Despite their smaller boot print on the summer training landscape, Task Force Strike is working hard to provide West Point the best summer training and support that the Corps of Cadets has come to expect.
Though much of the instruction this year has fallen upon the cadets themselves to carry out, the task force Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division are ready to support the mission with vehicles, drivers, medics and other services. The job is being done with about half the resources of a typical task force.
"(Task force support) should be about twice the size of what it is," 1st Lt. Kenneth Carroll, the task force support commander from the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Abn. Div., said. "Overall it's about 50-to-60 personnel."
Carroll's Soldiers are responsible for providing transportation support for the cadets to and from the training sites, as well as water and ammunition and maintenance support.
"Most of them are doing more than what they've done before," the Houston native said. "It's nothing they can't handle. Soldiers are good at doing more than what's asked of them."
The support Soldiers begin each day the evening before by meeting with cadet leadership and Department of Military Instruction staff to go over what should happen over the next day or so, Carroll said.
In those meetings he coordinates what support his Soldiers will need to provide. After that meeting, the support element comes together to draw up a schedule of events and hand missions to personnel.
The next day at 5:30 a.m., the support Soldiers conduct a formation and head out to set up training sites, transport cadets, move supplies or repair vehicles, Carroll said.
In all, the support element maintains a fleet of 34 light medium tactical vehicles, 10 medium tactical vehicles and seven field ambulance Humvees, as well as generators and a wrecker for towing vehicles. All vehicle repairs are made on the training site by task force mechanics. To expedite their repairs, they brought their own machine shop-a forward repair system, complete with tools, a power generator, an air compressor and garage necessities.
The support Soldiers come from different units within 2nd BCT, about 10 Soldiers per battalion. Though many of them had not worked with each other before, everyone relies on each other to accomplish the mission.
When West Point medics joined the team, the task force mechanics assisted them in making sure their field ambulances were ready to roll in the event of an injury.
"We (maintain) our field ambulances for medical support, so if any injuries occur, we have a vehicle there to transport personnel in," Sgt. Dan Mack, a medic assigned to Keller Army Community Hospital, and a Celina, Texas native, said. "We let (the cadets) know, if something goes wrong we have medics on site, so they feel safer about the training."
The task force's efforts have not gone unnoticed-Col. Casey Haskins, DMI director, recognized a group of about 30 Soldiers for their support during summer training before they headed home to Fort Campbell, Ky., July 23.
They were each awarded a certificate of appreciation from the department, and three Soldiers were recognized for putting in the extra effort with a certificate and a DMI coin.
One of those Soldiers, Pvt. James Coleman, an infantryman from A Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 2nd BCT, served as a truck driver during his rotation here.
"I was with a really great squad," the Fort Worth, Texas native said. "(The mission) was long, but it was really fun. I had a good platoon sergeant, squad leaders and team leaders."
Coleman, who had never visited West Point or worked with cadets before, enjoyed talking with them about what he and his fellow Soldiers do in the operational Army. He was impressed with the cadets' motivation and their ability to hold leadership positions, and found it inspiring for his own professional development.
"I've never been in a leadership position," Coleman said. "But just watching them, they were doing pretty good, so I know if they could do it I can do it."
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