ARMY SUPPORT ACTIVITY-DIX, N.J. — Winter storms dumped more than 36 inches of snow on Army Support Activity-Dix over the past two weeks delivering a roundhouse to the Army, but it wasn't a knockout blow as training kept rolling along.
Since the beginning of winter, three snow storms and many snow showers have blanketed the area with approximately 60 inches of the crystalline precipitation said Chris Boczek, at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Weather Office.
For only one day, all but mission essential activity was halted for safety purposes, but a curveball from Mother Nature was not able to stop the machine that is mobilization training. Although the heavy snowfall cramped the training schedules of 1,145 mobilization and pre-mobilization trainees — Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen — they continued to press forward to complete mission requirements.
According to Sgt. 1st Class Ray Carroll, from Clinton, N.C., Team Two administrative noncommissioned officer-in-charge at Mobilization and Training Operations, 72nd Field Artillery Brigade, the snow delayed training for one day as the ranges were buried.
Carroll said that a collaborative effort between MATOPS and IAP World Services to get the ranges cleared in a quick and efficient manner ensured that training resumed with minimal downtime.
Range trainers and non-commissioned officers worked together to coordinate the movement of training from one range to another, as snow and the lack of snow removal equipment made it impossible to access some of the training areas.
A trainer with the 72nd FA Bde. at the Camp Liberty training site, Sgt. Stephen Robinson from Jackson, N.J., said the snow was so deep that the site had become inaccessible for training purposes.
Robinson said, "Liberty hasn't been plowed out yet so we are adapting to find ways to accomplish the mission. We couldn't run our lane so we coordinated with the trainers at the Balad training site and borrowed theirs. We provide counter improvised explosive device training. We crammed all of the PowerPoint training into day one and day two at Timmermann Center and moved the practical exercises over to Balad."
Counter-IED trainers also train at the Macasa site. The snow there was so deep that finding their grenade simulators was really difficult when the training had completed said Robinson.
Snow fell as Soldiers from the 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion, Delta Company, Green Bay, fired their M4 rifles during reflexive training on Range 29B Feb. 16.
Master Sgt. Claude Graham, Camden, Ark., NCOIC at Range 29B with the Regional Training Center-East, said, "As long as the training areas are active and the base hasn't shut down, we have continued the training. We ourselves had to dig out our range to provide a safe area for the Soldiers to continue their training. When the snow fell heavily we scheduled classroom training so the mission could continue. We tried to work around the snowfall so we wouldn't lose a whole lot of time."
One place hit particularly hard was the training contingency operations location also known as training site Camp Victory. Due to the heavy snowfall 16 tents collapsed and nine others were damaged. Prior to the storms hitting, all Soldiers moved to billets on the cantonment area as a safety precaution.
Although the sleeping facilities were shut down, training operations never skipped a beat at the COL. The dining facility tent and Morale Welfare and Recreation tent remained open and in use as training classrooms.
"Training in the tents and at the entry control points was not affected. We are assessing the damage to the tents to decide how long it will take to restore them. As of this morning [Feb. 16] Soldiers have begun to reoccupy our billeting tents. We have our own personnel assigned to the COL and our own snow removal equipment, so everything has pretty much remained operational," said Master Sgt. Yolanda Wiley, Sharon Hill, Pa., NCOIC of COL operations, 72nd FA Bde.
With mobilization training the primary mission at ASA-Dix, the Soldiers assigned to the activity are not going to let a 'little' snow slow them down.
| Date Taken: | 02.19.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 02.19.2010 14:20 |
| Story ID: | 45590 |
| Location: | FORT DIX, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Web Views: | 194 |
| Downloads: | 164 |
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