43rd Signal Battalion perfects Warrior Task skills

MANNHEIM, Germany (Nov. 18, 2010) -- Soldiers with 5th Signal Command's 43rd Signal Battalion conducted a three-day field exercise at the Local Training Area using real-world scenarios to train Warrior Task skills.

In one scenario, the Soldiers were deployed to Spain to conduct humanitarian aid to village people after a devastating earthquake. Soldiers from the 43rd were approached by a mayor of a local Spanish town to solicit aid from the U.S. Soldiers.

The Soldiers encountered contact from enemy forces, and while securing the village had to provide aid to simulated village casualties. They were being filmed and photographed throughout the scenario and had to properly react to the media while accomplishing their mission.

"The training we are accomplishing here in the LTA is all-encompassing. We are using all of our Warrior Task skills to accomplish each of the three lanes of training," said Lt. Col. John M. Demko, commander, 43rd Signal Battalion.

43rd also conducted Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear training, where the Soldiers were attacked with a chemical agent and then had to enter and mark the contaminated area.

To simulate further exposure, the Soldiers then had to conduct a chemical mask canister exchange in a tear gas chamber. Buddy-teams would remove and replace the other person's mask canister before that person was exposed to the tear gas.

"As the CBRN noncommissioned officer in charge, it is my responsibility to make this training as life-like as possible. The Soldiers have been doing great things to overcome the CBRN obstacles," said Sgt. Horatio Patterson, 43rd Signal Battalion CBRN NCO.

43rd Signal Battalion's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 181st Signal Company, and 11th Signal Detachment simultaneously navigated different scenarios during the field exercise which ran from Nov. 16-18.

"This training gets our Soldiers away from their desks and gives them the experience they need to survive," said Demko.

The 43rd Signal Battalion is headquartered in Heidelberg and its mission is to install, operate, maintain, and protect communications infrastructure, information systems, and services that connect Army, Joint, Combined Forces and non-military organizations in support of training and full spectrum operations from the Global Information Grid to the Tactical Edge.