Photo By Sgt. Brian Glass | Soldiers of Bravo Company, 188th Brigade Support Battalion conducted their "Mad Dog"...... read more read more
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Reacting to contact, repairing vehicles, calling up for emergency aid, these are things that can happen while on patrol in a combat zone.
For soldiers of Company B., 188th Brigade Support Battalion, 18th Fires Brigade, 8nd Airborne Division conducted their “Mad Dog” field training exercise Sept. 24-26 out at Holland drop zone.
With the soldiers being in support roles for the brigade, whether in the motorpool servicing vehicles or in other places, it makes it difficult to get them that time other soldiers get to train on their mission essential tasks list and be competent on their soldier skills.
Something their company commander, Capt. Benjamin Becker, has been looking to do since he assumed command 18 months ago.
“The Bravo companies in BSBs are support companies. So our primary mission is to fix things, but maintenance is all encompassing,” said Becker. Not only do we need to know our MOSs but we also need to know our units job which is field artillery, we need to know our basic infantrymen skills. This is all encompassing training, doing scheduled and unscheduled maintenance along with doing combat scenarios with simulated rounds to help pump up our warrior spirit within our company.”
Becker added that his company can be bogged down with routine maintenance in garrison so when we come out here its time to put on a different face and get into the training.
The training began with the soldiers riding on a CH-47 Chinook out to the training site. Something Sgt. Shane Hobbs, platoon sergeant for Company B ground support equipment section, said his soldiers were unsure about because they’ve never ridden on one before.
“They were excited, some were nervous because we took the CH-47 Chinook in and they have never rode on one before. It was a unique experience, I think at first they were anticipating, anxious and now that they are into it, they are excited to get in depth with the training,” said Hobbs.
After getting to the training site and setting up, they were met with an unexpected curveball, having to move their field set-up to another location in a short amount of time.
“The purpose of this FTX is multifunctional. It’s to conduct METL tasks, one of them is to set up operations, something most take for granted, it’s a very important one,” said Hobbs. “We have to move from one location to another location in a few short hours, they did a good job.”
The rest of the first day had the soldiers conducting rehearsals for the next day’s big training event, the combat scenarios in the village next to the training site. Instead of using blanks during the scenarios, they used simulation (paintball) rounds, which brought more realism to the training.
“This training site is where were focusing on our combat scenarios, we have simulation rounds [paintball]. The point of the simulation round is so the soldier can feel the full effect of being hit in combat”, said Becker. “When we use blanks or different types of gear the effect isn’t there. When you get hit and go down, it becomes a more real scenario. As leaders we have to think of more innovative ways to engage our soldiers and this is one of those ways.”
After running his soldiers through a few of the scenarios, Becker was pleased with the work his guys have put into this exercise saying they did a fantastic job but have areas for improvement.
The scenarios themselves consisted of towing a downed vehicle while receiving contact, coming into the village and fix a gas pump, react to sniper fire and a few others. For Spc. Elijah Adams, quartermaster and chemical equipment repair soldier appreciated the training, giving him a chance to get out of his normal routine.
“So far this training was about being able to survive in a combat zone, being able to defend ourselves. We’re not infantry soldiers, were training how to be defensive for ourselves, to train to fight” said Adams.
“The scenario here was that we had to come in and repair a gas pump. We were told it was a friendly town and we had good rapport with the locals here. As soon as we dismounted from our vehicles we took direct fire. My convoy commander told me to tell the TOC [tactical operations center] we were taking fire. After that, adrenaline took over and we did what we needed to do to take out the enemy.”
Becker, who will relinquish command in the near future, is proud of his soldiers for how well they have performed not only during the training but during his time in command.
“It’s definitely a proud moment. I don’t have kids of my own but I feel really proud of my soldiers. They are not my kids but I’ve seen them grow. When I first took command, most of them didn’t know how to do anything in a combat zone, now they are ready to deploy on convoys. We’ve used different combat scenarios and it’s a proud feeling to see where my soldiers have come in the last 18 months.”
“I’ve brought them to the next level and its time for the new commander to bring them to an even greater level,” said Becker.
| Date Taken: | 09.26.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 09.30.2013 22:30 |
| Story ID: | 114512 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 80 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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