FORT MCCOY, Wis. – Training a 3,400 Soldier brigade is no small task, but First Army Observer Coach/Trainers are always up for the challenge.
Soldiers of the 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the largest unit in the Wisconsin Army National Guard, are honing their skills to ensure they are prepared when deployment comes. The 32nd IBCT resembles a small-scale combat division, with infantry, cavalry, field artillery, and special troops units for intelligence, signal, military police and combat engineers.
There are two groups of First Army OC/Ts who ensure this training is accomplished and that units are prepared for any contingency. One group works to ensure the training lanes are prepared, the scenario is set, and the effects are ready. The other group joins the unit: following, taking notes, and providing feedback.
“Our teams that we partner with, they get to interact (with the units),” said Staff Sgt. Victor Torres, First Army OC/T. “We’re there to control the opposing force and to control the safety of the overall lane.”
Torres, one of the OC/Ts who prepares the lanes, starts his mornings by picking up a “package” for the day. This includes any vehicles, opposing forces Soldiers, simulation rounds and equipment, smoke grenades, or anything else needed for the day’s training.
“I make sure everything is set up and everything is safe since everything is supposed to be inspected prior to going out,” he said.
While at the lane, Torres does not interact with the unit, but directs the events the unit must react to, including enemy fire, improvised explosive devices and any other training scenarios planned for the day.
His day doesn’t end when the lanes end, though.
“Every night we go and write down all of our notes for each iteration and then we compile them,” he said.
These notes are added with other notes and evaluated tasks and given to the unit to improve their reactions.
Sgt. 1st Class Aubry Dellingner is one of Torres’ partners on the lanes. She provides evaluations and after-action reviews for the units. In her role, Dellingner attends the unit briefings and planning processes before the training lanes, then provides a mission.
“Then we’ll link up with the lane OC/T and they come out and implant those injections and then we run (the unit) through and see how they react to each one,” she said.
Most of the units Dellingner has observed will be engaged in a longer exercise at the Joint Readiness Training Center or National Training Center next year and may eventually deploy. This makes it very important for them to get it right here.
“We’re giving them that real-world experience to make sure they can do it here to be able to do it if they deploy,” she said. “It gives them the chance to mess up here and then do it correctly so they’re not getting hurt overseas.”
For Dellingner, being in this position is very important as she gets to provide the mentorship she feels she didn’t have as a young Soldier.
“I tell them everything I can and I give them everything I have,” she said. “I want them to be prepared, because I was not.”
Working as a team, these two OC/T groups help ensure Reserve and National Guard Soldiers are trained and ready. It’s this teamwork that keeps the Army ready now and which is shaping the Army of tomorrow.
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