South Dakota National Guard’s 153rd Engineer Battalion holds 2023 annual training at Fort McCoy

The 153rd Engineer Battalion with the South Dakota Army National Guard and its corresponding units convoyed with 90 vehicles and equipment in early July to Fort McCoy to hold their annual training.

The unit held their training July 8-19, said 153rd Commander, Lt. Col. Heath Abraham. Throughout their time, the unit stayed busy completing unit tasks, training, and more.

“So, I brought units from Huron and Madison, S.D. — three different companies — here to Fort McCoy this summer to train for annual training,” Abraham said. “Our battalion headquarters was conducting TOC (tactical operations center) operations. Our HHC (headquarters and headquarters company was supporting our exercise. Our forward support company was supporting two other (engineer) companies and the ongoing LOGPAC (logistical packages) operations.”

And then on July 17, all of the unit combined for the culminating training event of their annual training — a breach-of-a-complex-obstacle training event at Warrens Drop Zone on Fort McCoy’s North Post.

In this training event were M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, M60 Armored Vehicle Launch Bridge vehicles, M88 Recovery Vehicles, Mine Clearing Line Charge, Humvees, and more.

On one side of the drop zone, select unit Soldiers served as opposing forces. On the other side, the rest of the unit’s forces used their training and expertise to navigate the drop zone’s terrain, the obstacles, the smoke and haziness of the morning, and they had to fight through to meet training objectives in this large battalion-wide training event.

“The operation we had here this morning was a maneuver augmentation company, specifically the 211th Engineer Company, conducting a combined obstacle breach,” Abraham said. “We had one platoon place in a complex obstacle consisting of a triple strand, a mine field, and a 12-row, anti-tank barrier.

“Our breach team then came in with AVLBs and 113s and their breach teams of combat engineers,” Abraham said. “They breached the 12-row, breached the triple-strand, and then breached a natural obstacle. … Once the breaches were complete, the combat engineers were able to mark lanes to safely.”

Abraham said the training his unit completes at any time is to keep their skills sharp, and more.

“Engineer units can get called up at any point in time,” Abraham said. “Engineers are predominantly within the reserve forces in the Army Reserve and the National Guard. So the active duty needs us to be ready and to be always trained and equipped — ready to move out whenever they need us.”

Abraham also said he’s appreciated working with the Fort McCoy workforce and the range areas.

“Fort McCoy has been incredibly easy to work with,” Abraham said. “(Especially) with the variety of simulation centers and ranges. By far one of the best that we’ve got within a day’s drive of South Dakota.”

Fort McCoy was established in 1909 and its motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.