Photo By Maj. Scott Kuhn | 160623-A-IN006-004- A BMP-2 provides support by fire to Ukrainian infantry during a...... read more read more
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YAVORIV, Ukraine –A platoon of Soldiers advances from defensive positions on a counterattack while infantry fighting vehicles provide support. A company commander gives instructions to junior leaders while a stern-faced battalion commander assess their progress. It is a sight not uncommon to many infantry battalions—this one just happens to be Ukrainian.
Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 72nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian Land Forces, under the watchful eye of U.S. Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, conducted a platoon live-fire here this week.
The 55-day training is part of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine rotation, which trains Ukrainian units beginning with individual tasks such as land navigation all the way through to a battalion field training exercise. The training is designed to reinforce defensive skills of the Ukrainian Land Forces in order to increase their capacity for self-defense.
According to Senior Lt. Roman Darmogray, company commander of 2nd company, his soldiers are making great strides as they near the end of their rotation. “The Americans are very experienced and we are gaining new knowledge from them every day,” he said.
This is the second battalion the soldiers of 3-15 Infantry have trained. The “Can Do” battalion will head back to Fort Stewart, Georgia following this rotation.
“They are eager to learn and are always asking questions,” said Staff Sgt. Brandon Steves, a squad leader with 3-15 Infantry. “What I noticed about this group of soldiers is they have really strong squad leaders who help keep the soldiers on task.”
A live-fire exercise consists of three stages: a dry-run iteration, an iteration with blank rounds and the live-fire itself. During the dry-run portion of the live-fire training, American soldiers walk along with the Ukrainian squads as they bound forward and clear the trenches and buildings in front of them. Sometimes a correction is given by a U.S. non-commissioned officer and then repeated by a linguist close beside. The correction is then made by the Ukrainian NCO and the “crawl” portion of the “crawl-walk-run” training continues.
Capt. Thomas Milavec, company commander of Delta Company, says that the first day of platoon live-fire training is usually the longest due to the demonstration of what a proper counter attack looks like by U.S. Soldiers followed by a slow walk-through with the Ukrainians.
Because the 1-72nd is a mechanized brigade, the platoon live-fire incorporates BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles. This heavy machinery along with the language barrier can also create problems, said Steves. “Sometimes the BMPs will move when we don’t want them to and it is difficult to stop that, so you have to be patient with it and take it slow.”
This slow, methodical training is important to the Ukrainians for a number of reasons according to Darmogray, “We are training so that we can prevent causalities and bring our soldiers home safely.”
| Date Taken: | 06.24.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2016 09:31 |
| Story ID: | 202338 |
| Location: | YAVORIV, UA |
| Web Views: | 218 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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