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Soldiers of the 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion have returned to Fort Stewart, following a National Training Center rotation at Fort Irwin, California. There, elements from across the battalion provided logistical support to the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team; the 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment from Fort Drum, New York; and other enabling units participating in the large-scale combat operations-focused training cycle 23-05. This combat training center rotation was the first for the U.S. Army’s most modernized armored brigade that had completed fielding and training of the latest generation of combat vehicles, weapons and equipment in September last year. This effort, as part of the Army’s Regionally Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model, or ReARMM, has been facilitated by the 3rd Infantry Division’s Sustainment Brigade, including the DSSB, in the lead up to the ABCT culminating training event. The training event ran from Feb. 24 to March 10, 2023.
According to the U.S. Army Forces Command, which oversees the two CTCs in the U.S., the training rotations build readiness by providing a crucible experience for units and leaders in a complex and highly realistic decisive action training environment under the most adverse conditions possible. The experience replicates the complexity of the battlefield and promotes increased proficiency with combined arms maneuver, including situations such as: communications challenges, simulated chemical and biological threats, cyber operations, and integration of Special Operations Forces and allied militaries.
With the Army’s most modern forces being tested against a multi-domain enemy in the Mojave Desert, the DSSB was called upon to provide sustainment support that had the lethality and agility to match the tempo and speed of force-on-force maneuver in battle with a free-thinking adversary: the training center’s own 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. The battalion’s command said the event was invaluable in preparing the unit to provide nimble logistics support under combat conditions and for building cohesion across the entire collective of sustainers.
“The training value of a CTC rotation is really hard to replicate at home station,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan A. Daniels, the 87th DSSB commander. “Our units tend to get pulled in multiple directions when we're back in garrison, because there's a high demand for support. So very rarely do we get an opportunity to collectively come together and focus on supporting maneuver forces.”
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During the exercise, the DSSB Soldiers established multiple support areas and drove more than 35,000 km throughout 44 logistical convoys in an austere environment that experienced weeks of extreme weather, including blizzards in mountain ranges and exceptional amounts of rain in the high desert. They delivered more than 75,000 gallons of water, 407 pallets of rations, and 440,000 gallons of fuel. The unit built 74 combat configured loads, a term for pre-planned packages of ammunition for resupplying forces, including dozens in support of the 2nd ABCT live fire training. Finally, the DSSB delivered 116 pallets of repair and replacement parts in support of units’ maintenance needs.
Testing the unit’s ability to sustain the division began even before arriving in California for the exercise, as they were key in facilitating all rotational forces’ reception, staging, onward movement, and integration plans. This tested the DSSB Soldiers’ ability to support the generation of combat power from its departure from home station, to its arrival in a “foreign country.” The division’s modernized variations with heavier or less familiar equipment elevated this challenge. Once in “the Box,” a term Soldiers use for the actual force-on-force training at the combat training center, the DSSB was assailed by a simulated enemy that employed combat tactics witnessed in recent conflicts from around the world. The sustainment Soldiers racked up multiple shootings of enemy drones and captured enemy prisoners of war, for which Observer Controller-Trainers lauded the DSSB for their effective base defense measures.
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The success of the exercise came down to effective preparedness, according to Daniels.
“Our train-up began one year before the rotation,” he said. “We executed a series of about six training events, battalion-minus training events, focused on our core [mission essential tasks] … especially focused on drivers training and night drivers training. All of that enabled us to have a very successful rotation because our soldiers had gotten repetitions driving at night, convoy operations, and in building their confidence before doing it at a fast pace with an actual enemy force. That train-up is what enabled the battalion Soldiers to basically drive in excess of 35,000 miles safely, to include a lot of night operations as well.”
The battalion elements participating in the rotation included the headquarters company; the recently activated 716th Maintenance Platoon; Bravo Company, which is the supply maintenance company that also served as a quick reaction force during the exercise; Charlie Company, which is a composite truck company; the 24th Ordnance Company that managed field ammunition supply points; and finally, the 135th Quartermaster Company for petroleum support. The battalion’s Alpha Company, its composite supply company, did not go to NTC, instead deploying to the Middle East as part of a rotation of forces for U.S. Central Command.
Daniels said he was impressed by his Soldiers’ performance and their commitment to the training which effectively validated their readiness for deployments to the U.S. Army Europe and Africa theater of operations later this summer alongside much of the rest of the 3rd ID.
“Be proud of what you accomplished, your hard work, the effort that you put in, preparing for NTC and during execution,” said Daniels. “You're part of a winning team: be proud of being a part of something that's bigger than yourself. And thank you for your incredible efforts.”
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