Photo By Spc. Thomas Dixon | U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class William Anderkin, assigned to Joint Multinational Readiness...... read more read more
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Hohenfels, Germany — Sgt. 1st Class William Anderkin is more than just a platoon sergeant (PSG) serving in the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment (1-4 IN) as opposing forces (OPFOR) with his troops during exercise Saber Junction 25 in the Hohenfels Training Area (HTA).
Leadership comes naturally to him and it shows in the way his platoon rallies behind him.
“Our role here is to facilitate the training,” said Anderkin. “It’s important that we’re tough and we’re ready as OPFOR to be the best that we can be for the rotational training unit (RTU) coming through.”
Joint Multinational Readiness Center's (JMRC) OPFOR is known as the "Warrior" Battalion. Their job is to be a tough, free-thinking enemy force fighting against "friendly" forces to improve warfighting readiness and lethality.
The John Wayne Pass is a terrain feature inside HTA that is centrally located in the middle of the training area. When taking this objective, Soldiers can stage their operations there and are able to launch key operations and push in any direction they want in HTA. Owning the pass is a fundamental and key piece of training.
Anderkin and his troops have held John Wayne Pass for more than seven rotations.
"We’ve actually held it and held our ground,” Anderkin said, who has been a platoon sergeant for 14 months . “This has been a huge learning curve not only for us, but the RTU as well."
The experience of holding the pass marked a turning point, shaping both his perspective and the training for those under his watch. For Anderkin, the milestone was not just about the victory itself, but about what his Soldiers—and those training against them—could take away from the challenge.
“Being a PSG, holding this ground with my troops has been crucial to the development of the training out here with the RTU,” said Anderkin. “They need to learn that key objectives and key terrain isn’t always going to be easy to take. They need to learn that there are going to be trials—there are going to be hard falls.”
One of his Soldiers, Sgt. Benjamin Aiken, described how that leadership played out during the fight.
“We were vastly outnumbered, but the coordination between PSG and other leadership to get assets in certain areas during the fight really slimmed down the odds,” Sgt. Benjamin Aiken, 1-4 IN, OPFOR.
“It hasn’t been what the 2nd Cavalry Regiment expected,” said Aiken. “They came in expecting to just roll right over us, but it’s been the opposite.”
For Anderkin, the mission isn’t only about winning a fight—it’s about building readiness by shaping Soldiers who can adapt, endure and collaborate when it matters most.
“What do you do when you can’t take terrain?” asked Anderkin. “It puts the commanders and leadership in a hard spot to think what do we need to do to reassess.”
7th Army Training Command's JMRC conducts realistic and challenging exercises, like Saber Junction, to "train as we fight." This ensures U.S. Army Europe and Africa's forces are combat-credible and have at a high level of warfighting readiness.
| Date Taken: | 09.10.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.10.2025 11:19 |
| Story ID: | 547721 |
| Location: | HOHENFELS, BAYERN, DE |
| Web Views: | 28 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, JMRC Warrior Holds the Line: Leadership in Action, by SPC Thomas Dixon, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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