AFNORTH gets back to basics with Army Warrior Training

Photo By Gregory Jones | Sgt. William Buttner, B. Company, Allied Forces North Battalion’s Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Noncommissioned Officer, provides training in decontamination procedures during AFNORTH’s recent Army Warrior Training event held on Chieveres Air Base. As part of the AWT, Soldiers, in squad sized groups, trained in warrior tasks including react to contact, decontamination procedures, medical first aid, and room clearing. (Photo by Greg Jones, USANATO Bde. PAO)  

BELGIUM

03.29.2018

Story by Gregory Jones 

U.S. Army NATO

Chievres Air Base, Belgium, March 29, 2018—Responding to artillery, clearing rooms, searching detainees, and calling in 9-line medevacs, Soldiers from Allied Forces North Battalion got back to the basics of warrior tasks and drills during the battalion’s recent Army Warrior Training.

“It’s all those basic things that we learned while we were in basic training, up until now,” said Staff Sgt. Burnell Stewart, AFNORTH Battalion medic, who organized and oversaw the battalions AWT.

The AWT began with a battalion run to set the tone and build esprit-de-corps. Then, trainers grouped the Soldiers into squad sized elements, appointed squad leaders for the training, and provided an overview to participants who then proceeded from training station to training station in a ‘Round Robin’ fashion.

Tasks trained included basic land navigation, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear decontamination and gas mask tasks, searching detainees, medical first aid and 9-line medical evacuations, react to contact (direct and indirect) and room clearing procedures.

AFNORTH and its sister battalion, Allied Forces South, together with the USANATO Bde. Headquarters in Sembach Germany, ensure the readiness of about 700 U.S. Army Soldiers who work in 44 different NATO organizations across 20 countries. Ensuring that readiness includes equipping and providing tough, realistic individual readiness training for not only those 700 Peacetime Establishment Soldiers assigned to NATO billets, but also for the roughly 300 National Support personnel who provide that readiness and administrative support.

It’s not every day that the roughly 1,000 Soldiers across the USANATO Bde. pick up a weapon and move out smartly, but they need to be as ready as if they were, according to Stewart, who emphasized that the back to basics approach of the battalion’s AWT event was intended to do just that.

“The training was really focused on going back to the basics and refocusing on those things that we don’t normally do on a day in, day out basis,” said Stewart.

• Date Taken: 03.29.2018
• Date Posted: 04.24.2018 10:47
• Story ID: 274251
• Location: BE