Home » Archives » "2nd Cavalry soldiers go virtual at Vilseck"

2nd Cavalry soldiers go virtual at Vilseck

Jul-15-2006 » Filed Under: 2nd SCR

Link to Full Article
Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes

VILSECK, Germany — Soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry (Stryker) Regiment have hit the ground running — they’re training on a virtual reality combat simulator here just weeks after arriving in Germany.

Thirty soldiers from Company A, 1st Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment fired mock M-16 rifles and M-249 machine guns at projected images of enemy troops at Vilseck’s Warrior Marksmanship Training Facility on Wednesday.

Company A executive officer 1st Lt. Steve Hampson, 25, of Honesdale, Pa., said the goal was to keep soldiers’ combat skills fresh.

Several hundred soldiers have arrived in Germany so far with 1st Squadron — which is equivalent to an infantry battalion equipped with Stryker eight-wheeled armored personnel carriers. Some have been here three weeks but most arrived in the last few days, he said.

“They are already beginning their regimen of physical training, marksmanship, first aid training, digital training and leadership development,” Hampson said.

The simulator training involved four-man teams and nine-man squads taking cover behind piles of bricks and firing at enemies in urban areas or out in the open.

Vilseck Training Aids Devices and Simulators manager Steve Wesnoski said the simulator could put soldiers through 400 scenarios including urban combat with civilians on the battlefield.[...]


Advertisements