Fort Hood Sentinel (Fort Hood, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 4, 2014 Page: 3 of 34
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NEWS
www.FortHoodSentinel.com
December 4, 2014
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Soldiers prepare for live-fire exercise
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Courtesy photo
Soldiers from the 114th Transportation Company, 419th CSSB, 4th RSSB pre-
pare to tear down a large tent that has been used as a Maintenance Bay in the
419th CSSB motor pool at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Oct. 30.
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JAMES PARSON
Carl R. Darnall Army Medical
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BY SGT. DAVID TURNER
214th MPAD
BY SGT. ALEX SKRIPNICHUK
7th MPAD
BY SGT. POLLYANNA TANUVASA
419th CSSB, 4th RSSB
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TF Guardian preps
for redeployment
WARRIORS,
Courtesy photo
Soldiers from Co. A, 2nd Bn., 12th Cav. Regt., 1st BCT, 1st Cav. Div., take time to train room clearing
procedures before conducting a blank-fire platoon assault in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Nov. 15.
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States since early October as part
of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a
U.S. Army Europe-led combined-
arms exercise aimed at enhanc-
ing multinational interoperability,
strengthening relationships between
allied militaries and demonstrating
U.S. commitment to NATO. Dur-
ing the recent Exercise Iron Sword
2014, U.S. troops joined eight other
NATO countries in Lithuania for
that country’s largest such NATO
exercise.
TSAE provided pop-up targets for
live-fire exercises, and for combat
situational training exercises, outfit-
ted NATO Soldiers with the Mul-
tiple Integrated Laser Engagement
System, a system similar to laser tag.
Soldiers wear a harness and headgear
equipped with sensors, and have
laser transmitters mounted to the
barrels of their rifles. Beeps indicate
near misses; a loud, sustained tone
means a direct hit.
“It gives the units excellent feed-
back,” Tanner said, “and it’s a great
after-action review tool.”
A similar MILES system works
with Bradley and Stryker Fighting
Vehicles. Back at their home station
in Fort Hood, Soldiers of the 1st
BCT, 1st Cav. Div., use MILES to
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PITSTOP |
training refines their infantry skills allowing
them to pass them on to their Soldiers.
“Every time I have conducted this training
I learn something new,” Mathews said. “It’s
a sure way for us to stay mission-ready.”
The Soldiers from 1st BCT, 1st Cav.
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Photo by leva Budzeikaite, Lithuanian Armed Forces
U.S. Army Soldiers use the MILES during Exercise Iron Sword 2014 Pabrade, Lithuania, Nov. 2-14.
Spc. Stephen James Parson, 34,
died Nov. 23 of injuries suffered from
a vehicle accident in Martinsville, West Vir-
ginia.
Parson, whose home
of record is Pottstown,
Pennsylvania, entered
active-duty service in
July 2012 as a behav-
ioral health special-
ist. He was assigned
to Medical Company
A, Carl R. Darnall
Army Medical Center,
Fort Hood, since July
2014.
Parson’s awards and decorations include
the National Defense Service Medal, Global
War on Terrorism Service Medal, Noncom-
missioned Officer Professional Development
Ribbon and Army Service Ribbon.
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Div., spent the last eight weeks training in
Germany as part of the multinational exer-
cise, Combined Resolve III. They took part
in the maneuvers with their NATO allies,
learning how to work together, build rela-
tionships and develop interoperability.
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just provided dates and oversight of
the process.”
The TF Guardian motor pool
consisted of the Pit Stop, The SSG
Randall Lane Resiliency Center, the
514th Support Maintenance Com-
pany Clamshell, the Convoy Readi-
ness Center and the “Plywood Pal-
ace” which was a large wooden tacti-
cal operations center that contained
all of the TOCs for the subordinate
units of the 419th CSSB.
Serenil spearheaded the
de-scoping mission that he said was
a team effort consisting of a brigade-
level working group for planning
and timelines and a battalion-level
working group for the planning of
execution. The battalion work group
consisted of Serenil, Chief Warrant
Officer 3 Darrell Stephen and the
company first sergeants.
The work group had to iden-
tify the least mission impacted struc-
tures, check all the containers in the
motor pool to see how many were
mission essential and how many
could be turned in, and then start
the tearing down process of their
infrastructure.
The mission intent was to decrease
the TF Guardian footprint and leave
the area of operations ready for tran-
sition and transfer over to Operation
Resolute Support while still main-
taining mission readiness.
“The coordination was a little dif-
ficult due to trying to maintain full
capabilities for mission while de-
scoping,” said Stephen, the 419th
CSSB motor pool manager. “It was
challenging for our companies to
consolidate and find out where to
get assets, but we accomplished the
mission nonetheless.”
Serenil gave the credit to the com-
panies of the 419th CSSB, stating
that they all played a vital role in
de-scoping the motor pool.
The companies that fell under the
419th CSSB were unique because
they were not the brigade’s home-
station units. In fact, the CSSB was
made up of many different active-
duty and reserve components.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________I
Photo by Sgt. David Turner, 214th MPAD
1st Sgt. Robby Bums, of the 1st Sqdn., 2nd Cav. Regt., gives a demonstration
of the COFT to members of the Lithuanian Land Forces in Rukla, Lithuania,
Nov. 19.
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BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghani-
stan — For the past seven months,
Soldiers of the 419th Combat
Sustainment Support Battalion,
4th Resolute Support Sustainment
Brigade have been running con-
voy escort team missions through-
out Regional Command-East and
Regional Command-Capitol, sup-
porting the sustainment and retro-
grade mission requirements from
their home base on Bagram Airfield,
Afghanistan.
While maintaining and execut-
ing convoy escort team missions
has been an intricate part of the
overall success of the United States
Forces in Afghanistan, the past few
weeks has seen a change in the mis-
sion requirements as they transition
to Operation Resolute Support and
prepare for Operation Freedom Sen-
tinel.
A big part of the retrograde mis-
sion is to de-scope the overall size of
the USF-A footprint. This is done
partly by engineers who are specifi-
cally assigned certain areas of each
forward operating base to remove
wooden buildings, living tents and
any scrap and waste materials that
may be left behind, but also by units
that own those areas of land.
Task Force Guardian has been
responsible for approximately 80
percent of all convoy operations on
BAF and owned one of the largest
motor pools that also needed to be
de-scoped.
The projected date for the com-
plete de-scope of the TF Guardian
motor pool was November 15, but
with the hard work and determina-
tion of the Soldiers it was completed
three weeks early.
“The de-scope of the motor pool
was difficult in planning but easy
in execution,” said Command Sgt.
Maj. Jose Serenil, TF Guardian
command sergeant major. “The
companies de-scoped and executed
on their own, and us as the battalion
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GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — After
conducting joint-multinational training
with NATO allies in Grafenwoehr and
Hohenfels, Germany, as part of Com-
bined Resolve III, Soldiers from 2nd Bat-
talion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade
Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, con-
tinued to perfect their craft as they pre-
pared for a platoon live-fire exercise, here
Nov. 15.
“My Soldiers have the rare opportunity to
come to Germany and train in new environ-
ments,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Mathews,
a squad leader in Company A, 2-12 Cav.
Regt. “It makes us better prepared to accom-
plish the mission.”
The Soldiers spent hours in the cold yet
sunny day honing their dismounted infantry
skills like walking in formation in densely
wooded terrain, crossing linear danger areas,
such as roads or meadows, and setting up
proper security of their positions during
stops.
For many Soldiers, this training is new.
Consistent training in basic infantry
maneuvers allows newer Soldiers to become
accustomed to their peers, as well as gaining
trust in their superiors.
“We train so we can become comfortable
with our fellow Soldiers in live-ammunition
exercises,” said Pvt. Philip Dart, an infantry-
man with Co. A, 2nd Bn., 12th Cav. Regt.
“It allows us to trust each other in more seri-
ous situations.”
For the veteran Soldiers, consistent
RUKLA, Lithuania — For U.S.
and other NATO troops training
with their Lithuanian partners dur-
ing Atlantic Resolve, making the
joint field exercises safe, realistic and
cost-effective is a priority.
Training Support Activity-
Europe, part of the 7th Army Joint
Multinational Training Command,
based in Grafenwoehr, Germany,
has brought an assortment of high-
tech training aids to improve and
enhance multinational training exer-
cises.
TSAE provides U.S. and NATO
troops with gadgets and simulators
to train for many combat situations,
from lasers mounted to the bar-
rels of rifles and tanks to simulated
improvised explosive devices.
“It’s not just about saving money,”
explained John Tanner, TSAE
Training Support Team leader in
Lithuania. “It’s making the exercise
more realistic, because you train as
you fight. We want to make it as
realistic as possible.”
Soldiers of the 1st Brigade Com-
bat Team, 1st Cavalry Division,
have been in Poland and the Baltic
prepare for their live-fire gunnery
qualifications.
And then there is COFT, or
Conduct-of-Fire Trainer, a trailer-
sized simulator that gives Soldiers
the experience of being inside the
turret of a Bradley. An instructor/
operator runs computer simulations
of targets or combat scenarios for a
commander and gunner inside the
turret.
“Everything inside a COFT
directly replicates a Bradley tur-
ret,” explained Sgt. 1st Class Robby
Burns, first sergeant, Troop C, 1st
Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment.
“You can familiarize with 90 percent
of what you need before going to
gunnery tables.”
As part of their mission in Lithu-
ania, he and Staff Sgt. Dustin Vin-
yard, of Company B, 2nd Battalion,
8th Infantry Regiment, 1st BCT, 1st
Cav. Div., introduced the COFT to
members of the Lithuanian Land
Forces.
COFT is of special interest to the
Lithuanian troops; as the LLF are
expanding and seeking to introduce
weapons platforms beyond their cur-
rent armored troop carriers, COFT
may provide a kick-start in training
their soldiers for vehicles like the
Bradley and Stryker. It’s also impor-
tant for them to be able to use, said
Tanner, as Lithuanian troops have
deployed alongside U.S. forces in
Iraq and Afghanistan, and like other
NATO partners, it’s useful to know
how to operate a variety of weapons
and vehicles.
“Nothing beats hands-on (train-
ing) with that weapons system,
but COFT gives you most of the
mechanics you need as far as crew
drill, fire commands, stuff like that,”
Vinyard said.
Qualifying on gunnery tables
is costly and time-consuming, so
members of his units will, at times,
train on the COFT around the
clock before going to live-fire exer-
cises. Best of all, he said, without
wasting daylight, bullets or fuel.
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Pruden, Todd. Fort Hood Sentinel (Fort Hood, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 4, 2014, newspaper, December 4, 2014; Fort Hood, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1205037/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Casey Memorial Library.