Raider brigade invites community to Piñon Canyon

PIÑON CANYON, Colo.- Fort Carson leaders met with media and community members to demonstrate the Stryker vehicle and explain the importance of training at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in Las Animas County, May 29.

More than 4000 Soldiers of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, moved from Fort Carson to Piñon Canyon over four days with 61 convoys of varying sizes for the brigade's first large-scale training event since its formation last March.

The community demonstrated support for the brigade level training event by greeting Soldiers along the convoy route with waving hands, home-made signs and American flags.

Trinidad Mayor Joseph Reorda said that he hopes the troops continue utilizing the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site for future training.

"They have respect," said Reorda in regards to Soldiers. "They'll respect this property, and we can't forget that some of them are still kids, and they do kid things, but they're here to fight and defend this country."

Col. David Hodne, commander, 1st SBCT, 4th Inf. Div., said Piñon Canyon offers brigade level offensive and defensive training exercises with four times the maneuver area of Fort Carson.

"A Stryker company will cover a few kilometers in its maneuver, so just the sheer nature of the terrain and to spread out is very important," said Hodne.

More than 3,000 culturally significant sites within Piñon Canyon are marked in every vehicle's global positioning system and on maps handed out to Soldiers.

"In terms of protected sites to respect the civilian population, whether they're religious or cultural sites, is something that our Soldiers have gotten used to operating around in the years of deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan." said Hodne. "So it's not uncommon for us to incorporate that into our planning."

The maneuver site's 235,000 acres combined with Fort Carson's training areas offer a full range of opportunities for a realistic training environment.

"The land has never looked better in my mind and I've been maneuvering here for 30 years," said Maj. Gen. Ryan F. Gonsalves, commanding general, 4th Inf. Div and Fort Carson. "You have me as a Coloradan, my commitment to make sure that when we use this place we'll leave it in better condition than when we found it."