Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team “Bulldogs” conducted an assault on the Zambraniyah Training Village in southern New Mexico as part of exercise Iron Focus March 22.
The Urban Operations exercise pitted Bulldog Soldiers against a mix of 1st Armored Division troops, who defended Zambraniyah as an opposition force as a part of 3rd ABCT’s brigade-wide exercises. The large-scale home station training event, which officially began March 19, was intended to prepare the 1st AD brigade for a National Training Center rotation at Fort Irwin, California, later this year.
Col. Robert E. Lee Magee, the 3rd ABCT commander, said since last October approximately 3,000 of his Bulldog troops have methodically built upon fundamentals, starting with field tasks at the platoon and company levels and growing into battalion maneuvers for a four-week “Bulldog Focus” and now brigade-wide activities supported by units from across the 1st AD, which are considered the “Iron Focus” portion of the home station training.
Zambraniyah Training Village is a full-scale village designed for UO training just north of the Fort Bliss cantonment area.
During the assault, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team “Ready First” and 1st AD Artillery troops held the mock village, as well as posed as roleplayers for assaulting 3rd ABCT Soldiers. Local media members were invited to observe the exercise from an immersion-friendly distance to see up close the Soldiering the Bulldog Brigade has polished over Bulldog Focus and now Iron Focus.
“Every population across the world is gravitating toward urban environments,” Magee said of the significance of the complex training his brigade received while at the mock village last week. “This city helps us on clearing multi-story environments with a combination of Infantry, Fires, Aviation, and my Bradleys running through the streets. This gets us ready for combat missions.”
Magee also said, overall, overcoming challenges now will equate to overcoming challenges when it comes to his brigade’s readiness for NTC and beyond and the troops are better for the training they’ve received over the past six months.
“This means the world to us. The training we do on a regular basis sets the conditions for us to provide to the United States a ready and lethal-trained forced that can execute whatever the country needs us to do. We’re building from the brigade, down to the individual Soldier, all of the techniques, procedures to fight and win on the modern battlefield.”