FORT DRUM, N.Y. (Oct. 6, 2016) -- Mortars fire in the distance, machine guns lay down cover fire, snipers are on overwatch positions, engineers blow down obstacles and the assaulting infantry element expertly moves in to clear enemy forces who have infiltrated a village.
It may sound like something out of a weekend blockbuster, but this was part of the training that 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment "Golden Dragons," 2nd Brigade Combat Team, conducted Sept. 23 through Monday on Fort Drum's training grounds.
"We've been out here for the last nine days," said Lt. Col. Jeremy Gwinn, 2-14 Infantry commander. "Every rifle platoon in the battalion has gone through the platoon deliberate attack live-fire."
He continued to say his Soldiers perfect their skills while they fire blank ammunition, and working into live ammunition, they fire both during the day and at night.
"We've had a lot of new people come in since the last deployment," Gwinn said. "These platoons are (composed) of new teams. This is the first time we've done platoon live-fires as the new group, so what they're taking away is the confidence and the ability to integrate all the assets and execute one of the most difficult tasks a platoon can do."
When the platoons weren't conducting live-fire drills, they were being taught troop-leading procedures, company search and attack, react to contact, hasty company attacks and establishing a defense.
"Events like this require quite a large amount of training," said 1st Sgt. Seth Rathbun, C Company.
"We started training for this exercise for about three months ago," Rathbun said. "This includes qualifying on each of the Soldier's individual weapons systems, then team live-fire, which progressed to squad live-fire, and ultimately culminated to this event, which is a platoon live-fire."
First Lt. Tripp Killinger, platoon leader, C Company, said he wanted his Soldiers to take away from this exercise the "confidence in their teams and their buddies to their left and their right, and the fact that they can communicate and fight confidently on the battlefield together."
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