FORT IRWIN, California - Soldiers with 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, haul a box of radios to the motorpool of the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. The troops are preparing their eq...

FORT IRWIN, California - Spc. Billy Chellette (right), from Fort Hood, Texas, and Spc. Salem Umana, from Converse, Texas, both with 215th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, guide a light medium tactical vehicle...

FORT IRWIN, California - 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division conducted reception, staging, onward movement and integration (RSOI) at the National Training Center, here, at Fort Irwin, Calif., this week in order to prepare its troops for a two week training exercise here.

RSOI is a week-long preparation units conduct on arriving at NTC and consists of personnel and equipment readiness, communications maintenance and operations, personnel training and installing multiple integrated laser engagement system (MILES) equipment on vehicles.

"This gives us the foundation to ensure people and equipment are ready to enter the full spectrum operations phase of the rotation," said Lt. Col. Thomas Jauquet, the brigade's deputy commander. "The success of RSOI directly impacts the success of our full spectrum operations."

After arriving on flights over a three day period, Soldiers settled into tents on Forward Operating Base Warrior, the holding area for units preparing to conduct field training exercise.

Throughout the week, units set up their tactical operations centers, downloaded their equipment, ran cables, conducted training, installed radios and readied their vehicles for the exercise.

The troops participated in classes at the Army Center of Excellence, on Fort Irwin, that provided an in-depth view of assets used in combat today. Soldiers learned handheld interagency identity detection equipment (HIIDE), counter-remote controlled improvised explosive device electronic warfare (CREW) systems, Shadow unmanned aerial vehicles, counter sniper tactics, escalation of force, entry control point techniques and battle field forensics, along with a myriad of others.

These activities are important to the units because they follow the Army Force Generation Model Train and Ready Phase. Units in the training and ready phase train more extensively for deployment and prepare them for specific overseas missions. This training ensures a smooth transition from preparing to deploy to deploying.

"This is the major training event before we deploy. Nothing we can do short of deploying better prepares us than a (combat training center) rotation," Jauquet said. "Just as RSOI directly impacts our full spectrum operations, NTC plays a direct role in our deployment."