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2-2 Stryker Brigade prepares for future missions at Yakima Training Center

Lt. Col. Shannon Nielsen's 1-17th Infantry Regiment leads the way

Several 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment soldiers run toward an objective during training at the Yakima Training Center. Photo credit: J.M. Simpson

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Chosin Company's Mark Shaw and Keith Roach blew down the ramp of their Stryker, turned hard to their left and began running toward a long berm 75 yards away.

Spc. Shaw carried a M240B assault weapon; Spc. Roach carried the weapon's tripod and ammunition - plus his own weapon and ammunition.

Both soldiers scrambled to the top of the berm and set up the big gun.

They worked quickly. Within 30 seconds, the M240B was targeted on a trench line 400 meters to our front.

Then the snow began to fall gently. 

"You should have been here a couple of weeks ago," Maj. Lou Kangas, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment's executive officer, said with a smile. "It was cold; the wind chill was below zero, and the snow was deep. Training in such conditions makes us that much better."

Nearby, Lt. Col. Shannon Nielsen watched and made notes on a piece of white paper with a blue ink pen.

"What is old is now new," commented the commander of 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. 

"We are moving away from fighting insurgents and back to learning how to fight in a conventional way."

>>> Two soldiers assigned to Chosin Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment observe an objective before an assault.

>>>  Spc. Mark Shaw and Spc. Keith Roach engage a target with a M240B during an assault on a trench line during training at the Yakima Training Center.

For 2nd Brigade and its six battalions, the road to relearning the past in order to prepare for the future runs through the Yakima Training Center (YTC), with Nielsen's battalion leading the way.

To better prepare for future conflicts, the brigade's battalions are treating the training at YTC as a deployment to anywhere in the world.

To prepare families for what will happen in the future, the battalion held a town hall meeting to discuss what families could expect from the battalion while their soldiers are away at YTC.

"We're doing this so it is a repetition for our deployment to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin later this year and then for any future deployments," Kangas explained.

"This is the first time a lot of spouses will have to be by themselves," Kangas added.

>>> Soldiers clear a trench line during a decisive action-training scenario.

But on that cold and dusty berm at YTC on the Multi-Purpose Range Complex Saturday morning, the immediate concern was to seize and hold a trench line.

1st Lt. Shane Simons led 2nd Platoon, Chosin Company toward the objective.

"This scenario is a deliberate attack against an enemy in a defensive position," explained Nielsen. "His job is to seize and hold the objective."

Simons had his hands full.

The young lieutenant had to set the conditions for the attack on the objective by managing air support, indirect fire and his platoon in a fluid, nonstop manner as he moved down a 4500-meter course.

"You don't want to do something for the first time in combat," Maj. John Gibson, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment's operations officer explained.

"It's best to work through problems here in a safe training environment."

To prepare for their deployment, the battalion's soldiers had engaged in virtual training that nearly simulated the terrain and conditions they would face at YTC.

"This is a definitely a big plus," commented Nielsen, "in helping our training."

Then Roach, Shaw and other soldiers in 2nd Platoon opened up with suppressive fire on the trench line.

Other soldiers began moving to the right in order to isolate the objective.

As they entered the trench, enemy fighters put up a stiff resistance, slowing movement down. Moving carefully and deliberately, the platoon killed the enemy fighters, seizing the objective.

That's when things got interesting.

Enemy forces counter-attacked. Simon's soldiers had been surprised and sustained three causalities.

A degree of confusion set in as a determined opponent fought back while Simon's soldiers worked to fight back, aid the wounded and call for an aeromedical evacuation.

With the successful evacuation of the causalities, the exercise ended.

>>> A simulated casualty is loaded into a Stryker during 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment's Buffalo Resolve 3, a two month long training exercise at the Yakima Training Center.

>>>  Soldiers assigned to Chosin Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment prepare to carry a wounded soldier while others form a defensive stance.

Twenty minutes later the platoon gathered for an After Action Review. Led by Chosin Company Commander Capt. Justin Shine, he clearly walked and talked the platoon through the exercise.

"This was a very good first run for them; overall they did a good job," Shine said.

"Now all we have to do is sharpen what we've learned."

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