Photo By Winifred Brown | Soldiers assigned to the Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Armored Division, sling load a...... read more read more
Subscribe
By Wendy Brown
Fort Bliss Garrison Public Affairs
One of the main reasons Staff Sgt. Steven Foster signed up for the 1st Armored Division Combat Aviation Brigade’s Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the Quarter Competition at Fort Bliss Sept. 11 was so he could remember the events on that date in 2001 in a meaningful way.
“What better way to remember a harsh time than to put some effort in and remember the hard times and the good times of sticking together, the camaraderie between the units, the entire brigade working together, just like when the nation came together?” said Foster, who repairs Chinooks in Company D, 2nd Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment, CAB, 1st AD.
The competition’s 31 competitors and their sponsors started the day at Training Area 25, a remote area of Fort Bliss that required them to get up at 1:30 a.m. and travel via aircraft to the site, said Master Sgt. Robert Horn, an organizer of the competition.
Once there, brigade leaders reviewed the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and held a memorial for the nearly 3,000 victims of the terrorist attacks, Horn said. This year is the first year babies born in 2001 would be eligible to join the military, and leaders wanted to make sure Soldiers knew what happened that day.
“We really wanted to make an impact on what today is,” he said.
From there, aircraft flew the Soldiers and cadre to nearby McGregor Range, N.M., so they could begin the competition portion of the day. Events included a live grenade range, a nearly seven-mile ruck march to the Claymore mine range, where Soldiers detonated live mines, and another nearly seven-mile march back to the grenade range.
Command Sgt. Maj. J.T. Hall, command sergeant major, 1st AD CAB, said he and other CAB leaders designed the competition to build resiliency among the brigade’s Soldiers.
“You can only have one winner from the NCO and Soldier side of the house, but I will tell you that this crew, this group participating today, will be the group that will be resilient,” Hall said. “… It’s because they got through today and they see what they can do.”
Hall said leaders decided to use live grenades and Claymores because they wanted to build confidence among the Soldiers and have them practice skills, such as grenade throwing, that they might not have practiced since basic training.
“Traditionally, aviation folks won’t do what we’re doing in regards to throwing hand grenades and firing Claymores,” Hall said. “… A lot of times we don’t do big foot movements either. It’s kind of fallen out. It used to be a requirement within divisions and we’re getting back to it and we’ve learned how we build our quarter board competitions up.”
Horn and Hall both said they found more Soldiers were interested in competing in the quarterly competitions the more challenging they made them.
Horn said when leaders added land navigation in an urban area and the Air Assault Obstacle Course to the last competition, morale and interest picked up, so they decided to make this quarter’s competition even more challenging.
Pfc. Kevin Good, a signal support system specialist assigned to Company C, 127th Aviation Support Battalion, CAB, 1st AD, and a competitor, said he enjoyed the day’s challenges.
“The ruck march was hard,” Good said after firing a Claymore. “It’s hard, but I made it through and, overall, I liked it.”
Leaders announced Sept. 21 that Sgt. Mario Cortezrico, assigned to 1st Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment, CAB, 1st AD, and Spc. Trey Carter, assigned to 2nd Bn., 501st Aviation Regt., CAB, 1st AD, won the competition.
| Date Taken: | 09.24.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 09.24.2018 18:00 |
| Story ID: | 294234 |
| Location: | TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 36 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, CAB challenges Soldiers with grenades, Claymores, ruck march, by Winifred Brown, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
