FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. –On Aug. 28, 2024, greater than 3000 Troopers assigned to the 2nd Cell Brigade Fight Staff “STRIKE”, a hundred and first Airborne Division (Air Assault) completed their second rotation to the Joint Readiness Coaching Middle (JRTC) in eight months. Nonetheless, the start of the train was transformative and historic. The 2MBCT performed a “large-scale, long-range” air assault (L2A2) operation consisting of 80 aircrafts, throughout three states, flying from Fort Campbell, Ky. to Fort Johnson, La. Aug. 13-17.
After touring for over 500 miles, together with stops at six ahead arming and refueling factors (FARPs), scattered over a number of southern states, the 2MBCT arrived at JRTC..
The motion technique was not a typical manner a brigade travels to “The Field”, however a manner that was reminiscent to the founding of the a hundred and first. Historically, models transfer by floor to Fort Johnson, spend a number of days making ready earlier than coming into the fight state of affairs. The Strike Brigade moved by air-to-ground into simulated-contested touchdown zones. Thus started a two-week bout with the well-known opposing forces “Geronimo,” 1st Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment.
“The legacy that we’ve got, relationship all the way in which again to World Battle II after we had been an Airborne Division preventing in Europe,” mentioned U.S. Military Col. Travis McIntosh, the deputy commanding officer for help for the a hundred and first Airborne Division (Air Assault) “Your a hundred and first Airborne Division now could be Air Cell–it’s Air Assault, we’ve got numerous helicopters. That’s how we struggle on this division and we’re demonstrating that from Kentucky and Tennessee all the way in which right down to Louisiana.”
This was rather more than an aviation mission. On Aug. 13, troops and tools from throughout the Division started their motion from Fort Campbell to FARP s throughout Mississippi and Louisiana. The websites, removed from a easy pit cease alongside the operational path, offered very important sustainment for the troops and helicopters alongside the way in which.
“Our birds [aircraft] are in a position to are available get fueled, get armed and proceed the struggle,” mentioned 1st Lt. James Tate, a quartermaster officer with Echo Troop, 2nd Squadron, seventeenth Cavalry Regiment, a hundred and first Fight Aviation Brigade. “We will puddle hop throughout and get the birds additional over a shorter time period.”
The power to ship a whole brigade into an enemy space of operations additional and sooner just isn’t the one facet that permits the sort of train to succeed – it additionally must be finished at night time.
“We conduct all our operations underneath a interval of darkness,” mentioned Tate. “We just like the birds to get in, obtain their gas, get armed and off of our pads inside 12 to fifteen minutes.”
The short turnaround represents a large quantity of coordination from throughout the division however coaching like that is solely made potential by the help of the native communities, airports, and Nationwide Guard places who hosted the FARPs.
“We’re overwhelmed by the help from the group,” mentioned McIntosh. “From legislation enforcement to the elected and appointed officers, airport administration, emergency companies, Louisiana Nationwide Guard, help has actually poured on to the a hundred and first Airborne Division right here and we couldn’t be extra grateful.”
The Troopers of the Strike Brigade descended into JRTC for his or her coaching in an auxiliary method because the Military continues to modernize, innovate and rework its warfighting capabilities. The L2A2 shows the fight energy of right now with a hundred and first, simply as airborne paratroopers did in World Battle II. The a hundred and first doesn’t simply maintain older methods of fight entry related however to make these distinctive skills the way forward for fight operations.
“We’re experimenting on a number of the most trendy tools that the Military has fielded and we’re wanting ahead to offering that suggestions to the Military,” mentioned McIntosh. “We’re demonstrating the aptitude that’s solely seen within the a hundred and first Airborne Division and that’s long-range air assault.”
By SSG Kaden Pitt
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