Dagger Brigade maintains safety, trains for emergency situations

Photo By Sgt. Hubert Delany | A Soldier wth the 299th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, crawls out of the gunner seat of a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Egress Trainer during a vehicle roll-over exercise at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, April 4, 2018. The training teaches Soldiers how to effectively react in the event of a vehicle roll-over. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Hubert D. Delany III / 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)
  

GRAFENWOEHR, GERMANY

04.04.2018

Story by Spc. Hubert Delany 

22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment   

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany —The U.S. Army makes the safety and welfare of its Soldiers a high priority and implements training measures to reduce the chance of Soldiers being injured.

One such measure, the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Egress Trainer (MET), assisted Soldiers from 299th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, in executing the proper procedures during a vehicle roll-over exercise at Grafenwoehr, Germany April 4, 2018.

“My team and I have heard of roll-overs before, but we had no idea the training was going to be as intense as it was,” said Pfc. Matthew Aguilar, who participated in the event and is a M1 Abrams tank system maintainer with the 299th BSB. “This was a really great opportunity.”

The purpose of the MET and the event was to train the Dagger Brigade Soldiers on how to help themselves, as well as members of their team, egress a vehicle in the event of a vehicle roll over.

Aguilar, a Bakersfield, California native, said that he thinks the training he and his fellow Soldiers received will help them from freezing up in the event of a roll-over.

“One of our biggest fears as Soldiers is if one of us gets in an accident, that they might not be able to help himself the rest of the team,” said Aguilar. “That didn't happen with us. Immediately when everyone had to exit the vehicle we were all looking around to see who needed help.”

Aguilar said he believed that he and his team are “100-percent better prepared” if something like this happened in real life.

The MET works by suspending the chassis section of a military vehicle inside a cylindrical metal frame. The machine operators then spin the frame with the troops inside a full 360 degrees to simulate a vehicle roll-over.

“What this system actually does is critical,” said David Darnell, a Soldier training program manager for U.S. Army Europe. “This is training that you can have any kind of simulation. You can make the training much more complicated by mixing things up and giving the Soldiers the realistic training they deserve.”

During the training, the machine operators worked to give each group of Soldiers different experiences through combinations of rotations, as well as other Soldiering tasks, to give participants a more-realistic and personalized training exercise.

Each Soldier was required to engage and disengage combat locks on the vehicle’s doors, keep a fellow Solder from slipping out of the gunner seat and operate a harness while upside-down.

“The best part for all of this as a DoD civilian, especially because most of us are ex-military, is that we remember how things were 20 years ago,” said Darnell reflecting on his years of service as an Army officer. “We realize that teamwork between the Soldiers is critical. Take the gunner for example. The Soldiers who are sitting in the back seats have
to pull him down and keep him secure to make sure his head doesn't stick out of the vehicle if it’s rolling.”

The U.S. Army identified the need for vehicle roll-over training in 2003 when the U.S. Army Forces Commander, Gen. Larry Ellis, was moved by the deaths of three Soldiers who were killed in a Stryker roll-over accident.

By September 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense issued regulations requiring that all Soldiers deploying to Afghanistan or Iraq must have some kind of roll-over training.

The Dagger Brigade Soldiers, deployed in support of Atlantic Resolve, practiced their roll-over training prior to their deployment and used this opportunity to maintain and use the past knowledge learned.

“These Soldiers really learned how to keep their heads on straight,” said Staff Sgt. Ernest Charbonier, a M1 Abrams tank system maintainer with 299th BSB and one of the operators of the MET. “Despite their regular duties on our deployment, they still remained focused on their training and their battle buddies. The Soldiers did great while they were here.”

The roll-over training the Solders went through is not just for U.S. troops, but also available to multinational units who request it and who come to train alongside their U.S. counterparts.

Currently, there are four MET and eight Humvee Egress Assistance Trainers in U.S. Army Europe and hundreds of roll-over trainers throughout the Army.

• Date Taken: 04.04.2018
• Date Posted: 04.04.2018 14:58
• Story ID: 271750
• Location: GRAFENWOEHR, DE
• Hometown: GRAFENWOEHR, BY, DE
• Hometown: FORT RILEY, KS, US
• Hometown: MANHATTAN, KS, US
• Hometown: WICHITA, KS, US