‘All converging on one objective’: Co. B, 1-36 Infantry takes Tarin Kalpak

Photo By Winifred Brown | Stryker crews assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, enter the Fort Bliss training village of Tarin Kalpak, north of Orogrande, N.M., April 14, 2018.  

NM, UNITED STATES

04.19.2018

Story by Winifred Brown  

Fort Bliss Public Affairs Office

By Wendy Brown
Fort Bliss Garrison Public Affairs

TARIN KALPAK, Fort Bliss – Attacking primarily from a high point south of this training village in New Mexico, dismounted Soldiers assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, secured it from opposing forces in roughly an hour April 14, 2018.
The training, part of battalion-level Spartan Focus, brought together skills learned in squad and platoon live-fire exercises. The exercise leads up to the brigade-level Ready Focus, the division-level Iron Focus and ultimately to training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, where the unit will go later this year for deployment certification.
“This helps Soldiers become a lethal fighting force,” said Sgt. Maj. Richard Smith, operations sergeant major, 1st Bn., 36th Inf. Regt., 1st SBCT, 1st AD. “We set scenarios up and we allow them to think a little bit. Where would they position weapons? How would they come in? How would they attack? … We’re trying to get that young Soldier to be that fighting machine.”
One challenge built into the attack’s scenario was that the opposing forces had similar weapons capabilities as the Soldiers, Smith said. While there were 42 opposing forces defending the village, versus about 60 Soldier taking it, the enemy had M249 light machine guns, M4 carbines and Javelin Weapon Systems, which are one-man, portable anti-tank weapons.
“The Strykers are an easy target here with any number of weapons systems that could take it out from 4,000 meters away,” Smith said. “They send the ground guys in and bring the Strykers in after them.”
Spc. Alonzo Wilson, an Infantry Soldier assigned to 1st Bn., 36th Inf. Regt., 1st SBCT, 1st AD, said he found the scenario helpful because he and his fellow Soldiers had to practice dismounting the Stryker properly and getting where they needed to be to take the village.
“This is going to have to happen overseas wherever we go,” Wilson said.
Capt. Robert Tomczak, commander, Co. B, said the attack started with a nearly 40-kilometer road march and proceeded from there.
“Our Strykers distributed platoons, moving individually and all converging on one objective, and we used our Strykers to close that distance within the last five to seven kilometers and stay outside the range of their anti-tank weapons,” Tomczak said. “We dismounted on foot through the terrain to evade the enemy’s detection and assaulted them on the objective. We did pretty well.”
The Soldiers took the village as a team, he said.
“Our platoons are learning how to work together and not just wait for myself and the first sergeant to give them direction, but really cross-talk and built a team within the company,” Tomczak said.
Tomczak said the Soldiers are impressive when it comes to executing missions.
“They’re doing it with aggression,” Tomczak said. “We saw that at platoon live fires. We saw it here … These guys are learning and building a team very well.”

• Date Taken: 04.19.2018
• Date Posted: 04.19.2018 11:45
• Story ID: 273688
• Location: NM, US