Logisticians learn to work as a team at training exercise

Photo By Maj. Marvin Baker | The 364th ESC dramatically increased their war-fighting functions and abilities during the CSTX at Fort McCoy, Wis. During the scenario at Fort McCoy, the 364th ESC controlled the missions for more than 150 military units that moved supplies over an area of nearly 3,000 square miles.  

FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

08.28.2015

Story by Capt. Marvin Baker 

364th Expeditionary Sustainment Command

FORT MCCOY, Wis. - People fill their summers with vacations at all-inclusive resorts, road trips or afternoons at the park. That’s true for many Soldiers as well. However, for nearly 200 Soldiers in the 364th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), they also fit in more than 14 days of tough and realistic annual training at the Combat Support Training Exercise 86-15-03 this year at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.

The CSTX is a multi-component 21-day training event that brings together more than 60 Army Reserve units that complete scenario-based training replicating real-world situations.

For the 364th ESC, that means Soldiers get to practice their war-fighting functions. The 364th ESC headquarters is responsible for coordinating logistical support in a deployed environment. The CSTX is the unit’s culminating event that gets the team one step closer to being ready for any upcoming deployment, said Col. Kenneth Buck, the unit’s chief of operations officer.

Soldiers who participated in the CSTX worked alongside other experienced service members and observer-controller trainers who guided them through their war-fighting functions in a simulated combat situation.

Although the combat is simulated at CSTX, Soldiers must prepare. That’s why members of the 364th ESC spent nearly every battle training assembly this year practicing and setting the right conditions for success here.

“The purpose of all the practice each battle assembly we did - setting up the DRASH tents, the tactical networks, and the office space was to make it easier for us to hit the ground running during CSTX,” said Sgt. 1st Class Reko Parker, the unit’s operations center noncommissioned officer in charge.

The CSTX also provides annual training for hundreds of other Soldiers who have a mission to support the training exercise. Some of those units specialized in equipment aerial delivery, quartermasters, military police, and water purification. Whether Soldiers are packing and delivering supplies from a cargo plane or participating in stabilization activities in a foreign country, they get realistic training that better prepares them when called to duty.

Halfway through their duty at CSTX, Soldiers in the 364th ESC dramatically increased their war-fighting functions and abilities, said Col. David Hammons, the unit’s chief of staff.

“At about day five, I felt we turned the corner and things started to come together,” he said.

The 364th ESC’s primary mission is to command sustainment brigades that provide combat support and combat service support in the areas of supply, maintenance, transportation, field services and the functional brigades or battalions that provide medical, general engineering and construction, smoke generation, biological detection and decontamination support. The command is designed to deploy into a theater of operations, assume command of the logistical units in place and provide oversight and materiel management. The command will report to a theater sustainment command while in theater.

During the scenario at Fort McCoy, the 364th ESC controlled the missions for more than 150 military units that moved supplies over an area of nearly 3,000 square miles. Some of the training for logistics Soldiers requires them to accurately track where troops and trucks are located while anticipating where combat commanders might need those resources in the future. Other training tests Soldiers’ ability to respond to an attack at the base camp or to simply growing accustomed to wearing several pounds of tactical protective equipment.

Spc. Kathryn Cheney, a wheeled vehicle mechanic with the 660th Ordnance Company based out of Pocatello, Idaho, said, “I am learning more about how logistics works at a much higher headquarters than I am used to."

“So many people here have been very helpful and have helped me learn a lot about this new job,” she added.

The focus of the training is to test and validate combat support and combat service support units like transportation companies, military police, and engineers. The CSTX put Soldiers in a stability operations environment. From the very beginning, Soldiers in the 364th ESC came to Fort McCoy and began conducting their operations as if they were deployed. First they conducted a reception and integration phase. The unit then set up an area of operations, established life support, established command and communications, and started performing operations.

When the exercise is completed, Soldiers will conduct a reverse phase and redeploy back to their home stations.
For Soldiers in the 364th ESC, summer time isn’t just for vacations. It’s also an important time to learn how they fit into defending the nation.

“This training allows Soldiers to see how we integrate into the battlefield,” said Parker. “It shows us how our unit sustains the fight.”

• Date Taken: 08.28.2015
• Date Posted: 08.28.2015 12:55
• Story ID: 174558
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US