FORT BENNING, GA. - Soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, participated in a two-week exercise from Feb. 29 to March 11.
The brigade-level exercise, known as 'Hammer Focus,' is the final exercise that the 3rd BCT will host as it prepares for its inactivation April 15.
Hammer Focus is a brigade-level exercise hosted to train and test the capabilities at the company level, more specifically, the capabilities of the Task Force 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment.
"Currently, we have this new task-force model, and we are the proof of concept to show that we can fuse and synchronize all of these forces," said Capt. Jay Bren, the company commander of Company B, TF 1-28 Inf. Regt. "Not just the infantry, but field artillery, aviation, engineers, and we can work all of these forces easier when we have them in the company's day-to-day."
During the exercise, the companies of TF 1-28 Inf. Regt. participated in a combined arms live-fire exercise, which simulated the need for the various augmentations that have been added to the TF, engineers, field artillery and even Air Force personnel.
"In my company days, as a platoon leader, we would work with the engineers," Brend said. "I would see my engineers maybe one day before the live fire exercises. I might not even know any of their names, and, therefore, we may not use them as effectively in the actual live fire itself. Now, we are working with those Soldiers every single day. We know their names; we know their families; and it makes the bond between us better, and it makes us perform that much better in the live fire."
According to Staff Sgt. Ryan Warden, an infantryman squad leader with 3rd Platoon, Co. B, TF 1-28 Inf. Regt., the Air Force personnel on ground during the exercise were in communication with aviation assets. Those assets were used to soften targets in order to make it easier for infantryman on the ground to successfully assault the objectives. It makes it easier to maneuver on the enemy.
"It's crucial to have those assets because, as a nation known for conflict, being able to synchronize all branches just absolutely is an amazing sight and is something not many people get to do in their experience in the Army," Warden said. "The full lethality rate of a company utilizing its combined arms and all the different echelons, it's a step in the right direction."
"I think that the larger mission of the Army is to make us a lot more mobile, a lot more efficient, and then we are talking about the Army being a mile wide and an inch deep," Brend said. "We are that mile wideness that can be placed anywhere on the battlefield."
"With 3rd Brigade inactivating and TF 1-28 standing up, it is a significant event in the Army," Warden said. "It's a historic event. You have to take it in stride.
Adapt and overcome as Soldiers. Continue to fight the fight."
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