Courtesy Photo | Spc. Carlo P. Acevedo, a team leader, Company A, 1/185 Armor (Combined Arms...... read more read more
By Pfc. Chalon E. Hutson
FORT IRWIN, Calif. – Soldiers jumped over a fence to breach an old, adobe-style home in the middle of the desert. The squad stacked on the door, waiting for their moment to breach. Their mission was to clear the area of any insurgent making homemade explosives. Every soldier remained calm and ready to complete the job.
As real as all of this seemed, this breach was just a training exercise.
Infantry soldiers from Company A of the 1/185 Armor (Combined Arms Battalion) participated in town-and-building clearing simulations at the National Training Center in August.
“The soldiers are trying to get as much experience as possible,” said Sgt. David Villegas, a squad leader for this National Guard unit.
This training is important because their company has many new soldiers, many who are straight out of basic training, he said.
“They will be prepared when they are (overseas) … They are getting to know each other,” he said.
Villegas said he’s optimistic about soldiers uniting as one through working and training together.
With the different types of experience in their unit – some have been through Ranger school, and some served as private security in the civilian world – they have many ways to complete the mission, he said. This training was one of the first times the whole unit was able to train together on this type of mission. With this in mind, Villegas believed they did very well.
As a squad entered the building, they encountered a group of unarmed enemies on the first floor. One team pulled security as the other team took the enemies as prisoners. Then soldiers climbed the stairs to clear the rest of the building.
The mock village simulated Afghanistan, said Spc. Carlo P. Acevedo, a team leader
“It’s good to get a feel for the environment (we will face) out there in theater,” he said.
It’s important to practice close quarter combat training, said Sgt. Oscar Demara, squad leader from Barley, Calif.
“It’s really hard to simulate that anywhere else, other than here, including the whether and terrain,” he said. “It’s really close to being the real thing.”
The squad went up to the second floor and secured the remaining enemies. The soldiers searched the house and found a small hidden door behind a bookcase. They opened the door where they were surprised by an explosive device about to go off.
“It motivates me and all the other (non-commissioned officers) to see these guys jumping over fences,” said Sgt. Robert Millan, team leader from Lindsay, Calif. “We don’t have one bad attitude out here. All these young (soldiers) are really, really motivated … It’s good for the soldiers that are just coming out of boot camp. They don’t get to see the quality training that this, so it’s pretty realistic.
Second Lt. Pete Fortier, platoon leader out of Fresno, Calif., gave feedback to soldiers during the drill. Fortier draws his experience from deployments both to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Ranger training.
“I feel they have done an excellent job,” said Fortier. He said they took a variety of soldiers with different types of experience and pulled together their resources to provide them with high-quality training.
The scenario sites here at NTC are modern and state-of-the-art. NTC is one of the few sites where soldiers have training sites like this.
“Traditionally, in the past, our (soldiers) have not been able to get quality training that they need as dismounts, to operate in an urban environment or even a patrolling environment,” Fortier said. Therefore, they used the advantages of NTC to deal with combatants and non-combatants in the houses and better prepare them for overseas operations.
“Realistic training hones realistic skills,” he said.”
His company doesn’t have many opportunities to practice on skills in a realistic environment, and because they are guardsmen they need to improve skills while they can, he said.
“We are better preparing the sons and daughters of the United States to have a better survivability overseas. We are exposing them to realistic threats that they will encounter in urban environments of both Afghanistan and Iraq. And they will be better prepared for when they actually go to do the job,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 08.11.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 08.12.2010 10:58 |
| Story ID: | 54391 |
| Location: | FORT IRWIN, US |
| Web Views: | 55 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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