1-110th Infantry scouts conduct live-fire, air assault training at Fort Indiantown Gap

Photo By Master Sgt. Matthew Keeler | Soldiers from the 28th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade hold the UH-60 Black hawk steady as Soldiers from the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 110th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, rappel down during training at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa., on August 3, 2022. The rappel training was practice and preparation for the Soldiers to rappel from the Black Hawk onto a building (U.S Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Keeler)  

FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, PA, UNITED STATES

08.03.2022

Story by Spc. Taylor Hall 

Joint Force Headquarters - Pennsylvania National Guard

By: Spc. Taylor Hall

FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – Well before dawn on August 3, 2022, Soldiers from the scout platoon, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 110th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, awoke and got ready for their challenging day. The Soldiers had to prepare for a four-mile ruck march uphill to start their mission.

Led by platoon leader 1st Lt. Sean White and platoon sergeant Staff Sgt. Dalton Lawnizack, the Soldiers have been preparing for this grueling day of training for several months. The leadership of the platoon has continued to develop the readiness and discipline that is necessary for a scout to succeed, operating as the forward element for the battalion to recon and survey enemy encampments, artillery positions and movements.

Scouts have a unique and challenging mission. They operate forward of the main body, tasked with passing up information on the enemy to the proper higher channels, providing their battalion commander the time and opportunity to direct his artillery and infantry elements to engage the potential enemy force.

But what would happen if the scout platoon encounters direct contact with the enemy while on their reconnaissance? Most of the time, the scout platoon operates forward of the main body with little direct support. Part of their training during this grueling day was to conduct a break contact exercise to exercise their skills with covering each other as they bound back from contact.

When the scout platoon reached their scouting mission location, they quickly adorned their face with camouflage paint, geared up and began the staggered movement through the woods. The scouts used the contour of the terrain and foliage to maintain low visibility to reduce the chance of them being spotted as they moved toward an overwatch position.

The scouts moved into fighting positions to conduct their assignment to examine the trench system with their binoculars. White, along with the radio telephone officer or a Soldier assigned with the platoon radio, communicated with officers from the battalion as the scouts evaluated the situation.

Suddenly, a shot rung out of the quiet wood line – a signal that the scouts had been spotted. The scouts in the front returned fire, with the intent that with overwhelming fire superiority they would be able to keep the enemy engaged and occupied while they send team members bounding back to the wood line.

The communication flowed seamlessly throughout the platoon, as each time a duo bounds back, they yelled their status as they moved and provided covering fire for their teammates. Finally, the last two scouts moved back to the wood line, where the leaders gathered a quick report to check their Soldiers, before the scouts stealthily moved through the terrain of the woods.

After returning to their rucksacks, they scouts gathered their gear for the next movement. It would be a three-mile ruck march to their extraction point.

As they prepared to rappel onto a building, the scouts performed several test rappels into the field of their extraction zone from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

Lawnizack, the platoon rappel master, ensured that each Soldier’s gloves and harness were ready before they were even signaled to board the helicopter.

After loading onto the helicopter one last time, the platoon was transported to their next training objective: rappelling onto a building for infiltration. The Soldiers deployed onto the roof of the building and their exercise came to an end.

It was a grueling challenge for the scouts, who ruck marched for more than six miles, engage in a scouting mission and rappelled onto a building.

• Date Taken: 08.03.2022
• Date Posted: 08.30.2022 09:30
• Story ID: 428297
• Location: FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, PA, US