FORT IRWIN, Calif. -- The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment conducted its Annual Spouses' Spur Ride, here, Nov. 26 to share the traditions of the cavalry with family members and National Training Center partners.
"This event was a great opportunity to show the spouses of the Regiment a little of what their Soldiers do each day and to share the history and traditions which we have," said Maj. Colin E. Vance, the event coordinator.
Each of the events were planned around activities that service members do on a regular basis. From dealing with track vehicles to firing weapons and physical training, the event had a broad spectrum of tasks for each of the spouses.
"I was originally thinking that it was just going to be looking at a bunch of tanks and listening to people talk about their weapons," said Sarah D. Koeppe, a spouse with the Marine Corps Logistics Base - Barstow. "When my group arrived and saw all of the different events that the Regiment had setup for us, we were rather pleasantly surprised. For that I want to thank them dearly."
"My favorite part of the events was the weapons familiarization training," said Jene E. Goodman, a spouse from E Troop, 2/11 ACR. "Not only was I able to learn about the weapon, I was given the chance to load the ammunition and fire three different weapon systems. I now understand some of what my husband does during the rotations here."
Learning to work as a team is well integrated with military training. Each of these tasks showed the spouses what their Soldiers can complete by cooperating as a group.
"We learned about teamwork and how we could use it to accomplish each task," said Leslie A. Warner, a spouse from F Troop, 2nd Squadron, 11th ACR. "It showed us how our husbands work as a team to get the jobs done while they train the rest of the Army."
In the past this event has been reserved mainly for spouses of cavalry troopers, this time the event was open to all of the military spouses in the area.
"This event allowed us to see how each of the units here correlate, so it gave me a better appreciation of what the military can do," said Melissa L. Rayca, a spouse from Dragon Team, Operations Group.
The 11th ACR's vision is that they are a formidable, professional, team of teams. This means that they are experts in their profession, they live the Army Values and treat their partners with respect.
"The Regiment talks about how it is a team of teams," said Cindy A. Ruedi, a spouse of the 916th Support Brigade. "Our spouses are part of the NTC team as are the spouses of the MCLB. If we all work together to accomplish the mission it will allow us to participate in the spur ride and can build NTC into an even better team because we, the spouses, understand what each unit goes through."
Social Sharing