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The Florida Army National Guard (FLARNG) spent just under a month “In the Box” at Fort Irwin, California, this summer as the main Rotational Training Unit (RTU) at the National Training Center (NTC). This training exercise required a massive movement of troops and supplies that was made possible by the supporting units from across the state of Florida and 16 other State National Guard organizations. This was the largest logistics movement for the FLARNG since World War II and resulted in a highly successful training opportunity that displayed the FLARNG’s lethality, readiness and interoperability at the largest combat training center in the country.
NTC trains units for combat readiness through immersive scenarios that simulate large-scale combat operations in austere environments. It proved to be a test of each soldier's METL (Mission Essential Task List), both in their training and of individual grit.
Col. Sam Sargeant, 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (53 IBCT) commander, explained how the tempo was set from the very beginning of the exercise. The FLARNG’s own 1-111th Aviation Regiment helped set the tone for 53rd’s exercise initiatives at NTC.
“We came out swinging as the 53rd with a battalion-sized Air Assault to seize the first objective in the offensive, which overwhelmed the enemy and allowed us to get a good foothold,” said Sargeant. “It is somewhat unique for NTC to even see air assault just due to most brigades being Armor Brigades that lack light infantry. I think this played to our advantage a little as we were able to do things like air assault that the enemy was not used to seeing.”
Command Sgt. Maj. James Reid, 53rd IBCT Command Sergeant Major, said the 1-111th’s facilitating of air insertions for multiple attack positions before objectives allowed combat power to be massed in a compressed timeframe, enabling a more rapid seizing of key terrain, and sustaining the desired fight tempo.
Lt. Col. Dan Brown, commander of the 153rd Cavalry Squadron, 53rd IBCT, said participating in a Combat Training Center (CTC) rotation was a valuable training opportunity that Soldiers will not experience anywhere else. There are only two CTCs in the country: the NTC at Fort Irwin and the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Only two combat brigades in the National Guard are permitted to attend these centers each year.
Soldiers at every level were able to focus on an individual skillset for an extended period during this weeks-long training scenario. According to Brown, one of the great benefits of being able to train in an environment like NTC is the unrivaled opportunity for growth.
“Regardless of your MOS, if you're a military intelligence individual, if you are a cook, if you're a signal, if you're an infantryman, you get an opportunity to really hone your craft at a CTC rotation,” said Brown.
Sergeant 1st Class Blake Owens, a platoon sergeant with Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, saw the honing of his soldiers' craft first-hand, watching his soldiers learn next-man-up responsibilities and effectively applying it as the exercise progressed. As compounding stressors of NTC accumulated, soldiers learned their teammates’ responsibilities so they could cover down in the event a soldier was forced away.
“In a training cycle like this where everyone is being pushed to their limit due to the environment, the operational pace, it really forces you to key-in and know that first level up, second level up duty, so if someone has to rotate out, they can step in … and that was more realistic here than it ever has been before, at least in my experience,” said Owens.
The opportunity was not reserved just for US Soldiers, but for the two nations who traveled across the globe to embed with units entering the training area. A Romanian contingent was attached to the 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, and a Finnish reconnaissance platoon from the Finnish Army’s Karelia Brigade was attached to the 153rd Cavalry Squadron for the duration of the NTC rotation.
Finnish Army Maj. Atti Uljas said one of their primary goals was to learn the U.S. Army’s way to think and operate, emphasizing that it was not their first time working with the National Guard, as Finland has a state partnership relationship with the Maryland National Guard already.
“This is not the first rodeo working with the Guard. So we are pretty compatible already… but we always want to increase that,” said Uljas. “This exercise increased our interoperability capability, and we’re bringing lessons home not just for the Karelia Brigade, but for the whole Finnish Army.”
Reid noted that communication fluidity increased significantly during the different training periods leading up to the rotation at NTC. By the time they were in the field at the culminating exercise, he said that where he'd witnessed numerous communication breaks previously, there were none. The growth resulted in the visible stepping up of leaders throughout the unit, empowered to make on-the-spot decisions based on a full understanding of their commander’s mission objectives and intent.
Facilitating communication and decision-making capability in the tangible sense is the Florida National Guard’s acquisition and implementation of Starlink communications and Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) phones. ATAKs are encrypted cellphones that allow leaders to communicate real-time battle updates and environment tracking. Army Col. Jennifer Hunt, the FLARNG’s G6 officer, said that National Guard organizations are often working with legacy equipment, where the possibility of an active-duty counterpart using newer, more modern fielded resources is likely higher. These modernization efforts, such as ATAK, allowed the 53rd to rapidly close gaps and gain an upper hand in the field.
“It gave the commander instant feedback on what was happening in the battle, versus having to wait on information. For the Guard, it's effective because we use it during hurricanes and how we use it on the tactical side is a carryover from that experience in real-world settings,” said Command Sgt. Maj. James Reid, Command Sergeant Major for the 53rd IBCT.
According to FLARNG Deputy G6, Army Lt. Col. Ralph Sullenberger, the successful execution of these new communication strategies resulted in a much higher success rate when combatting opposing forces (OPFOR), and communication equipment remained uncontested as they had never been implemented by units training at NTC.
“53 IBCT was successful at NTC not only for their people but because they incorporated a communication plan in depth that leveraged creative communications solutions and deception to support the large-scale operation. For example, each unit replaced the large clunky communications satellite terminal with a new state-of-the-art and fast Starlink satellite terminal which was the size of a pizza box with triple the network speed,” said Sullenberger. “The old dish, along with a radio broadcasting multiple frequencies, was positioned on the battlefield to simulate a Command Post talking on the radio and diverted the OPFOR and observer controllers from the real command post.”
The road to NTC, for all organizations, went beyond putting Soldiers on a plane to California. It was a logistical effort that took place over the past year by nearly half the state, from the Adjutant General of Florida down to the junior enlisted personnel working at battalion and company levels. The state’s military equipment traveled from Camp Blanding to area rail yards, then from the trains to a depot in California, where an entire team’s mission was to offload the equipment.
Capt. Jacob Moore, a logistics officer with 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, was at NTC for the second time in his career. His previous rotation saw him become rail certified through the Rail Group Operations course, which he says he used to help shape the process from commercial line haul of equipment to Fort Stewart, and the Railhead Operations at Fort Stewart that would ultimately allow all of Florida’s equipment to make it ahead of the main body.
"It's a great opportunity for the state to test its limitations and constraints and really push the limit on what we can do, how we can mobilize and move our soldiers across the entire continent. That means that we had to get everything that we have, all of our equipment, all of our vehicles, and ensure that it was capable of conducting operations.” said Moore.
| Date Taken: | 09.04.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.08.2025 13:25 |
| Story ID: | 547261 |
| Location: | ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 84 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Florida Army National Guard and Peers train at National Training Center at Fort Irwin, by SGT Spencer Rhodes, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
