Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Austin Pearce | The Rockpile outside the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., Aug. 9, 2018,...... read more read more
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A South Dakota Army National Guard unit set to deploy to the Middle East trained at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, July 27-Aug. 22.
The training is vital for improving logistics missions of moving supplies through tough, realistic joint and combined-arms scenarios in preparation for the 152nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion’s deployment scheduled for July 2019.
“We’re focusing on our mission command process in order to get prepared for future missions and our upcoming deployment,” said Lt. Col. Timothy Schlotterback, commander of the 152nd. “This NTC rotation has provided us with the opportunity to train in an unforgiving environment against a near-peer enemy, allowing us to validate our tactical proficiency and synchronize our capabilities to conduct sustainment operations in very demanding conditions.”
NTC provides a decisive action training environment, which creates training scenarios in a setting that can’t be replicated at a unit’s home station and that simulates what units would potentially face on their hardest day of combat overseas.
The 28-day training rotation is matched with a world-class opposing force, formed by the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is known for their competent and ruthless enemy tactics that tests every capability of the units that come to NTC. Some of the scenarios they employ are chemical attacks, aerial attacks, base-defense operations and convoy attacks.
“This has allowed us to perform our mission-essential tasks in a decisive action training environment and test our abilities to operate as a team and a staff under a variety of stressors like sleep deprivation, the intense heat [average high temperature during the exercise was 108 degrees] and tough enemy combatants in the battlefield in an extreme environment,” said Capt. Jason Kimura, plans officer for the 152nd. “This harsh training environment gives a lot of Soldiers the opportunity to see what it’s like to perform a variety of different tasks in these conditions.
“With the Army changing how we view logistics and war, we are now required to fulfill our job duties concurrent with self-defense,” said Kimura. “If we encounter an enemy that can fight back with a force similar to or better than ours, the warfighters won’t have the ability to give us protection any more – so every Soldier should know how to defend themselves, which changes the mindset for those who are outside of the warfighting field.”
Between the demanding climate, terrain and an unrelenting enemy, NTC replicates the conditions Soldiers may face overseas.
“It’s as similar here as you could possibly get to going to war without leaving the United States, and there’s a lot of places that troops are getting deployed to these days that looks just like this,” said Maj. James Neill, support operations officer for the 152nd. “I can’t tell you how many Soldiers have said how this place reminds them of Iraq or Afghanistan.”
The overall mission for the 152nd while at NTC was to provide multiclass logistics and support operations for the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team using subordinate units from both active duty and the National Guard specialized in ordnance disposal, transportation, signal and medical.
“It’s been a great opportunity to recognize our ability to work with various other units that we’ve never worked with before,” said Staff Sgt. Aaron Sterud, communications section chief with the 152nd. “It’s been challenging but it’s also been really nice to see how other organizations run their operations. This has allowed us to do a lot of cross training and to provide mentorship to our lower enlisted Soldiers that haven’t been in these kind of situations.”
The opportunity to train at NTC has given Soldiers of the 152nd a first-hand look at the missions they may face next year and how to overcome them.
“I’m extremely proud to be the commander of this unit and am very pleased with the progress that we’ve made working with our subordinate units from across the United States that we have here during this rotation,” said Schlotterback. “We’ve established our communication systems, our battle rhythm and our sustainment operations in a very short period of time. I’ve continued to see improvements each and every day in developing and finalizing our processes for making our command post more efficient.”
| Date Taken: | 08.22.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 08.22.2018 15:33 |
| Story ID: | 289854 |
| Location: | FORT IRWIN, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, SD National Guard Soldiers strengthen warfighter skills, by SFC Austin Pearce, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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