FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- It has been a busy summer for Soldiers from Task Force Six Shooter, the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division's multifunctional aviation task force, headquartered by 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment.
Task Force Six Shooter returned in full from a monthlong rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, La., on Oct. 6, marking the end of a busy summer that also took the Six Shooters to Fort Bragg, N.C., for a three-week field training exercise in July with members of the 82nd Airborne Division.
The JRTC rotation served as Task Force Six Shooter's culminating training exercise for the summer. It was designed to test the task force's ability to deploy worldwide on short notice as 10th CAB focuses its training on rapid deployment in the event of a contingency operation.
"This rotation went very well in terms of getting the task force together in one location and being able to see how all the different systems and people work in conjunction with each other," said Maj. Thomas Hussey, Task Force Six Shooter operations officer.
"From day one, the OCs (observer / controllers) down there were saying our Soldiers are phenomenal," he added.
While at Fort Polk, the Six Shooters found themselves training alongside Soldiers from the 64th Armor Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, and multiple units based at Fort Bragg, to include the 82nd Sustainment Brigade, 1st and 2nd Brigade Combat Teams of the 82nd Airborne Division, the 192nd Ordinance Battalion, 9th Physiological Operations Battalion (Airborne) as well as numerous other special operations, intergovernmental and interagency organizations.
"Training alongside units external to the 10th CAB instilled confidence in our Soldiers, knowing that we could successfully operate in an austere environment with a unit that we don't have a lot of time training together with," said 1st Sgt. Craig Covington, senior enlisted adviser for C Company, 2nd Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment.
In July, before participating in the JRTC rotation, Task Force Six Shooter executed a three-week field training exercise at Fort Bragg with paratroopers from 2nd BCT, 82nd Airborne Division. This exercise, along with the JRTC rotation, provided Six Shooter Soldiers an opportunity to practice a wide array of missions, including joint forcible entry airfield seizures, noncombatant evacuation operations, direct action and rapid deployment operations.
"Our first time together as a task force was at Fort Bragg during our FTX there," Hussey said. "Taking that experience and transitioning to JRTC really allowed us to amp it up and get the task force moving in the right direction by using those lessons learned."
Members of Task Force Six Shooter, along with the rest of 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, will continue to focus on rapid deployment operations while building on lessons learned and the success of these recent training exercises.
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