: | FORT STEWART, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 28 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Spartan Brigade tests soldiers, leaders, procedures during joint operation training, by SSG Candace Mundt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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