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FORT IRWIN, Calif. – Soldiers of 1st Brigade Combat Team, “Ready First,” 1st Armored Division, engaged members of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment at the Army’s premier war game facility at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, May 25 through June 12.
Ready First Brigade deployed to the mythical country of “Atropia,” which looks suspiciously like the high desert of southern California, to battle the army of “Donovia,” an aggressor state threatening stability in the region.
For two weeks, Ready First Soldiers worked to seize the initiative and key terrain while garnering and maintaining support from the local citizens caught in the middle of the conflict.
The training exercise culminated in a daylong brigade live-fire assault on the last remnants of the Donovian army – no longer played by the 11th Armored Cav Regt., but instead by plywood and plastic targets, nicknamed “Plywoodians.”
For the Soldiers participating, the training exercise was challenging and realistic.
Spc. Jeremy Trevino, medic, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st BCT, 1st AD, relied on his previous deployment to Afghanistan to succeed at NTC.
“Four of the 10 of us (medics) have been together for three years and know how to operate together,” Trevino said. “That really helped, because we sort of had to train everyone else how to work together.”
Staff Sgt. Noel Maciejewski, tanker, 3rd Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, 1st BCT, 1st AD, scored two kills against the Donovians – an anti-tank gun and an enemy squad hiding inside a building.
It would have been business as usual for Maciejewski, except at NTC he was operating a Stryker equipped with a 105 mm cannon instead of the weaponry he has used on an M1A1 Abrams battle tank.
“The controls and the ‘switchology’ are a lot different,” Maciejewski said, explaining the difference between the Stryker Mobile Gun System and the Abrams. “I’ve been on tanks the last nine and a half years. I’m basically learning everything from scratch.”
Maciejewski said Ready First’s training at NTC made him and his teammates better.
“I feel very confident in our unit,” he said. “I think we did very well and everyone is a lot better after this rotation.”
Spc. Daniel Arseneault, “ratello” (radio-telephone operator) for Company A, 3rd Bn., 41st Inf. Regt., 1st BCT, 1st AD, said he was also confident with his unit’s readiness.
“We’ve been through six months of field problems and done pretty well at all of them,” Arsenault said. “All the way from squad (situational training exercises) back in November until now, virtually every month we have been in the field.”
Those field exercises included Iron Focus in March, a month-long training event at Fort Bliss, purposed to give the brigade a trial-run at the same type of fight it would handle at NTC.
Col. Ross Coffman, commander, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, said Iron Focus prepared his unit for NTC, calling it “the toughest home-station training” he had experienced.
The rotation to NTC was the culminating training event for Coffman and Ready First, and served in part to validate the brigade for worldwide deployment.
“What I saw and what these Soldiers should take away from this training is that when working together, the Ready First Team is unstoppable,” Coffman said.
| Date Taken: | 06.10.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 01.08.2016 10:53 |
| Story ID: | 185854 |
| Location: | FORT IRWIN, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 163 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, War game: ‘Ready first’ battles notional enemies at NTC, by LTC Cain Claxton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
