FORT McCOY, Wis. -- The number of personnel training at Fort McCoy during fiscal year (FY) 2012 surpassed the 122,000 mark according to statistics from the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security (DPTMS).
Fort McCoy has trained more than 100,000 troops annually since FY 1985.
A total of 65,501 personnel conducted extended combat training (ECT) at the installation for two or more weeks, while a total of 56,670 personnel conducted battle-drill training (BDT) for an FY 2012 training total of 122,171 personnel.
Mark Stelzner, installation DPTMS supervisory range scheduler, said FY 2013 projections look promising as most of the units and exercises that occurred at Fort McCoy in FY 2012 are scheduled to return to McCoy for training.
Two of the exercises, Diamond Saber and Essayons, begin in the May-June 2013 timeframe and will start the busy exercise season. Diamond Saber is a finance exercise and Essayons is an engineer exercise.
Two Warrior Exercises (WAREX) and two Combat Support Training Exercises (CSTX) will be held in June, July and August.
The 86th Training Division (Operations), which is headquartered at Fort McCoy, will help support the two WAREX events. Last year, one WAREX and two CSTX exercises were held.
Red Dragon, a Homeland Security Defense exercise, will be held in August.
Army National Guard units from the 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team and the Illinois National Guard will return for ECT and BDT, as well members of the 2nd, 24th Marines. The 32nd will hold an exportable combat-training capability exercise as part of its training.
FY 2012 training totals also included troops from other organizations located at Fort McCoy, such as the Staff Sgt. Todd R. Cornell Noncommissioned Officer Academy; Regional Training Sites Maintenance and Medical; Naval Mobile Construction Battalion-25; the Wisconsin Military Academy; the Wisconsin State Patrol Academy; the Challenge Academy; the 13th, 100th Battalion (Ordnance); the 11th Battalion (Military Intelligence)/100th Training Division; the 181st Infantry Brigade;
Equipment Concentration Site-67 and the Maneuver Area Training Equipment Site.
Terry Hoff, Fort McCoy Range officer, said the completion of several range projects and associated work will provide upgraded support for FY 2013 unit training at the installation.
Electrical and target work is expected to be completed by year's end at the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility.
The facility can support exercises, such as WAREX or CSTX, as well as urban training. The adjoining Mobile Urban Training Site-South and another nearby urban training areas combine to offer more than 350 container- type buildings or structures to support urban training scenarios in a 3.5-kilometer stretch on South Post.
Reconstruction/upgrade work is being conducted on Ranges 101 and 18. When these projects are completed by spring 2013, pneumatic-driven targets on range 101 will be replaced with more-reliable, hard-wired computer targetry.
Upgraded training support facilities, such as new range-control tower, a classroom building, an ammunition/breakdown building and a covered mess, also are included in the Range 101 project.
Hoff said the new facilities will last longer than the present structures and will better support year-round training.
Range 18 will become a 1,000 meter Known Distance Range and will support sniper training, marksmanship training and U.S. Marines qualification training. This will help support training throughput and help the installation support training during its busiest training seasons, Hoff said.
The NCO Academy classroom project is complete and will be available to support FY 2013 training. A project to add barracks/dormitory space has been awarded and is scheduled to begin construction later this year, said Roy Brewer, Fort McCoy resident engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers. The facility is expected to have a completion date of early 2014.
Units that want more information about scheduling training at Fort McCoy can call 608-388-3721/4142.
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