Photo By Sgt. Salvatore Ottaviano | Soldiers of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 458th Engineer Battalion fire on the rifle range...... read more read more
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GREENWOOD TOWNSHIP, Pa. – The U.S. Army Reserve zeroed in on readiness during a ribbon-cutting ceremony April 26 for the Keystone Local Training Area here.
This revitalized training area will help the Army Reserve remain the most capable, combat-ready and lethal federal reserve force in the nation’s history.
“The Army Reserve’s most important mission is to provide ready Soldiers to fight today, and Keystone contributes directly to that,” said Maj. Gen. Mark Palzer, commanding general of the Army Reserve’s 99th Readiness Division. “All those who use this training site are going to be more effective and more efficient.”
Keystone LTA is a 500-acre Army Reserve training area located approximately 90 minutes north of Pittsburgh and 60 minutes south of Erie. Its location allows for numerous units to be able to minimize travel time and maximize in-the-field training time.
“Travel to our training sites can be very difficult at times, but having Keystone back in operation limits that difficulty because we get here quicker and have more time to train,” explained Command Sgt. Maj. William Padgelek, command sergeant major of the Army Reserve’s 316th Expeditionary Support Command.
“It’s saving taxpayer dollars, it’s improving training time – we make our Soldiers better by using more of their time to train,” Palzer added.
Keystone’s history dates back to World War II when the Keystone Ordnance Works was established on 14,000 acres of former farmland. In the early 1960s, just over 500 acres were retained by the Army as a site where local military units, law-enforcement organizations and ROTC cadets trained until the site shut down in 2012 due to needed refurbishments.
In 2018, the 99th Readiness Division coordinated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin a troop-construction project to bring the training area up to current standards.
“Thanks to the Army Reserve, they never gave up on this area,” said Doug Stevenson, vice chairman and roadmaster of Greenwood Township. “We are just honored to have this as part of our community, knowing the importance and scope of what goes on here and its importance to the security of our country.”
Keystone LTA’s range facilities can support day and night qualification for rifle and pistol, and live-fire familiarization of light- and medium-caliber machineguns. Other training facilities include a tear-gas chamber for mask confidence training, leadership reaction course, litter obstacle course, rappel tower and railhead operations training area.
“With the improvements that have gone on, there is going to be much more done here without having to travel somewhere,” said former state Senator Bob Robbins, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who served two tours of duty in Vietnam. “Without you [Soldiers], we certainly wouldn’t be the country we are today.”
| Date Taken: | 04.26.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 04.26.2019 18:03 |
| Story ID: | 319753 |
| Location: | GREENWOOD, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,079 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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