Army Reserve Soldiers Improve Capabilities and Communication Skills

Photo By Zachary Mott | Sergeant Andrew Rairdo, 203rd Inland Cargo Transfer Company, guides a forklift operator placing a portable light set onto the back of a flatbed trailor at Fort McCoy, Wis., August 28, 2020. The U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers with the 203rd ICTC are at Fort McCoy conducting pre-mobilization training for a future mission in support of U.S. Army Central Command.  

UNITED STATES

08.28.2020

Story by Cheryl Phillips 

88th Readiness Division

FORT McCOY, Wis. – Army Reserve Soldiers from the 203rd Inland Cargo Transfer Company are nearing the end of nearly three weeks of pre-mobilization training here the end of August as they prepare for a deployment to the Middle East in November. During that time they’ve improved their capabilities and communication skills.

Because its planned involvement in a major exercise was cancelled, the unit had to develop its own training plan to test Soldiers in skills they will use overseas in a real-world mission, said 1st Lt. Alexander Ahlbrecht, commander. The Arden Hills, Minn.-based unit practiced cargo movement, convoy staging, convoy movement and other operations in various scenarios like reacting to ambush, improvised explosive device and indirect fire, all designed to strengthen their skills.

Ahlbrecht sees an advantage to the cancelled exercise. “With an exercise, you lose creativity.” Additionally, “we can tailor the training more for the mission to be successful,” he said.

Because of the cancelled exercise, the 203th ICTC also had to bring its own equipment here, including 21 pieces of rolling stock, 10 trailers, 58 flat racks and a variety of material handling equipment like forklifts and rough terrain container handlers. That was also a positive for Ahlbrecht: “We have a higher volume of equipment to work with.”

In existence since 2010, the upcoming deployment is the unit’s second. This time it will have to ship all of its equipment to theater, something it didn’t have to do for the first deployment. The unit will be responsible for trucking its equipment from Fort McCoy to its port of embarkation.

“It’s a big job to move all of our equipment,” Ahlbrecht said. The unit’s mobilization officer has been busy during the last few months conducting the necessary planning to ensure there are no issues with the equipment shipment.

A few dozen of the current unit members were also part of the team that deployed the first time. These Soldiers are in “key leadership positions, including first sergeant, operations NCO, platoon sergeant and various other team leader roles,” Ahlbrecht explained.

When the unit is in theater, it will be broken into smaller teams based in a variety of locations. This creates a challenge for company command and control. “The Soldiers who are at the air strip here are part of a small team, and they are building trust with NCOs leading the mission,” Ahlbrecht said. “We’re mimicking what we’ll do in theater as much as possible here.”

One of the Soldiers training here is Spc. Alexis Feist, an 88H, cargo specialist. “We’ve gotten in a lot of good training during long days, like loading semi-trucks,” which is something she’ll be doing overseas. She has seen the unit improve its capabilities during the training. What took an hour to unload a semi now takes half that time or less, thanks to the repetition, she explained.

“The biggest challenge has been learning to communicate during operations and logistics, such as where cargo needs to be,” Feist said. She most enjoys performing the practical activities that will ensure the unit can successfully do the mission in theater.

She’ll be taking time off from college at the University of Minnesota where she’s studying animal science. She’s looking forward to the deployment “to see more of the world and meet new people.”

Sergeant Alexander Blanchard, also an 88H, directs the flow of cargo from the staging area to the right trucks. For him, communication and organization needed to be strengthened in the beginning of the training. “As time went on, it’s gotten better. We’ve made a lot of progress,” he said.

Blanchard, a telecommunications company sales representative, explained that “equipment familiarization will help the Soldiers be more confident in themselves. Repetition is good. I can see how the Soldiers are growing and becoming more efficient.”

• Date Taken: 08.28.2020
• Date Posted: 08.31.2020 12:31
• Story ID: 377143
• Location: US