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Strykers Shift to High at Grafenwoehr

Dec-28-2006 » Filed Under: 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment

Arthur McQueen, Army News Service

Grafenwoehr, Germany -- Mud, rain and cold challenge every Soldier who trains here. But as troops from the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment from Vilseck challenged themselves, moving from individual to platoon-level live fire training, they proved that U.S. Army, Europe's newest has what it takes to overcome anything "the Box" at the Joint Multinational Training Command can bring.

Following several months of staff planning, individual and squad training, the Stryker Soldiers, many of whom are new to the Army, spent several weeks practicing for the Dec. 13 day and night platoon-level defensive maneuvers, followed up with a counterattack, all supported by mortar fire integral to the unit.

"To see young Soldiers, who haven't been in the Army very long, suddenly begin to do things they've never done before; it's fantastic," said 3rd Squadron commander, Lt. Col. Rod Coffey.

"They are throwing hand grenades, using AT-4s (light anti-armor weapons)," he explained, "while squad and platoon leaders maneuver, perform casualty evacuations and call for mortar fire. They have done superbly."

Coffey and his observer-controller team threw some conventional defense scenarios at 2nd Lt. Eric Owens, 2nd Platoon, Ghost Rider Company, who experienced for the first time Strykers being used in open terrain. "Here, we went back to old-style tactics, using a reserve and mounting a counter attack."

With a continuous light rain falling around him after the defensive struggle, Owens said his Soldiers can "reach out and touch" the enemy more than two kilometers away, using either a Javelin anti-tank missile or their Remote Weapons Systems connected to a .50 caliber machine gun or Mark 19 grenade launcher.

"Inside the Stryker, they have a joystick with thumb lever and trigger, and a small TV screen connected to a camera mounted right underneath the weapon," Owens said. "It is very accurate, and we were able to engage targets fairly far out." [...]


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