Train as you Fight: Patriot Battery hones their gunnery skills

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Claudio Tejada | Soldiers with Delta Battery, 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery conduct nighttime operations during during the unit’s Table XII Collective Advanced Gunnery Certification on Dec, 06, 2017 in Okinawa, Japan.  

OKINAWA, JAPAN

12.06.2017

Courtesy Story

94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command

“Train as you fight” is a phrase that many Soldiers continuously hear from the day they join the Army. With emerging threats and provocations within the Pacific area of operation, the evolving air defense mission of Delta Battery, 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment realized the necessity to modernize training evaluation and its metrics.

The Battery became the first in the Pacific to successfully complete a Table XII Collective Advanced Gunnery Certification while manning the Patriot Missile Defense System.

The primary focus of a Table XII certification within the Patriot community is to successfully conduct an exercise at an unsurpassed level of expertise that mimics the unit’s current operational environment.

“The requirement for advanced training in this area of operations is greater than any unit I have operated within,” said Sgt.1st Class Pablo Rodriguez, fire control platoon sergeant for Delta Battery.

The battery’s Patriot crews trained advanced air battle management scenarios, hasty missile reload operations, and rapid alert state assumptions under changing variables.

With the current missile threats in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, the air defenders of Delta Battery take every training opportunity seriously.

“Certifying our Soldiers requires teamwork and working through process to accomplish the mission,” said Rodriquez. There is no room for error, he added.

The training objectives during the exercise included: fully manned operations throughout the exercise, chemical attack scenarios, implementing changing threats and higher headquarters orders that repeatedly changed the unit’s posture.

“The Battery remained cohesive throughout the exercise. The intensity of the exercise helped create a shared understanding of why our role in the region is so important,” said1st Sgt. Christopher Blevins.

Blevins added the lessons they learned during their four-week training exercise would only improve the battery’s capabilities in their air defense mission to protect allies and preserve peace in the Pacific theater.

Story by 1st Lt. Christopher Neff

• Date Taken: 12.06.2017
• Date Posted: 12.27.2017 15:25
• Story ID: 260338
• Location: OKINAWA, JP