Local Guardsmen deploy to the Idaho desert
By Pat Caldwell
Argus Observer
Monday, July 20, 2009 10:36 AM PDT
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| Tank crewmen from Ontario’s Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment prepare to negotiate a gunnery range in this June, 2007, file photo. Ontario Guardsmen are out on the desert south of Boise conducting their annual training stint for the next three weeks. |
Ontario — The scenery will be the same, but the goals will be a little higher during the next three weeks when members of Ontario’s Oregon Army National Guard unit hit the high desert for their annual training stint.
Ontario’s Guard outfit, Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, will join citizen-soldier units from across Eastern Oregon for three weeks of intensive training south of Boise at the Orchard Training Area.
The annual training stint kicked off Friday for the Ontario Guardsmen.
“Everybody is really excited. It is always a good day when you can get on your tanks and shoot them,” Charlie Company commander Capt. Seth Musgrove said.
Musgrove conceded this annual training stint is a little different. For example, Guard units typically spend two weeks training south of Boise. This year, though, they will be out on the desert for three weeks.
Musgrove said the three-week training stint is the culmination of previous annual training sessions since the unit returned from Iraq in 2005.
“I think this year there is a sense of urgency to train and become proficient at tank gunnery and maneuvers,” Musgrove said.
For the first portion of the three-week training stint, the goals remain the same as in the past: qualify tank crews.
Charlie Company, consisting of between 50 and 60 area Guardsmen, will focus on negotiating a series of tank gunnery courses, or ranges, on the way to securing a qualifying score.
On each range the scenario is a little different, and tank crews must demonstrate they can engage and take out targets with the M1A1 120-millimeter main gun and with machine guns.
The final qualifying course, Table 6, is where the training regime set up during the year comes into play, Musgrove said.
“It is a good way for us to prove how good of tankers we are,” Musgrove said.
Last year, Charlie Company deployed into the desert with eight tanks and qualified seven crews. This year, Musgrove said the unit wants to qualify 10 tank crews on the first run down the Table 6 qualifying range.
“We take a lot of pride in being tankers,” he said. After the gunnery qualification session ends, Charlie Company will rotate into the second phase of its annual training period.
The second phase will center on an entirely different kind of training, Musgrove said, focused on tank maneuvers.
“These are a series of tasks the Army says a tank company should be proficient in. We’ll do a crawl, walk, run process, and then we’ll evaluate,” he said.
The training will involve some familiar tasks for Charlie Company, Musgrove said.
“We’ll be doing COIN operations — counterinsurgency — the kind of stuff we did in Iraq. Patrols, cordons and searches, that kind of stuff,” he said.
Musgrove said his Ontario-area tankers are ready for the three-week challenge.
“I think we are well prepared. Everybody is gung-ho and motivated. A lot of guys take a lot of pride in this unit and they will do what it takes to be successful,” he said.
