Photo By Brian Fickel | Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team,...... read more read more
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FORT STEWART, Ga. – Testing their coordinating efforts with their U.S. Air Force counterparts, the Immediate Ready Company conducted air load training March 28 at Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia.
During the last six months, the IRC, comprised of select Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, have improved their readiness to maintain the ability to deploy in support of the Global Response Force within 18 hours.
“We provide the firepower necessary to protect whatever force gets on the ground before us,” said U.S. Army Capt. Matthew Connell, commander of the IRC. “We’re kind of the muscle to help sustain the mission.”
The Global Response Force is a brigade combat team assigned to 82nd Airborne Division prepared to deploy anywhere in the world within 96 hours of notification, designed to operate in an emerging security environment with flexible, versatile and rapidly deployable forcible entry packages.
“We always have to have our bags packed, said Staff Sgt. Benito Cano, a Bradley fighting vehicle section leader of the IRC who completed a 23-month tour in Afghanistan from 2008 - 2010. “We always have to be meticulous when it comes to our weapons and our vehicles.”
To build readiness, they conducted multiple training and recall exercises to both increase their combat effectiveness and decrease the time it takes for them to load their forces and equipment onto aircraft.
“I think Alpha Company, 2-7 is the model for sustained readiness,” Connell said. “We have to continue to maintain our readiness and make sure the personnel are trained, make sure that our equipment is ready to go, and that, as a unit, we are cohesive.”
“In that six months, we’re doing deployment readiness exercises at a minimum monthly,” Connell continued. “With each repetition, we have after action reviews, we have our lessons learned, and we continue to take it a step further. I think we’ve gone a long ways of making sure that we are able to be sustained and supported once we get on the ground on the other side.”
In order to begin their mission, the IRC was required to coordinate with an air crew from 9th Airlift Squadron, 436th Airlift Wing out of Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. Previously, they rehearsed loading Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and recovery vehicles for the aforementioned onto C-17 aircraft. On this day, however, they loaded their armored track vehicles onto a C5 "Super Galaxy" aircraft.
The company’s support platoon provides maintenance, the sustainment assets and the transportation capability so the frontline troops can fight, win and live in combat, according to platoon leader, 1st Lt. Jimmy Adams.
“One of the interesting parts is the track pads on the tanks has to be a certain way so that you don’t have metal on metal contact,” Adams explained. “Our mechanics have worked the last three months to get new tracks on all the vehicles except for one. This way they can just roll on and roll off instead of having to put plywood down. That saves us time.”
As they prepare to handover their IRC mission to the next unit, leaders of 2-7th Inf. will continue instilling a combat ready mindset beyond the rotation.
| Date Taken: | 03.28.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 04.03.2017 17:03 |
| Story ID: | 229021 |
| Location: | HUNTER ARMY AIRFIELD, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 268 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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