Photo By Spc. Brian Holloran | Two teams of mortarmen from the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, of the 102nd...... read more read more
FORT DRUM, N.Y. – The four-man team stacks on the door, the last soldier of the team rushes forward and checks the door for traps and triggers, then on the three count, the door swings in with the force of a kick, and the team rushes in to clear the room. In the sweltering summer heat, shouts radiate from the room as the soldiers sweep through and shots ring out as the enemies are engaged.
This was the scene June 21 at the Fort Drum “shoot house,” where soldiers from 1st Battalion, 102nd Infantry Regiment attended their annual two-week training period.
“This year our Annual Training schedule is pretty full of exciting events,” said Capt. Jason Desousa, supply officer, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1/102nd. “All the soldiers here are going to be extremely busy for these next few weeks.”
“One of the first things most of the soldiers did this (annual training) was zero their rifles and qualify with them,” said Spc. Kyle Stafford, radio operator, HHC, 102nd. “After that they got to fire a few different weapon systems.”
Along with rifle qualification the soldiers fired the M240B and the M2 .50-caliber machine guns. The soldiers also practiced moving through urban terrain and clearing a room in the shoot house.
“The shoot house was a lot of fun,” said Spc. Cielo Lizasuain, mortarman, HHC, 102nd. “Getting to use live rounds while doing house clearing was awesome. There aren’t a lot of training situations where we use live rounds so every chance we get is a great experience,” he said.
The shoot house is a concrete building filled with doors to kick open, rooms to clear and enemy targets to engage. Above all of this are catwalks so the training can be observed.
The shoot house is designed to replicate a house-clearing mission. The soldiers come in one door and then make their way from one room to the next, clearing each room along the way. Some rooms have enemy targets in them for the soldiers to engage, said Desousa.
“The shoot house is a great training tool,” Desousa added. “It allows us to see how the soldiers react in a live fire situation and gives the instructors a way to watch the training from a safe vantage point.”
The annual training for the unit also included mortar training for their mortarmen.
“The mortar training was great,” said Spc. Justin Hackett, mortarman, HHC, 102nd. “We did a lot of safety training and then we got to hang some rounds. That’s what this is all about; putting rounds down range and making sure the newer soldiers get practice using live rounds.”
“The mortar training was a great time,” said Pvt. Joshua Clark, mortarman, HHC, 102nd. “We haven’t gotten a lot of time with the live rounds, so this a great chance for us to put our training to good use.”
This AT was a significant one for the unit due to the high number of newer soldiers in the 102nd.
“This is a pretty important AT for us,” said Desousa. “We have a lot of new guys and we need to make sure they are on the same level with the other soldiers in the unit. Also, because we are an infantry unit these soldiers’ lives depend on each other every day when we are deployed. That trust needs to be there. It takes a while to build a trust like that, but a good AT is a great start.”
The 102nd also performed night fire and squad live fire exercises to round out their training experience. Even thought they have been spending their nights sleeping on the ground in the bug-infested woods, the soldiers enjoyed their experience.
“Overall, this AT is full of fun and useful training for all of us,” said Pfc. Robert Cumba, mortarman, HHC, 102nd. “We are living in the field and doing a lot of exciting training, this is only my first AT with the unit, but I think it’s been a really good one.”
Even with temperatures approaching triple digits, that sentiment wasn’t just felt by soldiers new to the unit; many of the veteran members felt the same way.
“So far the training has been pretty successful,” said Desousa. “The soldiers have been doing a great job this past week. We have a few more days to go, but if they keep up the good work this will be an extremely rewarding AT.”
| Date Taken: | 06.21.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 06.26.2012 13:14 |
| Story ID: | 90620 |
| Location: | CONNECTICUT, US |
| Web Views: | 125 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Soldiers kick down doors, hang rounds, pound Drum, by SPC Brian Holloran, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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