Fort Irwin National Training Center

This past week Fort Carson took a group of civic and governmental leaders to the 640,000 acre National Training Center at Fort Irwin California. In tow were Congressional and Senatorial aides, County Commissioners, Chamber of Commerce folks, a County Administrator, and civilian liaison to the military. We were spread out pretty evenly between El Paso, Pueblo, Otero and Las Animas counties.

Fort Carson had 3,368 2nd BCT/4thID soldiers that were culminating their 14 days ìin the boxî- actual training time in what we would call ìdown rangeî. When you include the time spent getting their equipment to and from the railhead 35 miles from the training center, they will have been gone from home about a month and will be leaving for Iraq within 90 days of getting back home from Fort Irwin.

Fort Irwin is the ìfinishing schoolî of training with permanent Iraqi villages, hundreds of Iraqis as role players providing soldiers with realistic interaction with mayors, police chiefs, and tribal leaders. Our group became part of the training when the UN decals were placed on the side of our vans. Just one more thing soldiers have to work with and around as they carry out their mission in Iraq. I learned the meaning of several new acronyms and heard many more that I trust had meaning, or the senior NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) were just perpetuating an inside joke at our expense.

While the electronic capabilities are not as exciting as IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) blowing up just down the street or taking cover during a sniper attack (think laser tag on steroids), they are a marvel to behold. With cameras on everything from light poles to balloons to unmanned aerial drones and the capability to stream those pictures plus satellite images into a FOB (Forward Operating Base) allows a central command to direct operations taking place hundreds of miles apart.

Something the OC (Operation and Control) folks stressed during our last briefing was ìThe better trained the soldiers are when they arrive at Fort Irwin the more they get out of itî. In other words, if the training they receive at their home post is very good and as realistic as possible they can leave the National Training Center the best trained and most prepared soldiers of the finest and most formidable army in the world.

While the training area was the highlight, we did spend time, complete with power points, discussing how Fort Irwin contracts with local businesses, since the nearest community is 40 miles away and has a population of 24,0000.

Thank you General Graham, LTC Dean Dunham and Capt Gregory Dorman for the invitation, for an extremely educational trip and for the chance to discuss military issues with our counterparts in the southern part of the state.

CONTACT THE WRITER • HISEY4CD4@MSN.COM

DENNIS' ARCHIVES
4-11-07 | 4-18-07 | 4-25-07 | 5-2-07 | 5-9-07 | 5-16-07 | 5-23-07 | 5-30-07
6-6-07 | 6-13-07 | 6-20-07 | 6-27-07 | 7-4-07 | 7-11-07 | 7-18-07 | 7-25-07
8-1-07 | 8-8-07 | 10-24-07 | 11-1-07 | 11-7-07 | 11-12-07 | 11-26-07 | 11-28-07 | 12-5-07
12-12-07 | 12-26-07 | 1-2-08 | 1-9-08 | 1-16-08 | 1-23-08 | 1-30-08 | 2-6-08 | 2-20-08
2-27-08 | 3-5-08 | 3-12-08 | 3-19-08 | 3-26-08 | 4-2-08 | 4-9-08 | 4-16-08 | 4-23-08 | 4-30-08 | 5-7-08