By Spc. Kandi Huggins
CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE WARRIOR, Iraq – “Fire in the hole,” yelled “Chaos” soldiers of Company C, 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Advise and Assist Task Force, 1st Infantry Division, from Fort Riley, Kan., following the second simulated detonation of an explosive-laced wire. A path cleared, the soldiers continued breaching the notional “minefield.”
Combat engineers conducted In-Stride Breach training at Contingency Operating Site Warrior, Kirkuk, Iraq, March 5.
The training provided junior enlisted soldiers of Company C the opportunity to refine skills that are becoming a “lost art” for combat engineers, explained Staff Sgt. Patrick Sierbert, acting platoon sergeant and combat engineer serving with Company C, 1st STB, 1st AATF.
“What we’re doing today is a squad manual minefield breach drill,” said Sierbert. “As combat engineers, our task is to enable mobility for our supporting units with breaches, like the one we’re practicing.”
Engineers deployed in support of Operation New Dawn conduct primarily route clearance missions, which leaves some of the Soldiers, especially the junior enlisted troops, without the actual experience or training on the breaching skills relevant to their military occupational specialty, explained Sierbert, a Jackson, Mo. native.
Tasked to advise, train and assist Iraqi Army engineer units in military exercises such as In-Stride Breaching, Siebert said validating his soldier’s abilities through tough, realistic training remains important to the development of his Soldiers and the successful accomplishment of the mission.
Since the majority of the soldiers had not practiced manual breaching since basic training, Siebert began the breach training with simple familiarization.
As the event progressed, soldiers completed different scenarios, combining situations such as casualty evacuation exercises, to make the training more varied and realistic.
Spc. Kevin Gibson, a combat engineer from Pulaski, Tenn., Company C, 1st AATF, 1st Inf. Div., said he liked the hands-on training because it added to the fundamentals he was taught during basic training.
In the days prior to the training exercise, engineers practiced mine breaching techniques without using vehicles. Once the training began, individual teams positioned their vehicles approximately 50 meters from the breach site.
The ‘grappler,’ the soldier charged with the light weight grapnel hook, exited the vehicle and made his way toward the minefield, throwing the grapnel hook into the minefield while taking cover. The grappler pulled the grapnel hook through the notional minefield to clear a path for the Soldiers, searching for any trip wires that could be harmful to his team in completing the mission.
After the grappler reached the minefield, the demolition team moved out. The team, responsible for breaching the concertina wire surrounding the field and clearing a lane for the vehicles, assembled and detonated an explosive line charge.
Once the squad leader approved the breach lane, a soldier marked it with traffic cones that formed a funnel to guide the following vehicles through the pathway.
Siebert said a successful search is conducted within a 10-minute standard, which the Chaos soldiers of Company C will prove validate during a live fire exercise scheduled in the near future.
| Date Taken: |
03.05.2011 |
| Date Posted: |
03.23.2011 10:12 |
| Story ID: |
67592 |
| Location: |
CONTINGENCY OPERATING STATION WARRIOR, IQ |
| Web Views: |
134 |
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