FORT KNOX, Ky. -- The steady rumble of a convoy was abruptly interrupted as the sudden burst of machine gun fire rang out over the rolling hills of Yano Range at Fort Knox. Brass casings from 7.62-caliber rounds rattled around the vehicle interiors as the vehicle gunners continued to engage targets.
The live-fire exercise was part of Operation Cold Steel II, a U.S. Army Reserve training exercise designed to train and validate combat service and combat service support Soldiers in crew-served weapon proficiency, ensuring the Army Reserve is prepared to deploy and fight.
Army 1st Sgt. Johnny Sampley, a senior observer coach/trainer assigned to 11/104th Battalion, 1st Brigade, 91st Training Division of Boise, Idaho, said Operation Cold Steel II gives participating Soldiers valuable training experience.
"This training provides them some experience for when they actually go into combat and they are performing convoy operations," Sampley said. "They will have a feel of what they need to do as leaders, as gunners and as drivers."
Soldiers conducted both day and night dry-fire, blank-fire and live-fire convoy training. This training ensured that crews, who had completed prior crew gunnery training at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, were confident as a section while conducting convoy operations.
"They use the building blocks that they got from doing a crew gunnery at Fort McCoy and take that crew and make it a section by adding multiple crews together," Sgt. 1st Class Michael Terstergen, an observer coach/trainer and master gunner assigned to 4th Cavalry Multi-Functional Training Brigade. "The section leaders take charge and they move out into a convoy live-fire environment where multiple weapons are firing at one time but still being controlled by an individual."
To prepare them for the stress of having multiple vehicles moving down a range, firing simultaneously at targets, the Soldiers first undertake simulated convoy training, Terstergen said.
"The Soldiers go through a Warrior Skills Trainer simulator, which is a vehicle immersed trainer that is built on an actual vehicle shell with all of the weapons systems," Terstergen said. "They have a 360- degree view and they go through the same lanes that they are going to go through on the actual ranges."
For the Army Reserve, training this extensive is necessary to build confidence, but it is not common, said Terstegen.
"By doing these type of exercises, it puts them into an environment that they aren't used to," he said. "They are continuously doing gunnery and doing large scale training events. The units that come here to do the convoy live-fire have been training for 40 to 50 days."
The training at every phase took extensive planning and preparation by master gunners. From coordinating range locations and ammunition months in advance, to planning lanes, targets and scenarios to ensure the Soldiers are receiving the best training, Army Master Gunners have played a crucial role.
"As a master gunner, we are critical for the planning of the scenarios, the development of the lanes and the targets to make sure it meets all of the training evaluation outline requirements," said Terstergen. "It's critical to ensure that you're giving the units a scenario and objectives that are obtainable."
The effort put into Cold Steel II by master gunners did not go unnoticed.
Spc. Sabastian Brookshire, a transportation management coordinator and gunner assigned to 957th Movement Control Team of Las Vegas, said he had never received such extensive training on crew-served weapons prior to OCS II.
"For my first deployment I was a late deployer and the first thing that they did was give me a M240B [machine gun]," Brookshire said. "I got more in depth training here than I did prior to them handing it to me when I was deployed with it."
Brookshire explained that the training made him feel confident in his unit's ability to handle any task while deployed.
"We are all experts in our trade," Brookshire said. "But in the event that we need to actually participate as gunners, drivers or even vehicle commanders for our convoys, we are confident in each other and we're highly capable of accomplishing that task.
For many of the Soldiers at Operation Cold Steel II, the training and level of confidence is a force multiplier.
"I think this is a very helpful event and it's definitely great for pre-deployment preparation," Brookshire said. "Especially when you are in the position of manning a mounted machine gun. If anything I would say it's a confidence booster for my unit and myself."
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