Command Post Exercise 2 prepares squadron for Dragoon Ready 20

Photo By 1st Lt. Connor Coombes | U.S. Army Capt. Nickolas Cline, assistant operations officer, hands a box of food rations to Spc. Savannah Krekelberg, operations Soldier, assigned to the Regimental Support Squadron, 2d Cavalry Regiment, near Grafenwoehr, Germany, on Sept. 13, 2019. The 5-day command post exercise included training in communications, staff planning and base defense. (U.S. Army photo by 1st Lt. Connor Coombes, 2d Cavalry Regiment)  

GRAFENWOEHR, BY, GERMANY

09.27.2019

Story by 1st Lt. Connor Coombes 

2d Cavalry Regiment

While the 2d Cavalry Regiment, based in Vilseck, Germany, tested its Command Post Exercise 2 operations prior to the upcoming Dragoon Ready 20, key leaders and Soldiers in its support squadron took advantage of the time to plan internally for their mission during the exercise.

As the regiment’s center for supply, maintenance and medical care, the Regimental Support Squadron, 2CR, has been described as both the backbone and lifeblood of the regiment. Recognizing this, leaders in the RSS began planning for its logistical role in the regiment’s scheme of maneuver, even before the regiment had completed its operations order for the exercise.

On the battlefield, the RSS is positioned in the regimental support area, often many kilometers behind the maneuver squadrons that it is expected to sustain. Convoy operations remain the priority for the squadron’s mounted weapons platforms, which have conducted a training progression since shortly after the end of last year’s Dragoon Ready to ensure that they are ready to defend.

The distribution of these platforms between the forward-moving convoys and the RSA requires considerable analysis of the battlefield, and the advanced preparation that was conducted by the RSS staff during CPX2 gave them time to streamline their allocation.

The squadron’s distance from the front line does not guarantee its safety from all enemy threats.

Though the likelihood of large enemy vehicles penetrating through all of the regiment’s maneuver elements to reach the RSA remain low, the lightly-armed logistics elements still face considerable danger from teams of special-purpose forces, usually traveling on foot, and enemy artillery. Therefore, the RSS headquarters also devoted some of the CPX2 to base defense training, including a class covering triple-strand wire barriers.

CPX2 also yielded a lesson in personnel management, as many of the Soldiers who were required to set up the squadron’s field headquarters also served as gunners on the M2 machine gun, attending a range to train on their assigned weapons for convoy and base defense operations.

“This exercise allowed us to allow numerous friction points that we’ll now have time to iron out before Dragoon Ready,” said 1st Lt. Dallas Villarreal, signal officer, RSS, 2CR.

At the conclusion of CPX2, the staff had successfully refined their tentative plan into two courses of action to present to their commander and produced the second of two warning orders to give notice to the subordinate troops about the plan. They had also refined their tactical standard operating procedures to ensure that best practices were available for Soldiers across the squadron during the exercise.

“Getting to practice the steps of the military decision-making process in a field setting really opened my eyes to the importance of each step in determining the best course of action we could take in an operational environment,” said 1st Lt. Jacob Rubio, personnel officer, RSS, 2CR.

Dragoon Ready 20 is scheduled to begin in October 2019.

• Date Taken: 09.27.2019
• Date Posted: 09.27.2019 06:20
• Story ID: 344052
• Location: GRAFENWOEHR, BY, DE