July 29, 2021 (Camp Ripley, Minnesota) – Soldiers within the 1347th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion (CSSB), a new unit set to activate later this year, completed their first annual training (AT) with a majority of their companies at Camp Ripley Training Center on July 19-30, 2021.
As a sustainment and support battalion, the CSSB’s main mission is to provide overall mission control synchronization and also the execution of the mission for the units that are assigned to the battalion.
“We focus mainly on logistics functions,” said Cpt. Maggie Gregg, the section three operations officer for the CSSB. “We are here to support the state of Minnesota, whether that be through a transportation mission to pick up containers or providing maintenance when the BCT comes home from NTC. We're here to do it all.”
Although the CSSB is a new unit, it will be in charge of 11 companies by the time it is fully activated on September 15, 2021. This will make it the largest battalion in the Minnesota National Guard.
“The BSB will try to tell you that they're the biggest, but we are the largest battalion in the state of Minnesota,” Gregg said. “Once 2021 hits, we will receive two fielding companies, which will bring our authorized strength up to 1,200 soldiers with an assigned strength of close to 1,400 soldiers. So we have a huge force underneath the CSSB. We are going to be the biggest.”
There are always difficulties in the development of a new unit, especially one as large as the CSSB. But Gregg says that the team of soldiers she works beside are excited and ready to take on the new challenges.
“I love the CSSB,” Gregg said. “The staff is made up of a lot of senior staff officers who bring such interesting backgrounds and crazy cool experiences that we're all able to collaboratively work together to teach each other, learn, and then put that back into a product to support our battalions. I think seeing all the different complex movements, seeing what all of the companies bring to the table and then being able to collaborate and put all of those efforts together and draw experience from other people to help make this not just one of the largest battalions in the state of Minnesota, but I think one of the strongest.”
One of the first challenges that the CSSB faced was integrating themselves with companies that had already been established and running. Gregg said that as soon as the CSSB was created, it had to jump right in and provide support to those companies while simultaneously creating their own unit from the ground up.
“More than anything, we spent the first couple months building what our vision for this organization looked like. What did the vision for the companies look like? And then from there, we were able to build what our products look like. What are our battle drills? What are our SOPs?” said Gregg. “And so the name of the game was really, how can we fit into what they're doing now? And what will that vision look like moving forward?”
This annual training period has been an important step in the development of the CSSB. All of the processes that had been created were now being executed as companies like the 114th and 224th Transportation Companies worked together for two weeks for weapons qualifications, drivers training, react to contact and even competed in a culminating Truck Rodeo, July 30th. The training has allowed the CSSB to put their products to the test to see what works for the companies they support.
“Being able to see what our companies can do right now, seeing how they work, how they operate. And since they've all been very independent before, while falling under the RSG, now they get to see how they fit in the battalion, how they can be friends, how they can build upon each other, how we can bring training together,” Gregg said. “We're new. So we don't have some of those built-in processes. We're still trying to figure it out as we go. Sometimes I think the companies feel that strain. When we try to do something different there’s always a little growing pains for everybody. But I think at the end of the day, everyone's come out all green that we're on the right track and things are really moving in the direction that we're hoping to bring to the CSSB.”
Overall, AT was a success for the CSSB as the battalion worked through their products and completed multiple training events. While the companies were hard at work with their training, the CSSB headquarters worked alongside them to create a game plan for the future of the battalion that is efficient and successful for everyone.
“The battalion headquarters has been taking this opportunity to refine what our products look like for us to be able to provide that command and control. That's so essential to our mission,” Gregg said. “So we've been looking at how we best support them and how we are going to continue to support the battalions so that we are mission efficient, proficient and ready to rock as we continue to progress.”
| Date Taken: | 08.03.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 08.03.2021 14:41 |
| Story ID: | 402356 |
| Location: | LITTLE FALLS, MINNESOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 266 |
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This work, Minnesota's Newest and Largest Battalion Trains at Camp Ripley, by SSG Jorden Newbanks, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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