Reaching a goal
Area Guard unit is selected to field U.S. Army’s newest version of the M1A1 tank
By Pat Caldwell
Argus Observer
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 10:57 AM PDT
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| An M1A1 Abrams main battle tank from the 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, Oregon Army National Guard moves out from a gunnery range at the Orchard Training Area south of Boise in this 2007 photo. The 3rd Battalion, which consists of units from across Eastern Oregon, recently received word it would be one of the only Guard units in the nation to receive the Army’s newest version of the Abrams. |
ONTARIO — Eastern Oregon’s Army National Guard unit attained another milestone recently when it was selected to receive the newest version of the U.S. Army’s main battle tank.
The new tank — the M1A2 System Enhancement Package, or SEP — pushes the 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment to the forefront of Guard units across the nation, area Guard officials said.
The 3rd Battalion consists of citizen-soldier units from Redmond, The Dalles, Hood River, Hermiston, Woodburn, Pendleton, La Grande, Baker City and Ontario.
“Its huge,” 3rd Battalion commander Lt. Col. Kevin Sheehy, Union, said. “It puts us at the top of Guard armor brigades.”
The 3rd Battalion is the only Army National Guard unit in the nation to receive the new tank, and Sheehy said that fact is significant.
“It is kind of a validation,” he said.
The M1A2 (SEP) is the latest version of the Abrams tank, and it carries a number of high-tech upgrades to its gunnery sight system along with other critical improvements.
“This is the best tank in the world,” Sheehy said.
Sheehy said the decision by the U.S. Army to deliver its best and newest tank to a Guard unit also sends a message about the Eastern Oregon citizen-soldier outfit’s competence.
“The army is not likely to give a National Guard unit this tank unless they have confidence in our ability to use it,” he said.
In Ontario, the commander of the 3rd Battalion’s Charlie Company, Capt. Seth Musgrove agreed the new tank pushes the Eastern Oregon unit into a whole new category.
“I think it is a great honor bestowed upon us by the National Guard Bureau. We were chosen out of the entire National Guard to field these tanks,” he said. “We will basically be one of four tank companies in the entire National Guard to have the M1A2 SEP.”
Sheehy said the 3rd Battalion would receive the M1A2 SEP before most other Guard units.
“We’ll get them four years ahead of everyone else in the Guard. The active duty units are not all fielded with the A2 version. We will be better equipped than some active duty units,” he said.
Both Sheehy and Musgrove pointed to the unit’s tank gunnery performance during its summer annual training stint south of Boise as a key reason the 3rd Battalion was selected to field the new tank.
“Our gunnery thing (at annual training) is a report card to the Pentagon. This demonstrates how serious it is,” Sheehy said.
Another key, both said, is the 3rd Battalion’s professionalism.
“I’d say this unit is as good as it has ever been training wise, experience wise,” Sheehy said.
More Training.
While Sheehy and Musgrove said they were pleased the 3rd Battalion would receive the new tank, both admitted there would be a large learning curve for the unit’s tankers.
“Obviously it is a compliment from the Army,” Sheehy said. “However it is a training-intense platform. It (the M1A2 SEP) has a lot more gadgets on it than the regular M1A1 we use now,” he said.
Which means the entire unit will be in for a serious transition, he said.
“We have to go through and train everyone in this new tank. There is a lot of work that comes with it. We are pretty comfortable with the M1A1. This new tank is a different animal altogether,” he said.
The top sergeant at Ontario’s Charlie Company, 1st Sgt. Wayne Chastain, Baker City, said he was happy the 3rd Battalion is slated to get the new tank.
But he also said he knows the new weapons system will require a large investment of time for 3rd Battalion soldiers.
“There will be a huge amount of training. With the advanced systems on it, 45 to 60 days,” he said.
Sheehy said he and his staff at battalion headquarters in La Grande are already preparing a training plan to integrate the new tank into the unit.
“Its about 55 days of straight training. We’ll have to figure out how to do that. We’ll have to do it on weekends and at annual training, and that will take us several years,” he said.
For Musgrove, the new tank represents the 3rd Battalion and Ontario’s Charlie Company accomplishing yet another crucial goal.
Reaching that goal, Musgrove said, has as much to do with the local community as the Guard.
“To be chosen to field this tank is a great credit to the unit but also to the Ontario-area community because the community makes the unit,” he said. “I think it is important for the community to take pride in a unit like Charlie Company, a unit thought so highly of it will field an advanced weapons system.”
Sheehy said no firm timetable is set for the 3rd Battalion to receive the new tank, though he said Eastern Oregon’s citizen-soldier outfit would probably receive the M1A2 SEP within the next few years.
Pat Caldwell is the editor of the Argus Observer. He can be contacted at PatC@argusobserver.com
