Photo By Sgt. Errol Cadet | U.S Army soldiers perform security on top a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle...... read more read more
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. – Summer’s intensity of heat and humidity are in full swing as soldiers from the U.S. Army Reserve set up combat outposts and patrol towns and villages of Azerbaijan. Sudden torrential downpours make their travel in heavy military transport vehicles a bit more arduous along the land’s dirt roads. These U.S. Army Reserve unit’s are from various corners of the United States and many think to themselves, “I didn’t realize southern New Jersey had such erratic weather.”
More than 2,500 soldiers have converged on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a U.S. military installation 16 miles south of Trenton, to participate in a Combat Support Training Exercise (CSTX) for the past three weeks. This CSTX is hosted by one of JBMDL’s own, the 78th Training Division.
As a joint base, one can see the entire myriad of uniforms that our U.S. military service members wear. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and the Coast Guard units of the Active Duty, Reserve and National Guard forces have headquarters at JBMDL. JBMDL is the first base of its kind under the U.S. Department of Defense BRAC realignment.
The Fort Dix portion, or commonly referred to as “the Army’s side,” has had a rich history of mobilizing and preparing soldiers to fight in wars as far back as World War I. From 1917 until the early 1990s, Fort Dix was a major basic training post - shaping thousands of civilians into soldiers. During the Vietnam War a large scale, mock Vietnamese village was constructed on Fort Dix.
Soldiers preparing to deploy to Southeast Asia would test their tactical skills within this simulated combat environment. Fort Dix became known as a place where the individual soldier sharpened their combat skills.
The post has had a bit of an identity crisis since the late 1990s. Questions centered on how to best use the installation amongst the many infrastructure changes that were occurring throughout the entire U.S. military.
With the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. military witnessed the need to have Reserve and National Guard forces at optimal combat readiness statuses to meet the need for forces throughout the world supporting the global war on terror. Fort Dix, once again, was put to the task of mobilizing and training these forces preparing to deploy overseas.
What makes this year’s CSTX unique to the history of Fort Dix and to its host unit, the 78th Training Division, is the scope and scale of training. Though the U.S. Army’s significant involvement in Iraq has ended, along with its involvement in Afghanistan in the near future, there remains a need for U.S. Army Reserve units to harness years of combat experience its gained since 2001 and maintain this high level of readiness for the future.
Gen. Ray Odinero, the Army chief of staff, announced last year that the Army’s Reserve and National Guard forces will continue to train at a high level despite significant combat operations in Afghanistan ending. To ensure that this is achieved, the 78th Training Division organizes large scale training exercises and evaluates Army Reserve units as they work their way through the Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) cycle.
ARFORGEN is a cyclical rotation, where unit’s will train and be evaluated through a five-year process to ensure they’re prepared for a multitude of missions here in the U.S. or overseas. This rotation helps the Pentagon manage the force - ensuring there are sufficient amounts of fully trained and ready forces to meet the dynamic and evolving battlefields of the 21st century.
Fort Dix and the 78th Training Division have taken on a significant role in the future defense of the U.S. 2013’s CSTX marks the first time a training event of this size and complexity has been witnessed within the gates of this installation since the Vietnam War.
| Date Taken: | 06.27.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 06.29.2013 11:25 |
| Story ID: | 109531 |
| Location: | FORT DIX, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Web Views: | 775 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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