Stryker vehicles arrive at Gap
Link to Full Article
By BRAD RHEN, Lebanon Daily News
FORT INDIANTOWN GAP — The Army’s new Stryker vehicles have arrived.
Twenty-one of the vehicles are now at the Gap, where they are being fitted with cutting-edge communications equipment and are being used to train National Guard soldiers.
Over the next two years, 300 more vehicles will arrive to be fitted with gear before being shipped to Guard units around the state.
The Stryker is a 19-ton, eight-wheeled vehicle that can travel up to 62.5 mph. It comes in 10 variants, including an infantry-carrier vehicle, a medical evacuation vehicle and a command vehicle.
The vehicles are the centerpiece of the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, one of seven such units in the Army and the only one in the Reserves or National Guard.
Fight to Transform Willow Grove into an Air National Guard-Operated Base
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PR Newswire
HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Representatives of Governor Edward G. Rendell and the Pennsylvania National Guard today urged federal lawmakers in Washington D.C. to support a continued, significant, military presence at Willow Grove through the guard's proposed future-use plan.
The key to Willow Grove's future as a military installation is maintaining the airfield. The plan creates a robust military presence with more than 3,700 personnel, including the addition of more than 1,000 Army National Guard soldiers from the 56th Stryker Brigade. [....]
National Guard unit returns from Gulf Coast
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Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA A National Guard unit from Philadelphia is back home from a month-long hurricane relief mission in Louisiana.
The unit arrived by bus this morning at the armory in Northeast Philadelphia.
Members of the 56th Stryker Brigade were happy to be home, but also were happy to have helped some desperate fellow Americans.
Captain John Cannon says the unit set up distribution points in various towns around New Orleans. Each day they handed out meals ready-to-eat, ice, and water, infant care products, baby food, diapers, formula and "things of that nature." [...]
Disaster victims receive help from these midstaters
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BY MEGAN WALDE, The Patriot-News
Members of the Pennsylvania Army Na tional Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade have been in Louisiana for a little over a month helping with relief efforts after hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused widespread destruction in communities from Texas to Alabama.
For most of the mission, they worked at food distribution points in hard-hit communities around New Orleans. They handed out food, water and ice, secured distribution centers and warehouses, and escorted commercial haulers. [...]
Stryker Brigade distributes food in New Orleans
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BY MEGAN WALDE, The Patriot-News
It has been two weeks since the Pennsylvania National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade began its plodding way south to Louisiana, and the troops finally have hit a comfortable routine in the relief effort.
Operating from bases in Alexandria, Hammond and Belle Chasse, La., the brigade's six battalions have taken over the food distribution network around New Orleans. Units operate 10 distribution centers, giving residents MREs, water and ice at each location and receiving thanks, homemade food and Mardi Gras beads in return. [...]
Units will soon head to food points
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BY MEGAN WALDE,The Patriot-News
HAMMOND, La. - The Pennsylvania National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade has a mission, but it hasn't moved very far forward since it got its orders Thursday night.
That should change in the next 24 hours, as more military units head to food distribution points around New Orleans, brigade officials said last night. [...]
Units will travel to any of six food distribution points -- three on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain and three in New Orleans -- over the next few days. [...]
Chaplains prepare Guard troops for grim work
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By MEGAN WALDE, The Patriot-News
Col. Joel Wierenga gave the word last night.
The commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade announced at an evening briefing that the brigade was to begin moving south this morning to Hammond, La., in Tangipahoa Parish, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.
Wierenga said about two-thirds of the brigade will set up and secure food distribution centers and access to them. The rest of the 2,300-soldier deployment will have various missions as needed, he said.
Wierenga said it was uncertain how long the units might be at Hammond. FEMA was to have set up tent shelters there by today.
While awaiting orders in this central Louisiana city, the Pennsylvania troops have used their time to get ready to move into the storm-devastated area. [...]
Frustration, boredom for Pa. troops on Gulf Coast
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By Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
ALEXANDRIA, La. -- Frustration set in among 2,300 Pennsylvania Army National Guard troops yesterday as they spent another day far from New Orleans, doing essentially nothing to aid hurricane victims.
Leaders of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team were told their troops may not be deployed until tomorrow at the earliest, and even then might be broken into tiny four- or five-soldier squads, providing security to utility workers and doing other small-scale work far away from areas most devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
"It's bad. It's frustrating," said Lt. Col. Jerry Miller, leader of the brigade's 112th Infantry Regiment. "There's got to be a story in this frustration.
"We can't keep the bottle corked like this. It's a crime," he said.
Pennsylvania troops, who traveled overnight in buses and in three-day heavy equipment convoys to reach the region, spent the day doing busy work again yesterday at a military airstrip in central Louisiana, four hours northwest of New Orleans, distant from major hurricane damage. Soldiers were left to recheck their equipment and vehicles, do ad hoc training exercises and a lot of nothing while they waited around their barracks. [...]
Related:
Guard unit awaits orders to help out - The Patriot News
Butler Guard unit heads to Gulf Coast on Mission Unknown
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By Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
LONDON, Ky. -- Forty-two soldiers lugged body armor, rifles and water onto a charter bus outside Butler yesterday, following the hard path south of thousands of other troops going to the hurricane disaster area.
Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, Stryker Brigade Combat Team, has done disaster work before, clearing snow for emergency vehicles in the 1993 East Coast blizzard, and humanitarian missions, providing security in Kosovo.
Obviously, given the likelihood of thousands dead at their destination, Hurricane Katrina will be another matter.
The mission is part disaster relief, part security, but all unknown. Alpha Company members think they are going to New Orleans, via Mississippi. [...]
Mobilization of 2,500 Pennsylvania National Guard Members ... Katrina Emergency Relief
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PR NewsWire
HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Governor Edward G. Rendell today mobilized 2,500 Pennsylvania Army and Air National Guard members to support hurricane disaster relief efforts along the Gulf coast. Pennsylvania National Guard personnel will begin arriving in the region over the weekend. The mission is expected to last at least 30 days. This is the largest state activation of Pennsylvania National Guard troops since Hurricane Agnes in 1972. [...]
Pennsylvania Army and Air National Guard units and portions of units that
have been mobilized include:
Pennsylvania Army National Guard
-- 213th Area Support Group, Allentown;
-- Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 56th Stryker Brigade,
Philadelphia; [...]
Common Platform for Command
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By Julian Nettlefold
Recognizing the urgent need to control the “jungles of spaghetti” in heavily wired modern command posts, the Army is moving ahead with the Command Post Platform (CPP) development and integration program. Valued at up to $400 million over the next five years, the award to prime contractor Northrop Grumman includes an initial $26 million contract for the design and construction of 10 prototype command posts.
The need for advanced command post technology was highlighted during the AUSA winter meeting with a briefing from Northrop Grumman and Brigadier General Philip Coker, director of capabilities developments, Futures Center HQ, Army Training and Doctrine Command.
“For those of you who have fought battles in the dark, under fire in cold, wet weather, the layout of one’s command post can make all the difference to the success or failure of a battle,” Coker said, “Many of us have entered CPs and tripped over wires and machines, thus blanking-out current force positions and maneuvers. In addition, commanders and liaison officers moving between forces will often come across different CP layout and systems.
“We believe that to achieve essential force performance in battle, all command posts must be built on a common platform and operating environment. Not only should the systems be common and centrally linked, but also the command post itself should have no internal support posts that may exclude the commander’s vision of the developing battle. In addition, we must ensure that these command posts are also available in aerial platforms while the commander is visiting his forward echelons, and in mechanized systems for advancing mechanized troops,” Coker continued.
“Operation OIF underlined the urgent need for new command post technology,” said Lieutenant General William S. Wallace, who commanded V Corps during the Iraq campaign and currently serves as commanding general, Combined Arms Center, Army Training and Doctrine Command. “It was a disaster during OIF. In the past we spent four to six hours in the command post, now it can be as little as 10 minutes or even on the move.”
As prime contractor, Northrop Grumman will develop and field Army command posts, where commanders direct operations and control forces. CPP provides common command centers with advanced command-and-control hardware and technology to give commanders improved control over their digital forces using Force XXI FBCB2 and other Army battlefield command systems. It will also allow soldiers and officers to move between echelons without having to retrain command post operations.
“Northrop Grumman is committed to the effective and timely transformation of the Army,” said Otto J. Guenther, vice president and general manager, Tactical Systems Division, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. “This award validates how Northrop Grumman can leverage the deep, broad capabilities and knowledge resident in its sectors to bring truly transformational systems to military operations. Our strong partnership with the Army in developing and fielding battle command-and-control systems such as FBCB2 and Blue Force Tracking will be instrumental in assuring success of the CPP program.”
Following the initial 18 month contract award, the Army will execute follow-on options to develop command posts for Stryker Brigade Combat Teams 5 and 6, which will be the first units equipped with the operational test units. Full-rate production options, which begin in 2006 and continue through 2010, will equip the remaining Army units.
The current contract covers 10 active divisions and 10 brigades, with 26 shelters per division and nine to 11 for separate brigades. The first equipped division will be 1st Cavalry Division, prior to its redeployment to Iraq. This requirement could grow to as much as $1.4 billion as the Army moves to equip command posts at the battalion and lower level.
Extra money for the CPP program has been requested in a defense supplemental appropriation. In addition, the Marine Corps is discussing the need for new systems, and key U.S. allies are interested. “The U.K. has developed some good ideas for new command post technology and we are working with them to develop the best solutions,” Coker said.
Confident Gap plans for wave of upgrades
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BY AL WINN, The Patriot-News
FORT INDIANTOWN GAP - Officials at other Pennsylvania military bases might worry their posts will be closed in the next round of base closures.
But Fort Indiantown Gap officials said that $1.5 billion in federal money for new National Guard facilities and equipment that is coming to Pennsylvania will help protect the Gap.
Nearly $200 million of the money is earmarked for new and expanded armories and maintenance shops around the state, including new ones in Carlisle and Lebanon.
The Pennsylvania National Guard, which owns the Gap's 17,100-acre training site, is getting one of the Army's six new forces of quickly mobilized, lightly armored infantry, called Stryker brigades. [...]
The ranges won't look much different from the Gap's current ranges, but three training courses are designed to teach Stryker troops lessons learned in the urban environments of Somalia, Panama and Iraq. One complex will include an urban assault course where soldiers will learn to blast their way into buildings with explosives.
Another component is a "shoot house" where troops learn to fight indoors. Remote-controlled figures will pop up with soldiers having to make quick decisions on whether the figures are hostile -- in which case they will shoot them -- or noncombatants in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The most sophisticated and expensive part of the urban-training plans is a $16.7 million "city" to be built on the Gap's Second Mountain. The town will consist of about two dozen buildings and underground tunnels that troops will attack under the watch of video cameras. The unit can view film of their operation much in the same way a football team watches game films, Edwards said.
None of the Gap's ranges will be closed, requiring planners to shoehorn the ranges onto the 17,100-acre post, Cleaver said.
"It will require some creative scheduling," he said. Some ranges will have to be closed while adjacent ones are being used, he said.
Army prioritizes vehicles
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By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Army largely will stand fast while Defense Department reviews take place in 2005, but one area they will attack is force protection.
The Army is budgeting $1.025 billion for “mobility assets,” a senior Army budget official said Friday, including $451.5 million for 3,196 tactical medium vehicles and $224 million for 360 up-armored Humvees and 1,705 heavy chassis Humvees.
The Army budget also includes $875 million to buy 240 Stryker tactical wheeled vehicles, enough to outfit the Army’s sixth Stryker Brigade.
Guard will beef up recruiting
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By BONNIE ADAMS; Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE - Four National Guard recruiters will be added to recruiting teams in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton to help the state make the goals it previously missed by 669 new recruits.
The state's shortfall has mirrored the national trend in which recruiting fell short last year by 7,000 enlistees.
Army National Guard officials have said it is more difficult to convince service members who are leaving active duty to join the National Guard and face the possibility of deploying overseas.
Master Sgt. Doug Collins of the 109th Field Artillery said the additional recruiters will enable area recruiters to talk to more prospective recruits.
Collins said the National Guard locally also has added about 20 recruiter helpers. New recruits like Coughlin High School graduate Oscar Flores visit area schools to talk with teenagers about joining up. [...]
State recruiter spokesman Sgt. 1st Class Hervey Breault said the Wilkes-Barre recruiting team has seven recruiters and the Scranton team has 11. They cover a broad territory that includes numerous counties. Statewide, 35 new recruiters will be added.
The state has the largest Guard in the nation, with 20,000 members of the Army and Air National Guard. It is the only state to receive a new Stryker Brigade, which has the Army's most advanced technology.
State National Guard spokesman Capt. Cory Angell said there are six such brigades in the active-duty Army, but Pennsylvania is the only state chosen to receive a reserve component Stryker Brigade.
Angell said Pennsylvania's new 56th Stryker Brigade has light infantry, armor and communications and information sharing capabilities. One unit within that brigade is Troop A, 2nd of the 104th Cavalry in Hazleton.
500 Utah soldiers are placed on alert
This article mentions the 56th SBCT, the only National Guard unit to convert to a Stryker Brigade. Although the article implies the 56th already has the Stryker vehicle, I have to admit that I don't know if that's the case. Anyone?
Link to Full Article
By Dawn House, The Salt Lake Tribune
About 500 Utah soldiers in the 222nd Field Artillery Battalion have been placed on alert for possible deployment in January with one of the nation's six newly formed combat brigades. The brigades are more mobile than the Army's traditional heavy-tank fighting forces. [...]
The Triple Deuce is likely to be attached to the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, one of the new Brigade Combat Teams unveiled by the Army in October 1999. Five units have been formed from regular Army active-duty troops. The Pennsylvania brigade is the only combat team comprising citizen-soldiers.
"The Army's decision recognizes that the Pennsylvania Army National Guard has achieved the highest levels of strength and readiness of any Army Guard in the nation," said then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge - now secretary of Homeland Security - in 2001.
The combat teams are intended to serve as a bridge between the tank-heavy Army of the Cold War era and light, mobile fighting forces that lack armored firepower.
"These interim brigades will help us move towards a force that is more strategically responsive and dominant across the spectrum of military operations," said then-Army Secretary Thomas White in 2001. "Their improved deployability and lethality will enhance deterrence and meet an operational requirement with a capability that does not currently exist."
The combat teams are to be assigned new Interim Armored Vehicles, or Strykers. The system of 10 vehicles includes an infantry carrier, a mobile gun system, an anti-tank guided missile unit, a nuclear, biological and chemical reconnaissance vehicle, and a remote weapon station with an M2 .50-caliber machine gun or an MK19 40 mm grenade launcher.
The vehicles can sustain speeds of 60 mph, have a commonality of parts, a central tire-inflation system and self-recovery abilities, according to the U.S. Army Public Affairs Office.
Annual prayer breakfast honors veterans
There is some information here regarding the 56th SBCT, which is part of the Pennsylvania National Guard's 28th Infantry Division. It is one of the six Stryker Brigades planned.
[Link to Full Article]
Carol Cummings, Sentinel reporter
BURNHAM — He sat in the last seat at the table and listened to conversations around him. In his pressed plaid shirt and suspenders, ball cap carefully laid to the side, Richard Druckenmiller of McClure could be anybody’s grandfather.
As a veteran of both World War II and the Korean Conflict, Druckenmiller also could have been one of the U.S. military’s casualties of war.
But, he is one of the lucky ones.
After seeing combat in two of America’s conflicts, Druckenmiller left the Army after his second enlistment and returned to a quiet civilian life.
But he never forgot.
Which is why Druckenmiller, along with about 100 other area veterans, their families and friends, attended the 10th annual Veterans Prayer Breakfast sponsored by The Disabled American Veterans and Vietnam Veterans of America Central Pennsylvania Chapter 791. The event was held at The Fraternal Order of Eagles - Seven Mountains Aerie 4294 in Burnham on Saturday. [...]
Maj. Sam Hayes was the guest speaker. Hayes is the deputy operations officer for the 28th Infantry Division and is assigned to the STRYKER Brigade Combat Team transformation team.
The Army’s six STRYKER teams are among the most highly deployable units in the military and are often called into combat situations in diverse parts of the world.
Hayes shifted gears with his speech.
“(Today) we have been looking at the past. I’d like to talk about the Army’s future direction.
“We are looking at a pretty dramatic transformation. Probably the most significant transformation since World War II and perhaps the biggest transformation in the history of the Army,” Hayes said.
Speed is the “name of the game” in military maneuvers. Coupled with efficiency and effectiveness, speed is the key to achieving the Army’s goal of being ever more deployable, according to the Major.
“The STRYKER organization is very deployable and it is very lethal,” Hayes said. “What it does is it prevents soldiers from dying, from being wounded. And, it allows them to come home more quickly.”
First proposed by U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki in the 1990s, the STRYKER teams are the bridge between heavy armored forces and light artillery forces. Their vehicles have four key components: They must weigh less than 38 tons, they must be deployable by C-17 aircraft, they must be self-sustaining for three days and they must be capable of travel between 40 and 60 miles per hour.
Within the six units, there are now 300 STRYKER vehicles and more than 3,500 trained combat soldiers.
“They are known in Iraq as the ‘ghost soldiers,’” Hayes said.
There is only one STRYKER unit that is a reserve component. It is assigned to The Pennsylvania National Guard 28th Infantry Division.
Gap writes history
[Link to Full Article]
By LES STEWART
FORT INDIANTOWN GAP -- With some of its units formed during the Revolutionary War, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard's 56th Brigade, 28th Infantry Division yesterday officially became part of the nation's military future.
During ceremonies that formally recognized formation of a new unit, the 56th Brigade became the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
"We unveil today's future for the Army," said Maj. Gen. Jessica L. Wright, adjutant general of the Pennsylvania National Guard.
"Charles Darwin, the naturalist, said it's not the strongest who survive, not the most intelligent, but those that are the most adaptive to change," U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, said during ceremonies at Muir Airfield.
Pennsylvania has the only National Guard unit to be designated as a Stryker Brigade...
In 2001, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard was selected as one of six brigades for conversion to Stryker Brigade Combat Team status. The other five brigades are active Army units. Fort Indiantown Gap was chosen in July 2003 as the home base for the Stryker Brigade.
The Stryker Brigades are designed for rapid deployment anywhere in the world within days. The brigades are best known for their Stryker vehicles, a 19-ton armored vehicle that carries a nine-man squad and is armed with a grenade launcher and a .50-caliber machine gun.
Two Stryker Brigades have already seen combat in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Benjamin S. Griffin, Deputy Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, said at yesterday's ceremony.
The 3,500-soldier brigade is comprised of units from throughout Pennsylvania. One of those units, the 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry of Plymouth Meeting, dates to the Revolutionary War, according to the Pennsylvania National Guard.
"We can give you the best technology in the world -- which the Stryker Brigade Combat Team represents -- but you are the warriors," Griffin said to the assembled soldiers who make up the new Stryker Brigade.
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