|
MCGREGOR RANGE, N.M. — During a time of tight budget constraints
and shrinking personnel resources, one Fort Bliss, Texas, unit
managed to do more with less while saving the installation and the
Army money.
The 3rd Battalion, 364th Engineer Regiment, 5th
Armored Brigade, which was recently inactivated, made a habit of
using vertical and horizontal construction engineer units to help
build and maintain the infrastructure here while preparing them for
impending deployment rotations.
|
July 21, 2015 - Soldiers from the 716th (Vertical) Company, an Army Reserve unit from Somersworth, N.H., treat a wounded team member after a simulated improvised explosive device explosion during the company's Mission Readiness Exercise recently. The unit was enroute to their construction project in Karma' Shah Village at McGregor Range, N.M. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. John A. Brimley, 5th Armored Brigade, Division West Public Affairs)
|
“Conducting post-mobilization training at MTC
[Mobilization Training Center] Bliss affords the 5th Armored
Brigade and Fort Bliss a great opportunity to provide real
world training while capitalizing on the opportunity to
provide construction efforts to needed projects,” said Lt.
Col. David Woodruff, former commander, 3-364th Engineer
Battalion.
Over a two-year span, it's estimated that
the 3-364th and the engineer rotational training units have
saved a substantial amount of money.
“The units 5th Armored has trained
have been able to save the government and the Army almost $3
million in troop construction for Fort Bliss, McGregor Range
and Contingency Operating Location Westbrook,” said
Woodruff.
The construction units have built sunshades
and gazebos, repaired levees, refurbished ranges, replaced
culverts, repaved roads, constructed landing zones and
rebuilt villages. Range 37 has been a particular problem
area for McGregor because of its location and propensity to
sustain water damage rolling off the hills. During the rainy
season of 2013, the storms caused a levee to break, causing
damage to many of the other lower ranges.
“One of
the most important projects the unit's assisted us in was
the buildup of Range 37,” said Salvador Hernandez, McGregor
Range Operations Supervisor. “With all of that damage, the
unit that came in was able to build up that levee and
blocked off certain areas with their development plan.”
It was a large project for 5th AR to take part in, but
the resources were available with a training unit scheduled
to share the load. The repair work helped to stave off
damages in Ranges 13-24 that would have continued if the
attention were not given to Range 37.
However, for
the Directorate of Personnel, Training Management, and
Security, the project was just too much to bear, as DPTMS
did not have the resources.
“For me to attempt to do
something as big as what they did at Range 37, our heavy
equipment is minimal,” Hernandez said. “We don't have as
many trucks, dump trucks, front end loaders, graders ... so
what the Army or engineers were able to do in one week, it
would have taken our heavy equipment a longer time.”
Currently, there is only one heavy equipment section of
DPTMS at McGregor and it is comprised of six personnel
responsible for Dona Ana, New Mexico, Oro Grande, New
Mexico, McGregor Range and Westbrook. The use of Soldier
labor allowed more focus to be placed on other areas around
the installation and outside of McGregor Range by McGregor
Range staff.
“Any help that the engineers do here
also assists our heavy equipment section because now they
can concentrate on the other complexes,” Hernandez said.
The 716th Engineer (Vertical) Company, an Army Reserve
unit from Somersworth, New Hampshire, recently completed
their Mission Readiness Exercise here before deploying. With
four platoons, the unit constructed a sun shade at Range 10
and tore down and reconstructed several building structures
at Karma' shah Village. The construction work was conducted
within the framework of their Mission Readiness Exercise,
which takes place over five to seven days and incorporates
full-scale convoy and construction operations.
“The
intent is to get the team leadership and company leadership
to consider the entire project,” said Capt. Evan Wolf,
operations officer for 3rd Battalion, 410th Engineer
Regiment, 5th Armored Brigade. “The idea is that they have
to understand project management while thinking tactics at
the same time.”
The construction project itself was
only a portion of the unit's planning. They had to account
for transporting material, tactical convoy operations, and
then construction.
“It makes the planning a little
more rigorous to try and consider how you're going to move
tactically but get all of your equipment and materials to
the jobsite, and then you're working in an unsecured
jobsite, so you have to figure that out,” said Wolf.
Along those same lines, the incorporation of real world
construction projects and convoy tactics prepares the unit
in a way many have not experienced before.
“This type
of training is good for the Soldier, so they can experience
this type of training and all of the motions you go through
training here,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Daryle
Lamonica, lead engineer planner 716th EN Company, “and how
real world missions overseas work and give them a
perspective of how everything operates.”
The
partnership between the RTU, 5th AR and DPTMS is a symbiotic
relationship where everyone leaves satisfied.
“It is
really a win-win for both the unit mobilizing and Team
Bliss,” said Woodruff. “Units needed to train for their
wartime mission in order to deploy and the 5th Armor had to
provide real world construction projects in order for them
to train.”
By U.S. Army Capt. John A. Brimley
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
Comment on this article |
