Active, Guard Engineers Prove Capabilities in Virginia Sapper Stakes

FORT PICKETT, VA, UNITED STATES

05.07.2016

Story by Staff Sgt. Jason Hull  

82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs Office

Spc. Tracobie Jordan hesitated only a moment for a deep breath before flinging his aching body into the mud and wet sand. The engineer began to use his arms to pull and his legs to push through the gritty muck, attempting to balance rapid movement with keeping as low to the ground as possible. The sludge splashed around him as he worked, creeping forward beneath the low-strung wire. It leapt onto his face, mingling with the sweat and grime that had already stuck there. He sputtered slightly as he tasted some.
He’d made it halfway when he heard the grader in the black, 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion (BEB) t-shirt bark, “You touched the wire; restart the obstacle.”
Jordan paused momentarily in disbelief. Now covered from head to toe in the sticky, orange mud, he entered the obstacle again. This time he moved more slowly but kept all of his body clear of the wire strung just inches above him. Successful, he clawed his way completely free and walked to rejoin his squad. Six hours into the competition, he was only halfway through Sapper Stakes.
The 37th BEB, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, alongside two squads of engineers from their Army Total Force partners, the 116th Brigade Special Troops Battalion (BSTB), concluded two weeks of contingency response mission skills training at Fort Pickett, Va., with a rigorous, 12-hour Sapper Stakes Competition on May 7, 2016.
Three weeks ago, the engineer battalion conducted an airborne operation onto Blackstone Army Airfield with heavy drops of some of the Light Airfield Repair Package (LARP) equipment. Since then, the battalion completed engineer qualification tables seven through eight to certify sapper Paratroopers on tactical scenarios with live ammunition and demolition. The light equipment platoons repaired craters as part of their airfield damage repair mission on all three surface types: concrete, asphalt, and dirt.
For the exercise, the Virginia National Guard’s 116th BSTB joined the Eagle Battalion in the ongoing effort to support the Army Total Force Policy (ATFP). The ATFP, signed on Sept. 4, 2012, aligns the force’s active and reserve components, providing an enhanced capability to meet the national military needs. The ATFP helps ensure the nation benefits from the experiences gained in the last decade of war, facilitates better integration of the three component forces, and creates a more balanced total force.
“We were just excited about the opportunity, not only to continue some of the equipment work that we've done before, but also to embed some of our [noncommissioned officers] into your training,” said Lt. Col. Charles Martin, commander of the 116th BSTB, stationed in Fredericksburg. “This type of opportunity to get out here with some of our brothers and sisters in the in the 37th BEB is just a great opportunity for us.”
Martin expressed appreciation for the 37th BEB’s effort to integrate his engineers for the exercise.
“Lt. Col. Pastor has been a tremendous partner,” he said. “You’ve really taken our NCOs and squads and made them feel like one of your own.”
Lt. Col. Sebastian Pastor, commander of the 37th BEB, stated the training is the foundation for future combat interoperability between the National Guard and active duty units.
“We share our skill set with our brothers and sisters in the National Guard and the Army Reserve because you never know when you’ll deploy and …work with them hand-in-hand,” he said. “The BEB provides 25 to 30 percent capability that the engineer regiment can employ in support of a [BCT], so we have to rely on our partners … to provide the other 75 percent.”
According to Pastor, the relationship has been symbiotic.
“There are a lot of lessons that we learned and that they learned from us in the past two weeks.”
With shared training and knowledge fresh in the engineers’ minds, the 37th BEB designed a culminating event that Pastor hoped would be memorable.
“Sapper stakes is a grueling, challenging event in order to determine the best sapper squad within the battalion or the BSTB,” he said. “It involves all kinds of individual and collective level events.”
“The actual course itself was 12 miles. It’s about 12 hours of events, starting with demolitions, land navigation, counter-mobility in the form of employing stakes in the ground and … other random events that we threw in there to challenge our sapper squads.”
Each event required the squads to work quickly, as time was a component of scoring. The competition included Leaders Reaction Course and obstacle course events. The squads qualified with their weapons and took an Army Physical Fitness Test with the combined scores averaged for the squad and reflected in their overall competition scores.
“We stressed having … both strong and smart sappers,” said Pastor. “But in the end, the team who wins is the team with the best teamwork.”
That winning team turned out to be the visitors.
“The BSTB came out on top with my light equipment squad finishing second but first in the Eagle Battalion,” said Pastor.
“Grueling but at the same time, this is a memorable experience that the sapper squads will always take with them,” he said. “Now they know their strengths and weaknesses so they can focus on what's going to make them stronger.”
The leader of the winning squad admitted the competition was strenuous.
“The events were challenging,” said Staff Sgt. Frederic Newton, an engineer assigned to the 116th BSTB. “It was just pushing through … the pain; it was a good time.”
The enlisted engineer also valued the interoperability training experience.
“I think it … really affirms that we're doing the right things and it shows us some of the things we need to do better on,” he said. “I love coming out here and working with you guys.”
Newton is ready to do it again next year.
“I really hope we can continue to do this in the future whenever you guys come to Fort Pickett or we go down to Fort Bragg one day.”

• Date Taken: 05.07.2016
• Date Posted: 05.14.2016 08:48
• Story ID: 198105
• Location: FORT PICKETT, VA, US
• Hometown: FORT LIBERTY, NC, US