After an hour of heading north into the vastness of the Yakima Training Center, we crested a ridge and began descending into Badger Gap.
"There's the Emerald City," Sgt. Nathaniel Phillips said with a laugh as he carefully drove our Humvee down a dusty road. "Other Soldiers call it the ‘Land of Milk and Honey' and others just call it ‘Those Guys.'"
Whatever it is called, the 296th Brigade Support Battalion prides itself on being the tip of the logistics spear, in providing units with bullets, food and fuel.
An integral part of 3rd Brigade's Combat Stryker Team, the 296th provides the wherewithal that allows the brigade to maneuver in any situation it may find itself.
As we rolled up to and stopped at an ECP, or entry control point, PV2 Isaiah Figueroa checked our identification.
He was all business about the ID check.
"Not only do we provide the brigade's units like the infantry and the artillery with the freedom of maneuver," Capt. Jesse Swanzy pointed out, but we also generate our own offensive and defensive options."
Hence the firepower at the ECP.
A few hours earlier, a group of soldiers had carried out a simulated early morning attack on the 296th's tactical operations center, or TOC.
The attackers failed to reach their objective.
"We took some causalities," Sgt. Desiree Joyner said as we stood on the battalion's outer perimeter. "But we were able to drive off the attackers and protect ourselves."
In other words, these logisticians can defend themselves and throw a punch.
"We certainly do not see ourselves as ‘the people in the rear,'" Swanzy said with a clear tone in his voice.
If there is one idea that was made transparent to me as I spent last Sunday in the company of Capt. Courtney Fuller, the battalion's adjutant, it is that the 296th's 794 Soldiers are just as prepared as any other to accomplish any mission.
"We may not be as sexy as the infantry and the artillery with their missions," Fuller said, "but we train just as hard for the linear battlefield."
For close to a month-and-a-half, 3rd Brigade has been testing itself in the desert. Besides sharpening combat tactics, the underlying premise to the training to ensure the brigade is ready to engage in "decisive action" on a short timeline anywhere in the world.
>>> PV2 Cody Ruth gives his M4 and thorough airing out before beginning a mission.
>>> Pfc. Horace Glover, Pfc. Dominique Johnson and Spc. James Williams handle refueling before heading out to ensure that 3rd Brigade has enough fuel to continue its training mission.
The training has been nonstop.
"We're kept pretty busy," PV2 Brandon Gray, a mechanic, said as he wearily sat down to a breakfast of eggs, biscuits, gravy and coffee.
"We lucky to get a couple of hours of sleep a night."
Along with the combat arms training and its support mission, the 296th also places an emphasis on physical and psychological services.
"It's a challenge to bring first rate dentistry to the field," Capt. (Dr.) Mauro Correa said as he worked on a patient.
"I think it is the first time we've had a working clinic in the field."
Along with dental services, there were also mental health and physical therapy services.
>>> Capt. (Dr.) Mauro Correa demonstrates on 1st Lt. April Glenn how some of the Army's newest dental equipment is used.
>>> Up since 0300, Spc. Dyanna McFarlane serves breakfast to fellow 296th BSB Soldiers. The unit provided hot meals to 3-2 ID during its training at the Yakima Training Center.
>>> 296th Brigade Support Battalion Soldiers make the best of everything - including creating a makeshift dining hall with limited seating.
There's a reason for all of this and the required training.
3rd Brigade has been designated as one of two Stryker Brigades to be able to deploy on very short notice.
"We're moving from a counter-insurgency posture to a combined arms maneuver posture," Lt. Col. Christopher Corizzo, the 296th commander, explained as we sat in his TOC.
"This is a line unit; we provide options in order to compete and win when confronted by near peer competitors."
In other words, the brigade trains to meet an enemy that fights much differently than the insurgents have in Iraq and Afghanistan.
3rd Brigade and the 296th Brigade Support Battalion train to fight "force on force," and it plans on winning any encounter.
"The training has been very good," Corizzo continued.
"It has been no less than astounding what we as a battalion and as a brigade have accomplished."
>>> A supply vehicle leaves the 296th's base support area in support of other 3rdBrigade, 2nd Infantry Division units during recent training at the Yakima Training Center.
Read Comments