DRAWSKO-POMORSKIE, Poland – Indirect-fire infantrymen assigned to the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade prepared for mortar-fire training drills May 21 on a Polish military range near Drawsko-Pomorskie, Poland.
Fresh off of several days of night-training missions, they quickly set up their weapons and ammunition systems. Approximately 600 paratroopers from the brigade are in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, as part of an unscheduled land-forces exercise to demonstrate commitment to NATO obligations and sustain interoperability with allied forces.
“We are becoming better mortar men and doing stuff to enhance our indirect fire-abilities to provide rapid support, and conceal fellow Americans and NATO allies,” said Pfc. Isaac Bautista, an ammunition bearer assigned to the battalion’s headquarters company.
The paratroopers have a variety of capabilities. The day’s training missions called for training rounds, but they can also fire rounds to destroy, conceal or illuminate a target, Bautista said.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vicenza, Italy, is the Army Contingency Response Force in Europe, and is capable of projecting forces to conduct the full of range of military operations across the United States European, Central and Africa Commands areas of responsibility.