FORT LEE, Va. (June 4, 2009) -- "One Ready, Two Ready, Three Ready, Four Ready." Four-man rifle teams readied themselves to clear a room during a recent Thursday morning training mission.
Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 530th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 49th Quartermaster Group, spent the day training at Fort Lee's new Urban Operations Site.
Located at the range complex just off River Road, the site houses containerized structures serving as simulated urban buildings and residential dwellings.
Construction began in mid-December to transform the parking lot and adjacent area near Range No. 2 into an urban training site. Three months later and at a cost of nearly $100,000, Fort Lee gained a more realistic environment to train Soldiers in urban warfare tactics.
"This site will enhance Soldiers' abilities to perform on the current battlefield," said Michael Finnegan, range specialist.
The site offers units the ability to train and evaluate Soldiers performing individual Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills. It also provides opportunities for the unit, as a whole, to conduct drills in an urban environment.
While many of the buildings are one level, some of the structures are equipped with stairwells leading to additional floors. The site is designed to support the talk, crawl, walk and run method of training.
Sgt. 1st Class Tommy Neal, water treatment noncommissioned officer in charge for the unit, led the group of 20 Soldiers in classroom instruction before they broke into four-person rifle teams to put the lessons into action.
"We returned from deployment last October and have received many new Soldiers who haven't previously deployed," Neal said. "We are laying a foundation for those Soldiers to build upon."
Before moving toward a full exercise, the teams practiced the battle drill in open structures with half walls and without a roof. The practice run allowed the evaluators to see the team's movements and make corrections.
While the site is fully operational, range control continues to fine tune it and add amenities. Eventually cameras will be added that will help the units conduct after action reviews of their training events.
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