86th Training Division collaborates with NTC Partners

CA, UNITED STATES

04.24.2018

Story by Capt. Matthew Alken 

86th Training Division

Throughout the four NTC rotations, the 1st Brigade OCT’s embedded themselves with multiple operations group teams, to include the “Goldminers” (Support Battalion OCT’s), “Sidewinders” (Engineer and Military Police OCT’s), and “Waggoneers” (Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, or CSSB) for the purpose of further developing their own decisive action training environment (DATE).

"NTC is the premier training facility in the Army. Learning from these teams gives us new ideas to take back with us," stated Sgt. 1st Class Chedereick Thomas, 3-346 Regiment. "It also validates the training we have already provided and will continue to provide going forward. Our Brigade has made solid progress over the past year developing Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and Officers into competent leaders through direct experience as OC/T’s,” Thomas continued, "with partnership and exposure to our active duty counterparts as well as training events, we can capitalize on these opportunities to ensure we train a capable and combat-ready force."

The mission of the 1st Operations Training Brigade is to provide Mission Command OC/T’s and Effects and Enablers to assess Army Reserve Units through the conduct of Combat Support Training Exercises (CSTX).

Combat Support Training Exercises (CSTX), held at Fort McCoy, Wis. are designed to assist combat-service and combat-service-support units in planning, preparing, supervising, and executing pre-mobilization collective training.

Throughout the year the Brigade prepares and executes training for over 20,000 USAR Soldiers at multiple exercises.

The development of a near-peer, high end threat decisive action training environment (DATE) is essential to Soldier training learning and growth. The learning experiences from NTC's teams provided 1st Brigade's Soldiers to quickly adapt best practices from NTC and carry them forward to its exercises.

"Teaming with our NTC partners has increased our exercise Mission Command and OC/T competencies," stated Col. Ernest Litynski, Commander of the 1st Operations Brigade. "Both organizations have the same end state: to teach, coach, and mentor rotational unit forces to excel in maneuverability and lethality."

• Date Taken: 04.24.2018
• Date Posted: 05.05.2018 22:18
• Story ID: 275865
• Location: CA, US