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FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – More than 150 Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers provided “real-life” support for the recently concluded Warfighter exercise here.
The exercise ran from Jan. 29 to Feb. 6, but participants began arriving Jan. 13. At the height of the exercise, more than 3,000 additional personnel were present at Fort Indiantown Gap.
The New York National Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division was the primary training audience, and the exercise also included participants from the New Hampshire, Mississippi, New York and Ohio National Guards.
Soldiers from the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 213th Regional Support Group, Fort Indiantown Gap Training Center and Joint Force Headquarters provided various real-life tasks in support of the exercise.
The tasks included in-processing exercise participants; overseeing food services, billeting and communications services; providing medical support; manning entry control points; and providing transportation around Fort Indiantown Gap.
“The 42nd ID was able to successfully complete their culminating training exercise without significant distractions associated with real-life support because of the 213th RSG and Training Center elements who supported of the event,” said Col. Jeremy Coleman, commander of the 213th RSG.
About 135 Soldiers from the 213th RSG provided support for the exercise. They were augmented by about 30 Soldiers from the Training Center.
The Training Center Soldiers primarily operated in their traditional roles, said Lt. Col. Gordon Kinneer, Fort Indiantown Gap’s director of plans, operations, training and security.
“For example, the Range Operations fires desk still operated in their traditional capacity assisting the Warfighter units with management of their training plans and training areas,” Kinneer said. “Billeting, who probably had the heaviest lift, supported the 42nd ID with billeting issues, managing rooms and buildings, and fixing broken equipment.”
There were several challenges of hosting and supporting this kind of exercise, Kinneer said. The biggest, he said, was just the sheer size and scope the exercise.
“It stretches our capacity for support because it’s not always the only training event happening on the installation,” Kinneer said. “In this case, there were multiple units conducting traditional weekend training events, conducting live fire events, and a multitude of Soldiers attending various schools at the 166th Regiment.”
Capt. Nicole Barela-Vess, a Warfighter project officer with the 213th RSG, said the main goal of those providing real-life support was to allow the Soldiers who were participating in the exercise to focus on the exercise.
“The primary function was to mitigate all training distractors from the 42nd ID to ensure they maximized their collective effort and validate their exercise in preparation for their mobilization,” Barela-Vess said.
One of the challenges the Soldiers providing real-life support during the exercise faced was the weather, which brought sub-freezing temperatures and snow.
“The snow provided an opportunity to exercise the inclement weather plan for real life support and ensured the training audience did not experience any interruptions in the exercise,” Barela-Vess said.
This was the eighth Warfighter exercise Fort Indiantown Gap has hosted since 2012, Kinneer said. It was slightly smaller than previous Warfighters because some of the units that would normally be required to attend the exercise in-person were able to connect to the exercise at locations closer to their unit home stations.
This was also the first Warfighter that had a single unit – the 213th RSG – act as the real-life support headquarters, Kinneer said. Normally, the support is cobbled together with service members from various Pennsylvania National Guard units.
“Having and actual O6 with organic headquarters made supporting the Warfighter very efficient,” Kinneer said. “It was probably the smoothest Warfighter, aside from the normal hiccups every unit encounters, that we have executed to date.”
Coleman said he has participated in several Warfighters in the past, and he agreed this was one of the smoothest.
“A lot of the success had to do with all the prep work that went into the planning months in advance,” Coleman said. “Also, the 213th RSG had a fairly robust advance party that set conditions for us to be successful once other units began to arrive at Fort Indiantown Gap.”
| Date Taken: | 02.14.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.14.2025 08:39 |
| Story ID: | 490805 |
| Location: | FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 85 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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