FORT HOOD, Texas - The 4th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), sees a constant shuffle between deploying and redeploying units throughout the year. In order to prepare its troops for those various missions, both on the home front and abroad, the Wrangler Brigade is creating a team of noncommissioned officers to share their knowledge on advanced marksmanship.
To do this, the NCOs must hone their skills and fill in any gaps in knowledge. They're doing so through a week-long course the brigade command created at Fort Hood's Pilot Knob range.
The week of June 21-25 marked the first installment of an advanced course that the Wrangler Brigade may make a trend. During the training, nine NCOs from the brigade's four battalions worked on various drills that tested them on reflexive firing, magazine exchange, strong and weak side firing, and target discrimination among others.
Leading the training each day were two senior NCOs.
"We were training the trainer this week," said Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Albanesi, who alongside Sgt. 1st Class Bernie Llana and 2nd Lt. Justin Lucas led the training week. "We want them to be able to go back to their battalions and companies and teach their Soldiers what they learned here."
Each NCO received roughly 1,000 rounds to use on the different exercises they tackled with M16 semi-automatic rifles equipped with laser-sighted scopes.
"I'm trying to get as much knowledge as I can," said Staff Sgt. Charles Cook from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Brigade Troops Battalion. "I want to walk back to my company with this knowledge. It'll motivate Soldiers when I've got new material they've never learned before."
Team events and time-trial competitions made the schedule by the end of the week. The NCOs maneuvered through an obstacle course littered with barricades and one lone target which was 50-meters out from the starting point.
It required them to showcase what they had learned during the week while navigating the course as quickly as possible in order to rack up as many points as they could.
"It's something new and different. For us transportation guys and mechanics, we don't get to do weapons training as much," said Staff Sgt. Rudy Rosalez of the 297th Inland Cargo Transportation Co., 180th Transportation Battalion.
"It's extremely valuable training that we're conducting. You can't talk and not walk," said Sgt 1st Class Frank Cash of 565th Quartermaster Co., 553rd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. "I leave in October for a deployment and I'm here taking advantage of every opportunity to learn. This is purely warrior skill enhancement."
That deployment will be Cash's first while other participants, Staff Sgt. Charles Laporte, 664th Ordnance Co. and Staff Sgt. Larry Partlow, 154th Transportation Co. have just recently returned.
According to the Wrangler Brigade Commander, Col. Ron Kirklin, and his enlisted advisor, Command Sgt. Maj. Erik R. R. Frey, the unit will conduct more of this type of training for its leaders in August.
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