Photo By Brian Godette | Sgt. Eliseo Broche, grenade range training instructor assigned to the 173rd Airborne...... read more read more
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DRAWSKO-POMORSKIE, Poland – Paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade conducted a hand-grenade range here June 4 with paratroopers from Canada’s Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and the Polish army’s 6th Airborne Brigade.
The 173rd Abn. Bde., based out of Vicenza, Italy, serves as the Army contingency response force for Europe, responsible for executing the full range of military operations within 18 hours anywhere in Europe. Over the past several months, approximately 600 paratroopers from the brigade have been training in the region with NATO allies such as Poland and Canada to demonstrate U.S. commitment to the NATO alliance and sustain interoperability between military forces.
“Today we are going through a live hand grenade range” said Sgt. Eliseo Broche, grenade range instructor with the 173rd Abn. Bde. “This is the first time we are doing this range with the Canadian Army while here in Poland.”
Paratroopers of the 173rd Abn. Bde. and the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry met early in the morning on the range, which was supervised by the Polish Army, in what has become a normal collaboration of training between multiple nations since the initial deployment of NATO allies to train with Polish forces here in late April.
The paratroopers first gathered around in a horseshoe-shaped formation as they were instructed on safety procedures and differences between several grenades and smoke bombs used commonly by military forces.
There were several stations set up which took the paratroopers through a gradual progression of training before throwing live grenades. The first station was the familiarization of the different types of grenades and throwing inert grenades, focusing on form and technique. The second stage is throwing the dummy grenade with a fuse in it that creates a small noise, followed by the last station where the paratroopers threw live M-67 fragment grenades in the grenade pit.
“The training here with the grenades is pretty much the same as we get in Canada,” said Cpl. Sebastian Uniat, a paratrooper assigned to Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. “I like working with Americans; I’ve worked overseas with them a lot.”
The grenade training range and previous multi-national training events have not only served as a means to stay combat proficient, but have also been a cohesion building experience for many, demonstrating the combined force’s capabilities.
“You learn a lot and see how other armies work, and later down the road you know what to expect,” said Uniat.
Soldiers are slated to continue training in the region with allied forces through the end of the year.
“The relationship between each [nation] has shown us that we do a lot of things in the same manner,” said Broche. “There are also a lot of small things that are done differently, but we have been able to learn a lot from each other.”
| Date Taken: | 06.06.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 06.08.2014 07:00 |
| Story ID: | 132457 |
| Location: | DRAWSKO-POMORSKIE, PL |
| Web Views: | 700 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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