Home » Archives » "2-1 Strykers roll for 1st time"

2-1 Strykers roll for 1st time

Dec-10-2004 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

Link to Full Article with photo
1st Lt. Sean Loosen
Co. C, 2nd Bn., 1st Inf.

FORT WAINWRIGHT — For months, the Soldiers in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment were Stryker warriors without Strykers.

Last month, with vehicle fielding completed and the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team scheduled for a Joint Readiness Training Center trip next spring, the battalion went to the field to break in their new rides.

“The task organization we had for our missions is the same task organization being used by units deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan right now,” said Capt. Michael Spinello, Company C commander.

In one scenario, 2-1’s mission was to find weapons caches at the village of Al Basha (the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility). The mission for the raid was to capture several key terrorist leaders suspected to be in the village of Waddhi Al Tarif (Eielson Air Force Base).

Each company executed a six-day rotation with other 172nd SBCT officers and NCOs providing observer controllers to evaluate the training.

“Managing all the enablers and fighting the battle simultaneously added a whole new level of difficulty on the battlefield,” said Spinello. “However, using the enablers such as Civil Affairs Team – Alpha and Tactical Psychological Operations Teams, allowed us to set the conditions before we entered the villages we searched, which helped us accomplish our mission and reduce casualties.”

Assisting in the realism were role players as villagers and journalists.

“The overall training was very realistic to what is going on in the Middle East,” said Co. C’s Staff Sgt. Guilliano Janvier, who was in Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division. “However, when I was in Iraq, the local villagers were more cooperative while we conducted cordon and searches.”

Training was set up to be as realistic as possible. To insure that the locals would cooperate during the cordon and search of their village, the companies were required to get the support of the local leader. They also had to coordinate close air support with the Air Force, and work with several other Army agencies Stryker Continued from page 1 including civil affairs and psychological operations.

Spc. Michael Selig, previously with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, agreed that the training was similar to what Soldiers in Iraq are experiencing, but added that, “The media and the local villagers were constantly disrupting our operations while we were trying to conduct missions.”

Since a lot of the training occurred in the post garrison area, battalion commander Lt. Col. Charles Webster, was pleased how smoothly the training went.

“Without the support of the Fort Wainwright garrison commander and other local leaders we could not have achieved the level of training readiness needed to be ready to deploy,” he said. “Use of the CACTF, local training areas, and University of Alaska Fairbanks students as embedded journalists, significantly enhanced the realism and complexity of the overall training event.”

Contact the writer at sean.loosen@wainwright.army.mil


Advertisements