FORT POLK, La. -- Soldiers of 5th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division held its Red Leg Challenge on Jan. 30 at Fort Polk's Marion Bonner Recreation Area.
The Red Leg Challenge was a team building exercise that was the culminating event of the battalion's Lieutenant University training. The training focused on command supply discipline, equipment maintenance, fire support, risk management and training Soldiers.
"The training was basically to help prepare our junior officers for the future as battery executive officers and commanders," said Lt. Col. John Barefield, 5-25 FA commander. "It helps give them an understanding of some of the garrison systems that help us to be successful as leaders."
Junior officers trained in both classroom and field environments during the weeklong Lieutenant University training. Although not all of the training was full of excitement and explosions, each subject contributed to the overall success of training.
"The two most valuable parts of the training were composite risk management and command supply discipline," said 1st Lt. Kurt Gross, 5-25 FA. "Those aren't sexy topics, not like shooting a howitzer, but they're really critical for any leader, especially a junior officer. Command supply discipline, at the lowest level, is us ensuring that taxpayer money is not wasted. Ensuring the safety of our Soldiers is the big focus of composite risk management."
The roots of the Red Leg Challenge were an effort to promote esprit de corps among the officers of the battalion. However, the foundation of the challenge and the week of training that led up to the event, was about preparing the battalion's future leaders for the complex role of responsibility they will undoubtedly face.
"As field artillery officers, we work both on the gun-line and we also work with the maneuver battalions as fire supporters, so giving the officers an understanding of both those responsibilities was important for me," Barefield said. "Many of the lieutenants in the battalion will be fire supporters in the near future. So preparing them to move forward is essential."
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