Photo By Maj. Wayne Clyne | U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Mychal Taylor, 1st Battalion, 186th Infantry Regiment, Oregon...... read more read more
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WHITE CITY, Ore. — Soldiers with 1st Battalion, 186th Infantry Regiment, Oregon Army National Guard, spent four days at the Salt Creek Training Area here, July 30 to Aug. 2, 2026, training toward next year's E2B event, while local firefighters from the Oregon Military Department's Wildland Fire Program stood by to keep the training safe.
The battalion ran land navigation July 30, then moved into weapon stations and a movement-under-direct-fire lane using blank ammunition July 31 and Aug. 1, working toward the Expert Infantry Badge and Expert Soldier Badge, two skill badges the Army combines into a single testing event known as E2B. The training will serve as the battalion's main objective heading into next year's Annual Training.
Jeremy Carver, OMD's deputy director of installations, learned the battalion was training at Salt Creek and coordinated with 1st Sgt. Jeremy Warren to bring in wildland firefighters from Camp Rilea.
"Since Salt Creek is a Closed In Training Area (CITA) we have responsibility to provide fire coverage," Carver said. "I called 1SG Warren to get the details and coordinated our fire coverage to prevent a wildfire from starting."
The firefighters arrived Friday morning, July 31, as blank-fire training began, and remained on-site through the training's conclusion Aug. 1.
The battalion's training culminated Aug. 1 with a well-attended Guard for a Day event, giving local recruiters, Recruit Sustainment Program members and interested young adults a hands-on look at the same training Soldiers had been running all week, including exposure to the M249, M240 and M2 machine guns and a chance to fire blank ammunition on the weapons systems.
"This event was a great opportunity for future Soldiers to get hands-on training from Soldiers they will serve alongside in the future," said Sgt. 1st Class Erik Andreason, an Oregon Army National Guard recruiter based in Medford. "Some of the NCOs running the lanes were my enlistees over the last few years, some even graduated from the same high schools as the Soldiers enlisting now. They've grown into NCOs and officers, and now the Soldiers I enlisted are going to be responsible for raising the next generation of local troops."
"This was the kind of coordination that makes the Oregon National Guard work, one team looking out for another," said Lt. Col. Joshua Rapp, commander, 1st Battalion, 186th Infantry Regiment. "Having the wildland fire team on-site let us run realistic training and give our Guard for a Day guests a great look at what we do, without added risk."
The battalion closed out the drill period Aug. 2 with a road march along the Bear Creek Greenway in Medford, Ore.
| Date Taken: | 08.04.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 08.06.2026 17:03 |
| Story ID: | 571801 |
| Location: | WHITE CITY, OREGON, US |
| Web Views: | 40 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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