Photo By Staff Sgt. Joel Salgado | Vehicles with Company C, 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Division...... read more read more
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Throughout the world service members conduct humanitarian assistance missions in areas that are affected by severe weather or natural disaster. With the recent earthquake and tropical storm that hit Haiti, the Soldiers from Company C, 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were given a short notice to be prepare to deploy in support of humanitarian assistance operations as part of the Defense Contingency Response Force.
The unit was stood down from the alert and returned to normal operations providing movement support for units at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield. To build proficiency for potential future missions, the company took the lessons learned during the alert and built a training scenario based on a simulated humanitarian support mission.
“This is part of our sustainment training for our prepare-to-deploy missions in support of DCRF,” said Capt. Andrew Bomba, the commander of Company C. “It’s a way for us to continuously ensure that we maintain the highest state of readiness when it comes to being able to rapidly deploy, set up and conduct distribution missions in an austere environment.”
To simulate the conditions the Soldier could face during a mission, the unit occupied an area with semi-austere conditions simulating living in a less developed area to add realism to the training.
“With the different variables that we’ve encountered, the ones we injected and the ones that occurred just driving on challenging roads, it only serves to improve our ability to respond when needed and to touch on important training tasks,” said Bomba.
Operating out of their living area, the unit conducted missions day and night driving more than 100 miles each mission to conduct simulated logistics package missions. The LOGPAC (logistics package) missions simulated the unit delivering food, fuel, water and other necessary items to a forward logistics element who would distribute the supplies to various organizations.
“We’re currently simulating an austere hurricane ridden country with angry civilians who are hungry,” said 1st Lt. Marisa Alexander the executive officer of Company C. “By running supplies, LOGPACs and other missions we make sure that these austere environments get what they need.”
Throughout the convoys, the unit faced several scenarios to train the Soldiers in the proper techniques to respond to hazards and incidents they could potentially face. These hazards ranged from vehicle breakdowns and recovery to degraded infrastructure and civilians impacting the convoy’s freedom of maneuver.
“The Soldiers got a lot of road time and experience reacting to different types of convoy situations like road blocks, protesters, gang violence and et cetera so, it’s not necessarily just driving,” said Alexander.
The unit also took the training event as an opportunity to develop the proficiency of their drivers through day and night driver training and long-distance operations.
“We don’t get a chance to dedicate an entire few days solely to doing our job without any distractions so, this is a good chance for them to get behind the wheel and practice their MOS (military occupation specialty),” said Alexander.
The training event was also used to build leader proficiency in the planning and execution of training events and convoy operations.
“One of the most critical positions in the Army that drives most operations is the squad leader,” said Bomba. “The emphasis for this week’s training is largely on the squad leader position to continue to show the Soldiers what the right answer is, to exercise their own leadership abilities to make decisions on the fly and also to build that confidence in the squad leader.”
Following the training, the unit will continue in its role as part of the DCRF and will supplement other elements of 3rd DSB who will be on standby to assist in disaster relief if needed. As they hand over the role, they ensured that their lessons learned were shared with the other units within 3rd DSB to make certain the brigade continues its role in providing world-class logistic support wherever needed.
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| Date Taken: | 09.19.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 09.20.2021 14:01 |
| Story ID: | 405622 |
| Location: | FORT STEWART, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 111 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Provider Soldiers train for humanitarian support, by SSG Joel Salgado, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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