Photo By Staff Sgt. Tori Miller | U.S. Army Georgia National Guard engineers from the Statesboro-based 177th Brigade...... read more read more
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Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers with the Cumming-based Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, and the Statesboro-based 177th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team conducted interoperability training during a live-fire lane at the Exportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC) exercise at Fort Stewart, Ga., June 23, 2022.
XCTC is the U.S. Army National Guard’s program of record that enables brigade combat teams to achieve the trained platoon readiness necessary to deploy. Commanders will use this exercise to assess their unit’s capabilities during live-fire activities and controlled scenarios.
The battalion leadership saw a crawl, walk, run style of training as beneficial. By breaking it down into individual, team, squad, and platoon levels, soldiers could focus on their respective tasks and drills before being evaluated as a team, squad, and platoon. The battalion commander validates the training at the platoon level with a “go” or “no-go.”
During the 3-121 squad training in April, the Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Chris Roberts, and Command Sgt. Maj. Ray Kinney, of the 3rd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, condensed one of their companies down to a new platoon. XCTC was the first opportunity for the platoon to work together. The leadership was confident in their success during the live-fire evaluation at XCTC.
“These Soldiers have put forth their max effort,” said Lt. Col. Roberts. “It’s difficult sometimes in these conditions with heat and humidity, but they’ve really pushed through and put their best foot forward and gotten a lot out of this training.”
The intensive training is designed to prepare A Co. 3-121 and the rest of the 48th IBCT for its upcoming rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana.
“For the last two years, we have conducted what we call pathfinder weeks,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Kinney. “We took our drills and condensed them into week-long events, so we have more time to train in our infantry tasks and drills.”
The live-fire lane consisted of mounted live-fire support from an M2 machine gun team from Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, and a detachment from the 177th BEB. The dismounted and mounted element reacted to contact and used radio contact and illumination signals to shift fires during the daytime and nighttime iterations. Once 360-degree security was guaranteed, engineers with the 177th BEB moved their element forward to engage enemies and clear an obstacle before the platoon could proceed. The primary use of the bangalore torpedo is for removing a three to four-yard-wide path through wire obstacles and heavy undergrowth. After a successful detonation, the dismounted infantry element moved through and cleared the objective.
“The benefit of an exercise like XCTC is that Soldiers get to practice exactly what their battle drills are going to be,” Lt. Col. Roberts. “It’s night and day for how they are now building their teams.”
| Date Taken: | 06.24.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2022 17:32 |
| Story ID: | 423762 |
| Location: | FORT STEWART, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 179 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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