During an eight-day combined arms life fire exercise, or CALFEX, elements of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division “Patriots” conducted missions through a series of rigorous exercise lanes. These lanes tested the troops on their teamwork, warrior skills and competence in performing their mission essential tasks.
Lt. Col. Will Canda, 3rd Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd BCT, 10th Mtn Div, commander of one of the brigade elements going through the exercise Sept. 19, said the purpose of the CALFEX was to ensure everyone could “lock in their techniques and tactics” for future missions. For the 3/89, whose mission is reconnaissance, that means bringing a unique skill set to the table, said Canda.
“Our job (as scouts) is to define what is actually happening on the objective to the brigade commander,” he said. “Before we go in, you have different sensors out there (in the battle space), including UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and satellite sensors, but these only give pieces of information. Soldiers are all-weather sensors, capable of putting eyes on the objective to make an assessment of the enemy’s effort, and that helps the brigade commander make decisions to shape the battle and allow the infantry battalion to be successful in their task.”
Col. Kendall J. Clarke, commander, 3rd BCT, 10th Mtn Div, said the CALFEX improves the readiness of the brigade by focusing on company-level proficiency and teamwork between all combat enablers. “This improves overall readiness, Soldier readiness and Army readiness,” he said. “My thoughts (upon taking command of the unit in July) were: How fast and efficiently can we get an infantry brigade combat team ready for combat following deployment?”
The speed and efficacy of improving readiness depends on determining and rehearsing processes that are crucial for success downrange, according to Canda.
“It is vitally important to refine these processes,” said Canda. “We are learning a lot of good lessons about how we want to synchronize our efforts between aviation elements, the UAVs, artillery, engineers, infantry and scouts. We took a lot of steps to get to this point, involving weeks of training to get our crews technically and tactically proficient. This (exercise) puts all those pieces together in the most complex way possible and it has been a phenomenal exercise.”
Clarke said using the CALFEX to focus on core competencies readies the brigade to respond to anything senior leadership may ask of the unit. “The CALFEX tests our ability to integrate and build teams on the fly while providing combined arms effects,” he said. “I wanted to see how quickly we could ramp up readiness levels to be able to respond to any threats world wide, and it’s great to see (through this exercise) that we are able to provide this capability ahead of schedule. It has been absolutely fantastic and our Soldiers are doing great work out here.”
| Date Taken: |
09.20.2018 |
| Date Posted: |
09.20.2018 16:20 |
| Story ID: |
293775 |
| Location: |
FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: |
61 |
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0 |
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This work, Patriots ‘Climb to Glory’ via CALFEX, by Patricia Dubiel, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
