FORT SILL, Okla. -- If experience is the best teacher, then consider John Clipp schooled on improvised explosive devices. After 20 years as an infantryman and three combat tours he's been hit by 11 IEDs. He's also a Purple Heart recipient after being blown up by a hand grenade at six feet.
Instead of shying away from all things explosive, he turned headfirst into the world of IEDs and uses his experience to teach Soldiers how to defeat them.
"I do it to save Soldiers lives. I was a platoon sergeant and didn't bring all my boys home,"said Clipp, Home Station Training Lane lead supervisor. "If they remember one thing that's taught on the lane and it saves their lives, then I go home well."
He not only relies on his past, but he stays on top of what the enemy is doing now. He searches classified sites regularly to find out how IEDs and homemade bombs are changing. He then updates his training so Soldiers are armed with the latest information.
"In '03 we were having IEDs starting to come out in Iraq, but it wasn't as bad as when I went to Ramadi. It was a whole new game," said Clipp. "When Soldiers come out and train they see current IEDs, not something that was used in '03 or '04 or '09. If a switch changes, an IED changes, something changes then we adjust so we train as we fight," said Clipp.
With 1,600-by-950 meters of open expanse and 31 closed connexes, the lane is a training playground. Soldiers can face situations similar to what they would downrange with areas that mimic a traffic circle, market place, traffic control point and medevac lane. Clipp said they can also do dismounted drills in the surrounding woods.
"The whole goal is for Soldiers to learn about what to do and to do it right. This is where they make their mistakes so when they go over there they learn something from here, and it saves somebody's life. That's the whole point."
As Soldiers walk down the lane they may not know it yet, but Clipp has training simulators ready to go off any moment. On Aug. 8, he wore what looked like a suicide bomb vest. A group of Soldiers in Basic Combat Training got their first taste of how to handle that situation from first identifying the threat to calling an explosive ordnance unit or performing rules of engagement.
He uses IEDES a training system that gives Soldiers a safe experience while they're training. It simulates the loud boom that accompanies an explosive and shoots talcum powder to show the effected area.
"The nice thing about using that is there's no more of 'that wasn't me.' They hit it and the talcum powder goes poof and if you're standing in the smoke then you're guilty."
He adjusts each simulation to what the unit's commander wants the Soldiers to learn. He said sometimes commanders just want a "petting zoo" which means he takes them down the lane and simply shows them what an IED looks like. Other times the task is to see if Soldiers can identify them on their own. He said he varies the level in which they do that from easily visible to something well hidden.
Other training exercises range from enemy ambush to taking care of a wounded Soldier.
When he's not on the training lane, the sharp veteran serves as the senior pastor at Wichita Baptist Church in Cache, Okla. He said the reason he is able to overcome post traumatic stress disorder is because he laughs at what he can and focuses on helping others for the rest.
"When you're stuck in theater for one year and you get pounded like we did in Ramadi, you've gotta laugh about it. The ones you don't laugh about are the ones where guys don't get pulled out. Having that taste, I guess, that's what pushes me to train these guys the best and to facilitate the training the best I can to give them the opportunity to have them train as you fight."
For information on how to schedule training at the Home Station Training Lane call 580-442-2008.
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