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593rd Sustainers add skills in training

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With the slowdown of Overseas Contingency Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, many Army units are adding training events to their calendars that focus on skills that were not used very often during the last 10 years.

With that in mind, Soldiers assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 593rd Sustainment Brigade, took part in a static-defense live-fire exercise at Yakima Training Center, Dec. 5.

"The brigade commander tasked us with the training because he feels that we as leaders need to bring Soldiers back to the basics; they need to brush up on the battle drills and other basic infantry tasks," said Capt. Pablo Cabanillas, the assistant operations officer for the 593rd Special Troops Battalion and the officer in charge of the training.

Soldiers prepared for the training the day prior by practicing setting up a static defense base, similar to a hasty forward operating base. The Soldiers had to enter the designated area and set up everything, to include a command post, tactical operations center, communications functions and perimeter defense.

The exercise was moved to a separate training area to take into account the live rounds that would be fired during the event. In addition to the above-mentioned tasks, the Soldiers had to defend their base against pop-up targets, moving targets, static displays and simulated rocket-propelled grenade attacks, according to Cabanillas.

Cabanillas' Soldiers trained approximately 100 Soldiers throughout the day.

"The Soldiers really enjoyed their training, they love putting rounds downrange," Cabanillas. "But the most important part of the training was keeping everybody safe."

The training was designed to be less demanding than would be required of a unit in a war zone.

"We mainly wanted to get the Soldiers' feet wet, this is a crawl phase for them," Cabanillas said. "This is the first time we've done this as a battalion in a long time and we have a lot of Soldiers fresh out of basic and AIT and they haven't done anything like this in a while."

For 1st Lt. Charidsse Dizon, a platoon leader assigned to HHC 593 Sust. Bde., this was the second time she had completed this type of training since attending the Basic Officer Leadership Course. Despite having a leg up on her Soldiers, there were still some curveballs thrown her way that forced her and her Soldiers to adapt.

"By the time we got out to the site and were ready to go, it got dark pretty quickly," Dizon said. "It turned into a night-fire exercise, but it was great training for my Soldiers because they were able to train using their night-vision goggles and fight through the cold to accomplish the mission."

Dizon also enjoyed being able act as a true platoon leader during the training.

"Not everybody in my platoon works together on a daily basis," she said. "It's great for me to get out there and see them come together as a cohesive unit. The tasks that we accomplish in garrison are much different than those in a training environment."

Despite the fact that the Soldiers trained on the task because of the Armywide slowdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan, deploying was still at the forefront of Dizon's mind.

"We don't know what we will be called to do next," she said. "But it is vital that we train on tasks like these so that we are prepared and ready to accomplish the next mission we are given."

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