FORT BENNING, Ga., (Nov. 25 2015) -- Around 150 Maneuver Captains Career Course students, seminars 2-11, applied their classroom knowledge to realistic scenarios as they participated in a field training exercise Nov. 15-18 at Selby Training Facility.

"In the classroom, we've had a lot of instruction in terms of building our plans on paper, but inherently, there is no friction to deal with and we perfectly execute our plans," said Capt. Zack Spear, a platoon leader in the exercise.

The purpose of the training was to ensure the Soldiers could take the leadership skills and knowledge they learned and apply it to combat situations, said Capt. David Trinh, small group leader for MCCC, Seminar 8.

Through the field training exercise, Spear said the captains experienced practical application of their classroom teaching as to how terrain, enemy forces and weather affect the plan.

"It allows us to practice being adaptive leaders," Spear said.

Students acted as company commanders, first sergeants, executive officers, and fires officers and in platoon leadership roles.

"The exercise is designed to make them smarter on mission command - how to understand, visualize, describe, direct, lead and assess - throughout operations," said Capt. Mike Skok, MCCC Team 3 chief.

The first two days of the field training exercise consisted of reconnaissance and attacks in and around the woodland area. Throughout the exercise, the captains used InstantEye, an Army small, unmanned aerial system for reconnaissance and surveillance.

On day three, the students made their way through a wooded area until they reached an urban environment, complete with opposing forces occupying structures and firing on the incoming platoons. Through purple, green and white smoke the captains returned fire and worked on clearing and securing buildings in the area by taking out the enemy forces.

Platoons communicated over radio and within their small groups to make appropriate attacks and keep eyes on any opposing forces. Infantry Basic Officer Leaders Course second lieutenants played an administrative role in a neutral building within the simulated urban area by observing radio operations.

"They're learning a lot about how to operate as part of an operations center," Trinh said. "They get a fair amount of interaction with the captains who are in and out."

Through making mistakes in training and learning ways to correct them, Trinh said the captains are training to be better leaders. Spear said the classroom training set the foundation for the field training exercise experience.

"Now, you have a group of leaders who all have the same foundation of training and can interoperate with one another to fill gaps and also plan coherently together and understand each other's orders," Spear said.