Soldiers take first training at new site

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christopher Gross
  • JBER PAO
FORT GREELY, Alaska --  Soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, participated in training at Donnelly Training Area, Fort Greely, Alaska for the first time since redeploying earlier this year.

They are also the first ones to use the new Combined Arms Collective Training Facility, an approximately $25 million project which began construction back in the winter of 2008.

The CACTF is a new training integration tool available for troops that will be heading overseas, giving them the most realistic view of what they are likely to see.

"CACTF is a fake city which has instrumentations, video cameras, along with a variety of other tools," said Maj. Thomas Laybourn 1-501st executive officer. "We can actually play back (the video) during an after action review with the platoons so they can see what they actually did."

The CACTF allows the battalion to establish a wide spectrum of scenarios which they can expect to encounter during their next deployment, Laybourn said.

Some of the key elements covered in training were interaction with key leaders and elders of the town to gain as much information as they can get, using interpreters with the local nationals, how to respond to improvised explosive devices, clearing and securing buildings, and much more.

The interaction between troops and local nationals pays huge dividends on accomplishing the mission at hand, Laybourn said. If they can make friends with those people, it opens up doors for us.

Laybourn said much of the emphasis of these exercises will be how the command responds to the various scenarios. "How they react is very important," Laybourn said. "We want thinking leaders in combat."

Aside from the CACTF, hundreds of troops from the 1-501st went through their own training scenarios in their specialty.

Soldiers participated in live fire with M119 105-mm howitzers, 81-mm mortar systems, M-4 Carbines and many other weapons. This is something they are typically unable to accomplish at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, because of their surroundings.

When they go to DTA for several weeks at a time, not only can they focus strictly on their training, but they can also see more clearly the effect their weapons have.
 
Laybourn said he felt this is one of the most valuable parts of the training, because it allows the Soldiers to see the result of their calls for fire and what impact they can have.
Pfc. Lindsey Stolz, 1-501st, agreed.

"A lot of times, we get to set up these guns and don't get to fire them so we actually get (to do the other half and) fire them," Stolz
said.

First Sgt. Aaron Spahl, 1-501st, said he felt the troops had already learned a lot and made plenty of progress in only the first couple days of being there.

"It's all about weapons confidence and confidence in your teammates," he said.