The 3^rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT), 2^nd Infantry Division is currently conducting full spectrum training operations at the Yakima Training Center (YTC).

"We're conducting training we've haven't done in almost 10 years," CSM Peter Smith explained.

"For the young soldiers, this is the first time they've been exposed to this.  For the older soldiers, we're relearning."

Nicknamed the "Arrowhead Brigade'" the unit was the first to transform to the medium infantry/Stryker centered concept.

It was also the first Stryker brigade to deploy into combat in Iraq.

That orientation is changing.

Codenamed "Operation Motega," (a native American word which means "new arrow"), the 3^rd SBCT's training at Yakima is to relearn basic skills in order to meet a full spectrum of challenges. 

"We're moving from COIN centric operations to full spectrum operations, of which counterinsurgency is a part," Lt. Col. J D. Highfill, commander, 2^nd Battalion, 3^rd Infantry Regiment, said last Friday evening as we had supper on the hood of a Humvee.

Highfill went on to explain that will counterinsurgency operations will remain a part of the Army's mission, confronting criminal, conventional and guerilla operations.

"We have not done much of this kind of training," Sgt. Shane Winkle, a soldier assigned to the battalion's combat repair team.  

"There will be no forward operating bases, of FOBs.  "We are relearning what the Army does - take land and hold it."

He had a point - the brigade is self-sustaining in all aspects.  There is minimal civilian contractor support.

To build on the training at YTC, the brigade will become the first to complete a full spectrum rotation at the National Training Center, or NTC, for the first time in about a decade later this summer.

"We're glad to be out here doing this training," SFC Gary McCarthy said.  "It's good to go back to high intensity work."