Striker Soldiers get hands on cutting edge equipment

Photo By Spc. Paul Harris | Sgt. Ronald Abbl, from Wilcox, Ariz., team leader, Company B, 1-68 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, gets hands on experience with the portable Jaws of Life system during a training seminar at Fort Carson, Colo.  

10.16.2007

Story by Spc. Paul Harris 

3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division

by Spc. Paul J. Harris
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Public Affairs Office

FORT CARSON, Colo. –- Soldiers from the Striker Brigade received hands on training, Oct. 12, on the latest equipment to roll off the assembly line during a training session called Program Ivy.

"The importance of this training is that several of these systems have already been fielded in Iraq," said Chief Warrant Officer Robert Hammett, command and control systems integrator, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. "What we are trying to do is get NCOs (non-commissioned officers) from each of the units to see (the new equipment) and put their hands on it and learn about it before they see it for the first time in Iraq."

Some of the new equipment being rolled out to the Soldiers was a quick cam video system that can mount on a Humvee and is able to record and send video straight from the battlefield. Also included in the training was the FN-303 Individual Serviceman Non-Lethal System. It is a compressed air launcher, like a rifle, that is capable of firing non-lethal polymer rounds that break upon impact, decreasing the chances of a fatality. A weapon like this is ideal for crowd control in Iraq.

"The crowds over there are curious to see what we are doing, not all of them are unfriendly," said Staff Sgt. Brandon Barrett, section chief, Battery B, 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division " If it does turn unfriendly we do not have to worry about shooting someone to make a point."

Barrett is a veteran of one deployment to Kuwait and three Iraq deployments. The equipment that is available to him now is a far cry from when the war began.

"The first year in Iraq we were all in soft skin Humvee's, didn't really have a whole lot of new equipment," Barrett said. "But now with the enemy making such advancements with our techniques and the equipment that we have, throwing new things at them definitely gives you a better feeling about going."

Barrett will be going back with the Striker Brigade when it deploys again in December. Being a veteran of many overseas missions he has started giving advice to the newer Soldiers in his unit.
"Trusting the man above you and the man behind you," Barrett said about the advice he has given. "If (the new Soldiers) can do that and build up camaraderie then they are going to feel a lot better about going to war."

Sgt. John Dodson, a team leader from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 64th Brigade Support Battalion, is preparing to go back to Iraq and leave behind his four children while his wife April completes her training to become an Army medic. His confidence level about this pending deployment has increased while getting to work with the newer equipment.

"(The main thing), if it is available for us to use, then yes, I feel a bit better about going over," Dodson said.

The new equipment is being made available via a program called the Rapid Equipping Force Initiative. It's a program the Army has in place to get the latest developments in technology and equipment to the battlefield while bypassing the traditional Army purchasing plan that, according to Hammett, can take up to 10 years.

• Date Taken: 10.16.2007
• Date Posted: 10.16.2007 12:50
• Story ID: 13045