Photo By Spc. Michael McDevitt | U.S. Army soldiers of the 317th Engineer Company react to a simulated casualty during...... read more read more
FORT MCCOY, Wisconsin – Rolling through a low valley and expecting contact, the convoy climbed over hills too steep for the troops to move over.
With the skeletons of the trees around them reaching in the soldiers sunk low into the safety of their armored HUMVEEs. Maneuvering through a cloud of dust, the valley roared from the sounds of their vehicles clawing their way up the hillside.
The gunners sunk low into their turrets; the false sense of security provided by the aggressive walls of metal that made up their armored HUMVEEs seemed to be the only safe place left.
Boom!
The convoy ground to a halt. There was too much smoke to see through.
Pop, pop, pop!
It’s happening: ambush!
Gunners rip their weapons in the direction of their attackers and unleash hell; giving their brothers in arms valuable time to collect the wounded and escape.
But everyone was OK. After all, it was just a training exercise.
From first contact the ambush provided everything that the Observer/Controller-Trainers (OCT), overseen by the 78th Training Division, an Army Reserve unit from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, needed to see. Their students, Army Reserve soldiers participating in a Warrior Exercise (WAREX), were learning.
The OCTs with the 78th TNG DIV are helping to train Army Reserve units from across the country in a WAREX held at Ft. McCoy throughout May. The exercise is designed to provide Army Reserve soldiers and their units with dynamic, realistic and evaluative training as they prepare for deployments throughout the world.
“Our mission here is to evaluate, train and mentor these Army Reserve units and soldiers,” said Capt. Christopher Goff, an OCT team leader overseen by the 78th Training Division here.
The OCT assesses, assists and facilitates a unit to refine their standard operating procedures to ensure standards are being met.
“If units don't meet the standards the Army sets, they won't accomplish their mission,” Goff said.
The OCT works closely with the training units at WAREX, observing and controlling every aspect of their missions. The OCT takes notes of the unit’s successes and failures so that feedback can be provided to the unit’s leadership about how well a unit did or didn’t do on a scenario.
“We review mistakes and make suggestions,” Sgt. First Class Gregory Zelmer from San Diego, Calif., an OCT overseen by the 78th Training Division said. “We try to let the units fix themselves, however we influence their process as much as possible through the use of After Action Reviews,” Zelmer added.
According to Zelmer, the OCT helps units focus on their mistakes and provide them with the tools and references that they may need to correct their failures.
The OCT runs the units back through their scenarios until they are a success.
“OCTs help us through the thought process and force us to ask ourselves, is what we’re doing making sense,” Maj. Richard Rucker from Brooklyn N.Y., the battalion operations and plans officer in charge with the 334th Quartermaster Battalion, an Army Reserve unit training in the WAREX, said.
With the help of its OCTs the 78th TNG DIV has insured that the training provided at Fort McCoy’s WAREX will enable the Army Reserves warrior citizens to remain combat ready.
The dynamic combat training simulations given through the OCTs and overseen by the 78th Training Division, has provided these Army Reserve units participating in the WAREX with the latest tactics necessary to ensure mission success anywhere in the world.
| Date Taken: | 05.04.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.04.2013 00:33 |
| Story ID: | 106338 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Hometown: | BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, US |
| Hometown: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 509 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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