FORT STEWART, Ga. - Three light infantry companies of 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, were the first companies to conduct a combined arms live-fire exercise during the brigade's field training event, Vanguard Focus, which started Jan. 20, 2015, on Fort Stewart, Ga.
The CALFEX was a collaboration of many elements that provided daily support as the rifle companies, one per day, assaulted three objectives in both day and night iterations with blank and live ammunitions each. Throughout the exercise targets popped-up for soldiers to engage, which required a high level of situational awareness to ensure everyone's safety.
"I don't want to take a risk that's too costly, but we also have to force the envelope, we have to challenge ourselves and put ourselves in positions where it is a little risky, or else you're not going to get any better," said 1st Lt. Darren Guree, a platoon leader with Company A, 3-15 Inf. "There's a lot of moving parts, a lot of fire power and a lot of efforts from our guys."
"It's kind of complex, but yet, still everybody knows their part," said Spc. Brent Caldwell, an infantryman with Company A and a native of Fredericksburg, Virginia. "Big guns, lots of rounds, doing some work."
Artillerymen of 1st Battalion, 76th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division Artillery, coordinated artillery fire from the 82nd Airborne Division, brought in from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which landed in the impact area as companies started their assault on the battlefield.
"We have to run from the tree line past three different support by fire teams to the fourth bunker to get to our first position and that's probably a good 200 meters in full kit," said Sgt. Todd Alexander, an infantryman with Company A. "It kind of smokes you."
After arriving at the first cover positions, the infantry companies provided cover fire for combat engineers of Company A, 4-3 Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th IBCT, to clear an obstacle of concertina wire with a Bangalore torpedo, a pipe packed with explosives.
Once the first obstacle was breached by the combat engineers, the company moved forward toward a small hut, a notional gunner position, while soldiers from Company D, the heavy weapons company of 3-15 Inf., provided support by fire with weapons mounted on trucks from a nearby hill. Alexander ended the threat from the hut by tossing a grenade inside and then pressed on with his team to clear a maze of trenches.
"We had to low crawl for 25 meters to get to the trench," said Alexander, a native of Vienna, Virginia.
OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopters from 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd ID, as well as F-16 Falcons, fighter jets from the U.S. Air Force, made gun runs as artillery and mortars continued to lob rounds at training targets to support the infantry companies' objectives.
"We have to be prepared at all times and if you don't ever train hard, if you don't ever do these kinds of things, you're really not going to understand how they all go together," said Guree, a native of Duluth, Ga.
The engineers then breached another wire obstacle before removing doors from two houses with explosives to allow the infantrymen to enter and clear the buildings.
"We suck it up when it's hard and we push through every time," said Caldwell.
The final movement for the infantrymen was to move quickly to a rally point where they set up security until CH-47 Chinook helicopters of the Florida National Guard landed to pick them up and marked the end of the exercise.
"The most difficult part was probably sprinting about 600 meters carrying full combat load with a weapon," said Caldwell.
Alexander added, "It just helps to give you a real world scenario."
Guree said the exercise was a careful balance of control, speed and audacity in order stretch the company in its training, and added noncommissioned officers, or NCOs, were a large part of the exercise's success.
"If there was a friction point, an NCO on the ground made decisive action and executed and kept the ball rolling," he added.
The "Can Do" Battalion moved on to a battalion level exercise as 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, and 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, both of 4th IBCT, prepared for their turn of Vanguard Focus and the CALFEX.
Social Sharing