Photo By Sgt. Laura Bonano | U.S. Army Pfc. Esther Chisholm, a motor transportation operator with the 743rd Seaport...... read more read more
JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. – For one private from the 743rd Seaport Operations Company out of Boston, this year’s annual Extended Combat Training exercise provided quite a few new experiences.
Pfc. Esther Chisholm, a motor transportation operator with the 743rd SPOC, got to not only experience her first ECT mission this year, she also rode on a ship for the first time while participating in the Seaport Operations Company 13-2 training exercise.
“It’s been a bit rough because we lost sleep while here doing all the training, but it’s a different experience,” said Chisholm, a native of Hamilton, Mass.
Chisholm, who has served in the Army for more than two years, said she has been enjoying this experience because the environment has given soldiers the freedom to make their mistakes in training but learn from them.
She smiled and chewed on sunflower seeds as she described how the trip began.
“The first day, we did tactical convoy operations and they set up fake improvised explosive devices and they had assailants in the woods coming at us,” Chisholm said. “It was a lot of fun, because they gave us guidance beforehand but they didn’t interfere during; they let us run it.”
Chisholm said the unit members each had a chance to be the convoy commander, and they learned how each person operated and different ways of accomplishing the mission.
“I was one of the first convoy commanders, so it definitely made me feel like I was growing and I knew what I was doing, so it was fun,” Chisholm said. “At Advanced Individual Training, the instructors were always listening and guiding us, but we never really got to take the mission away on our own.”
Army 1st Sgt. Sam Jonsson, the first sergeant of the 743rd SPOC, said a lot of the soldiers in the unit haven’t had a lot of opportunity to see any of the equipment used in the exercise, so this was a great place to learn about it.
“Not everything gets stowed on a vessel,” Jonsson said. “With this exercise, we get to show them that process and also the research material where they can figure out how it has to be done, as well as working in a joint environment with another service.”
Chisholm received the benefit of this training first-hand. She said she enjoyed the sling load training, which consisted of a cargo load - a vehicle or a container - needing air transport.
“You hook the load up with hooks and slings and chains, then a helicopter comes by with these big Q-tip looking things and you loop it on to the bottom of the helicopter and it takes it away,” said Chisholm. “It’s something we normally don’t get to do as truck drivers.”
She said the training took place along with members of the 390th SPOC and it helped members of the 743rd SPOC build a relationship with the unit that they were attached to for the exercise.
Although the training has been hard, with a normal wake-up time of 5 a.m., Chisholm said she has learned a lot when it comes to her job in motor transportation, but she would also like to try something else in the Army.
She said she would love being a pilot or warrant officer, but until then she looks forward to a deployment with a transportation mission.
| Date Taken: | 08.05.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 08.07.2013 12:08 |
| Story ID: | 111499 |
| Location: | VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | HAMILTON, MASSACHUSETTS, US |
| Web Views: | 461 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Soldier learns new skills during first Extended Combat Training mission, by SGT Laura Bonano, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
