592nd Ordnance Company Deploys to Poland for Exercise Anakonda 16

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Lloyd Shellenberger | A PLS truck retrieves containers from the port for Exercise Anakonda 16 to deliver to the 592nd Ordnance for processing and distribution at the Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area  

DRAWSKO POMORSKIE, POLAND

06.08.2016

Story by Sgt. Daniel Lybeck 

364th Expeditionary Sustainment Command

DRAWSKO POMORSKIE TRAINING AREA, Poland – No matter the size of the ammunition, if soldiers can shoot it, the men and women of the U.S. Army Reserve 592nd Ordnance Company can supply it.

The 592nd, based in both Billings and Butte, Montana, are providing ammunition support for 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3d Infantry Division, based in Fort Stewart, Georgia, the Albanian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian armies at Exercise Anaconda 2016, taking place throughout Poland, June 7-17.

Exercise Anakonda 2016 is a Polish-led, multinational exercise with more than 31,000 military participants from more than 20 nations. The U.S. Army Reserve has approximately 1,000 soldiers, of the nearly 12,000 U.S. troops, providing sustainment, logistics, engineer, and medical capabilities for the exercise.

The job of the 592nd is to maintain the ammunition supply point and provided on-time distribution of everything from small arms to larger tank and rocket ordnance.

With a little more than 30 soldiers from the 529th on the ground, 1st Sgt. Marco Piedra, from Billings, Montana, said that many of them are serving with the unit for their first deployment. Getting them ready for the mission was a key to their success for individual and unit readiness.

“Most of the soldiers are fresh out of Army Initial Training, Piedra said. “They come over here and start putting their hands on the live ammunition which helps give them the experience. So the next time they deploy, they will remember this experience and know what to do. It makes their job a lot easier.”

Sgt. 1st Class Josh Borner, from Billings, Montana, said the unit readiness is more than “dotting the I's and crossing the T's. Our unit hasn't deployed since 2010. A lot of our soldiers don't get a lot of time to work in our MOS (military occupational specialty) so training events like this give us the opportunity to work in our MOS. They may get to see bits and pieces of it at AIT but here they get to see the whole picture.”

Part of that whole picture is working with the active duty ammunition supply specialists from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Demetrius Lewis, the brigade ammunition officer, said working with the 592nd soldiers has been a great experience for them and his soldiers as well.

“The soldiers are getting the training that they need and they are learning,” Lewis said. “They usually don't get this training in the rear. They are managing inventory and learning the different types of ammunition.”

He said his six active duty soldiers have been working with the 592nd soldiers and the experience has been rewarding for both units.

“They (U.S. Army Reserve) blend in very well. Everybody is excited to do something. We are one team and we are going to figure it all out together. I told them (my soldiers) if they don't know something you need to teach them and they may teach you something that you don't know. Everybody serves in a different way.

-30-


EXERCISE ANAKONDA 16
Story by Sgt. 1st Class Lloyd Shellenberger
79th SSC Public Affairs NCO

Photos by Maj. Jay Baker
364 ESC Public Affairs Officer

• Date Taken: 06.08.2016
• Date Posted: 06.09.2016 03:39
• Story ID: 200461
• Location: DRAWSKO POMORSKIE, PL
• Hometown: BILLINGS, MT, US
• Hometown: BUTTE, MT, US
• Hometown: PLAINS, MT, US