BRIDGEPORT, CA –
Paratroopers assigned to Able Company, 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry
Regiment are training in the high reaches of the Sierra Nevada range with
Marines at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center.
The
month-long training rotation is affording approximately 100 Alaska-based
paratroopers the chance to go through high-altitude training opportunities,
including pre-environmental and mobility training, the Mountain Communication
Course and the Scout Skier Course.
The joint training opportunity is part
of U.S. Army Alaska's initiative to enhance partnered high-altitude,
cold-regions training.
Upon completion of basic mobility training, the
members of Able Company will transition from students to the opposing force for
the 26th Marine expeditionary Unit.
The Camp Lejeune-based MEU is
completing a deployment validation field exercise.
This is the first time
an Army unit has served as the OPFOR for a Marine unit at the training
center.
Normally, a battalion-sized MEU has to give up a company to serve
as the opposing force during an FEX.
Having USARAK forces on hand will
allow the entire MEU to train as one unit, while giving Able Company valuable
experience in fighting a uniformed force in conditions that are familiar to
Alaska-based Soldiers.
The FEX is largely unscripted, the scenario
updated daily based on real-world news and intelligence events, said Brandon
Schroder, an exercise planner at MWTC.
For Able Company, this means the
freedom to maneuver at will against the 26th MEU within the deployment
validation.
The outcome of the fight will be based on which unit can
out-maneuver and out-fight the other, providing valuable experience to both
commands.
Like USARAK's Northern Warfare Training Center in Black Rapids,
MWTC provides "turn-key" ease of training, according to Schroder. A unit arrives
and gets to train immediately.
The instructor-led, pre-environmental and
basic mobility training makes graduates Department of Defense level-one
mountaineers, another similarity to USARAK's NWTC.
To the paratroopers
who are NWTC graduates, the opportunity to conduct similar training at the
Marine center adds to their proficiency.
"I think coming from Alaska gave
us a leg up for this kind of training; guys knew what to expect." said Army 1st.
Lt. Matthew Ray, Able Company's executive officer. "They're used to the cold
temperatures, so there wasn't a shock factor."
The developing partnership
between the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in California and the
Northern Warfare Training Center in Alaska is extremely important, in that both
centers provide a range of climate types and expansive terrain for units to
train in extreme-cold-weather, high-altitude regions within the Department of
Defense footprint.
This partnership effort will continue in February,
when senior leaders from the MWTC join other military leaders from around the
world at USARAK's Cold Regions Military Mountaineering Collaborative Training
Event at the Northern Warfare Training Center.