FORT POLK, La. -- The Counter-Improvised Explosive Device training unit of the 162nd Infantry Brigade has tapped into the largest U.S. military organization focused on defeating the biggest threat to coalition forces.
Over the past few months, A Company, 4th Battalion, 353rd Infantry Regiment, 162nd Inf Bde, has forged a relationship with representatives from the Army Center of Excellence based at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. Alpha Co provides deploying combat advisors two days of mounted and dismounted training aimed at recognizing and defeating IEDs.
ACOE serves as the training arm of the Joint IED Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO. Established by the Department of Defense in 2006, JIEDDO is the Pentagon's lead for efforts to combat IEDs in support of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
"Our goal is to ensure that IED-defeat training entities, like Alpha Company, stay plugged in to the latest information," said Marine Corps Maj. Jeffery Gagnon, the training support lead at ACOE. "We scan for the latest equipment being fielded in Iraq and Afghanistan and make sure our home stations can get similar equipment to conduct training."
From May 17-20, two members of A Company traveled to NTC to observe ACOE's C-IED training and see how its own program of instruction can improve.
The NTC visit by 1st Lt. Scott Walters, Alpha Co's executive officer, and the company's training NCOIC, Sgt. 1st Class Lee Pickett, helped strengthen ties with ACOE representatives. Gagnon and William Virrill Sr., the Combat Training Center program manager at NTC, initially met with 4th Bn leaders in April at North Fort Polk to discuss training needs for the combat advisors here.
"Our new working relationship with the Army Center of Excellence allows us to tap into several resources to improve our IED-defeat training, including advanced training for our cadre as well as funding and equipment that bring greater realism to our IED lanes," Walters said. "That's vital to preparing our combat advisors for the greatest threat while deployed: IEDs."
Since April, ACOE has supplied Alpha Co with new simulators, including the SCoPIS (self-contained portable IED simulator) and UVED (under vehicle explosive device). These simulators more realistically mimic IED detonations, including explosions underneath the vehicles of mounted patrols.
During their NTC visit, Walters and Pickett observed the use of the SCoPIS simulators during a counter radio electronic warfare confidence demonstration. Alpha Co incorporated the devices for the first time during its IED situational training exercises May 24.
ACOE also has provided the company with training versions of jamming equipment to counter radio-controlled IEDs, including the CREW vehicle receiver/jammer. Alpha Co will receive more equipment during a follow-up visit by ACOE representatives in June, including jamming devices used by the Afghanistan National Army.
"That will help familiarize our combat advisors with the equipment their Afghan counterparts will be using," Pickett said.
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