Exercise Dragoon Ready 21 prepares 2d Cavalry Regiment

HOHENFELS, Germany- The 2d Cavalry Regiment participated in the exercise, Dragoon Ready 21, from April 9-19 at Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, to enhance and train its core tasks.

During the multinational combat training center exercise, 2CR was joined by elements of the United Kingdom and French Armies, while the Joint Multinational Readiness Center was joined with elements of the Italian and Latvian Armies, enhancing the ability to respond more effectively to regional crises and meet security needs.

“Here at JMRC, we’re Europe’s only CTC so what we do is replicate a near-peer threat for the training audience,” said 1st Lt. Alexander White, an executive officer assigned to the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, the permanent opposing forces at JMRC. “We don’t take it easy on them; we replicated multiple types of threats and planned accordingly to help them get quality training that they can learn from.”

The regiment provides the 7th Army Training Command with a lethal and agile force capable of rapid deployment throughout the European theater in order to assure allies, deter adversaries, and when ordered, defend the NATO alliance.

“Training like this is so important because it gives the Soldiers a snapshot of what may be coming in the future, so they’ll always be prepared,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Willie Allen, the senior enlisted advisor at the Regimental Support Squadron, 2CR. “The training here will provide the muscle memory for when they are in a combat operation.”

Much of the training conducted was to engineer the battlefield, employ force-on-force engagements, respond to chemical-attacks, casualty evacuations, and a ruck march.

“I think this training will help them think twice and think harder about how they will prepare to fight a near-peer threat,” said White.