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HomeNewsFort Campbell 541st Transportation Company soldiers conduct Convoy Operations training

Fort Campbell 541st Transportation Company soldiers conduct Convoy Operations training

Written by Sgt. Leejay Lockhart
101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs

101st Sustainment Brigade - LifelinersFort Campbell KY - 101st Airborne Division

Fort Campbell, KY – Soldiers from the 541st Transportation Company, 129th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, conducted convoy operations training May 12th at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

It was the second day of training during a five-day field training exercise. The transportation company established their unit area deep in Fort Campbell’s back-forty training reservation.

Sgt. David Esquivel, a motor transport operator with the 541st Transportation Company, 129th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, gives Soldiers a convoy brief May 12th, 2015, at Fort Campbell, KY. As an assistant convoy commander, he ensured the safety and accountability of his Soldiers during a five-day field training exercise. (Sgt. Leejay Lockhart, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Public Affairs)
Sgt. David Esquivel, a motor transport operator with the 541st Transportation Company, 129th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, gives Soldiers a convoy brief May 12th, 2015, at Fort Campbell, KY. As an assistant convoy commander, he ensured the safety and accountability of his Soldiers during a five-day field training exercise. (Sgt. Leejay Lockhart, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Public Affairs)

Concertina wire and hasty fighting positions ringed the perimeter, surrounding the company’s work and living areas, including the vehicle staging area that was bustling with activity.

All of the intense training validates the unit on its mission essential task list and gives the company’s leaders an opportunity to assess how well each platoon is able to execute the training objectives. Each unit in the Army has a METL, which defines what types of training the unit should focus on to achieve success during wartime missions. Units constantly train on their METL to maintain combat readiness.

“What we’re doing is we’re going back to the basics,” said 1st Sgt. Brad Hart, the company’s first sergeant.

“We’re going to start working on our METL tasks, which is bulk fuel. In order to do bulk fuel operations, we have to convoy. So we’re working on our convoy procedures.”

These procedures include being able to develop a concept of operations, conducting rehearsals before the field training exercise, doing pre-combat checks, ensuring convoys start their missions at the right time, assigning troops to each vehicle, staging vehicles, defending convoys with gun trucks, maintaining intervals between vehicles in a convoy and making status reports to the company command post. Hart said those were all simple tasks the unit needed to train on during the exercise.

Hart was impressed with how the Soldiers had made the training exercise successful by staying motivated and rapidly transforming a newly planted field into a functioning forward operating base.

“Our [advanced party] team was out here about four hours prior to the main body arriving,” said Hart. “They had 100 percent [of the] perimeter secured. The company’s [command post] and the operations center was up. The eating area was up for the Soldiers, which is a big morale booster, and 90 percent of the sleep tents were up. With just 24 hours on the ground, we have hasty positions that are now turning into foxhole positions … We have an [entry control point], so a lot of good things are happening just in 24 hours.”

Throughout the day, convoys rolled in and out of the entry control point at the company’s forward operating base. Before departing, Soldiers thoroughly checked their vehicles for any maintenance issues and leaders checked their Soldiers to make sure they had all their equipment. They then formed the convoy by lining up the vehicles. The convoy commander and assistant convoy commander held a convoy brief and verified accountability. Soldiers loaded their vehicles and radioed they were starting their patrol.

The convoys headed to Range 72, the advanced HMMWV obstacle course, so Soldiers could get hands-on experience, driving their vehicles across challenging terrain. Trainers at the obstacle course gave the Soldiers a safety brief and familiarized noncommissioned officers designated as truck commanders with the course. Then the Soldiers negotiated the course, driving their vehicles across a series of challenges including uneven terrain, steep grades, across extremely rough surfaces and through a winding sand pit.

Leaders were also conducting concurrent training on weapons so there was no downtime on the course. From there the convoy would travel to other locations and return to the FOB. Later in the night the Soldiers planned to train on driving with night vision devices.

Sergeant Brenda Rappleye, an operations NCO with 541st Trans. Co., said the training allowed the Soldiers to develop their skills and use their equipment. It was also a good opportunity to focus on safety and maintaining accountability of the Soldiers involved with the training. To track accountability, she worked with the convoy commanders to verify the number of vehicles and personnel on each convoy before the convoy left the staging area.

“We’re rebuilding,” said Rappleye. “This is where we do the mentoring and the training.”

To make the training as realistic as possible the unit incorporated training aids such as simulated improvised explosive devices in tactical convoy drills. Hart said the training also paired building on the lessons and experience gained from operations the unit had carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan with more expeditionary operations, where a unit would have to go in and establish its own security and facilities instead of just falling in on a built-up base.

“We try to make it as realistic as we can,” said Hart. “When you teach the Soldiers, just don’t give them an order; explain to them why we are doing this. I want them to understand what the company’s METL task is. We’re as good as our weakest Soldier. I think that more than anything the field builds the camaraderie of a company that is 90 percent new faces … they build that teamwork and esprit de corps that any good company needs.”

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