FORT HOOD, Texas - "Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole!"
Combat engineers from C Company, 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, shouted this warning to surrounding Soldiers to take cover from an impending blast.
The Soldiers implemented a three-day training exercise at the Curry Demolition Range, here, July 27 to 29.
"It is important to continue training the basic skills of our job," said Centerville, Va. native, Capt. David Park, C Co. commander. "You have to continue to use your skills in order to improve them."
A combat engineer's primary job is to perform basic combat construction and operate various light or heavy wheeled vehicles. They are also responsible for the knowledge of explosives, and sometimes tasked to plant bombs, landmines and dynamite.
The Curry Demolition Range is the first time these "Sapper" Soldiers have conducted demolition training since their return from Iraq earlier this year. They plan on returning to the range later to qualify their knowledge on their military occuaptional speciality (MOS) as a combat engineer. It is standard to qualify Soldiers semi-annually.
"We used this opportunity to retrain our Soldiers before we qualify them," Park explained. "We will return to qualify them later this year."
The engineers used C-4, a type of plastic explosive, to create different types of devices to ensure they understood how to prepare, build and detonate them properly.
They also practiced how to move obstacles blocking their paths and how to react if caught in the middle of a mine field.
"I really enjoyed coming out here and reviewing the basics of our job," explained Oconto, Wis. native, Pfc. Bryant Schroepfer. "It's important to continue practicing that way when it matters, I will feel confident I know what I am doing."
Social Sharing