Playing for keeps
Guardsmen hone urban warfare skills at training site
By Pat Caldwell
Argus Observer
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 10:09 AM PDT
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| Pat Caldwell | Argus Observer
Staff Sgt. Douglas Howard (left) and Private Gerald Combs, both of The Dalles’ Oregon Army National Guard unit, storm through a doorway to clear a room as part of an urban warfare exercise last week at the Orchard Training Area south of Boise. Combs and Howard are members of the Oregon Guard’s Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment. The 3rd Battalion consists of Guard units from across Eastern Oregon, including Ontario. |
ORCHARD TRAINING AREA, Idaho — From the road, the building looks as if someone started to construct a three-story complex, ran out of money and walked away.
But the building — part of what is known in military jargon as a MOUNT, Military Operations in Urban Terrain, site — is a key piece of the overall training matrix for Eastern Oregon’s 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, Oregon Army National Guard, while it conducts annual training.
Inside the building, a web of rooms, stairs and windows confront the visitor. The building is designed to simulate the kind of house-to-house, up-close combat American soldiers and Marines encounter in the global war on terror.
Last week, Guardsmen from The Dalles and Hermiston were busy at the MOUNT site, tasked to carry out a sequence of exercises to attack and then clear the building of the enemy.
“It’s one of the most dangerous things an infantryman can do. Once you enter a building, even the lousiest shot can kill you,” Lt.Col. Kevin Sheehy, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry, said.
The 3rd Battalion consists of Guard units from The Dalles, Redmond, Prinveville, Hood River, Hermiston, Pendleton, La Grande, Baker City and Ontario.
The 3rd Battalion is made up of both armor — tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles — and infantry. And often the infantry gets the unsung job of assaulting a building and taking out the bad guys.
The Guardsmen from The Dalles and Hermiston — part of the 3rd Battalion’s, Alpha Company — grappled with hot, dirty conditions on the Idaho Guard’s Orchard Training Area as they moved through a daylong set of tasks calculated to improve their ability to fight on an urban battlefield.
“We are using the skills we’d use in combat,” Alpha Company commander Capt. Paul Yocum, Portland, said.
The MOUNT site is new and stands about 300 yards off the main training area road.
As the Guardsmen from Hermiston and The Dalles practiced assaults on the three-story building, the heat index climbed and dust descended on the training complex.
The scenario for the assault was a simple one: An organized crime syndicate was attempting to influence the village around the three-story building. The crime syndicate used the three-story MOUNT site as its main base, and the Guardsmen were ordered to “clear” the building.
“The intent was to kill or capture the crime leaders,” 1st Sgt. Peter Heidt, of The Dalles Guard unit, said.
Throughout the afternoon, the Guardsmen staged raids on the building. One group, for example, stormed the front of the building and rushed up the stairs to clear out the rooms. As the first group moved up into the building, a second set of Guardsmen climbed up a set of metal stairs on the outside of the building and entered the structure from the second floor.
As the two groups entered the building, they encountered the “enemy” — fellow Guardsmen staked out in rooms or hidden around corners — who tried to slow them down.
While only practice, the stress level climbed quickly as the Guardsmen entered the building and encountered the enemy.
The Guardsmen, armed with M-4 rifles and machine guns firing blanks, crouched around corners or stepped carefully into rooms to “clear” them. The thick smell of gun smoke descended on the array of rooms as the assault force shouted commands or warnings to each other. Once one room was cleared, the Guardsmen moved to another.
As soon as the exercise was over, the Guardsmen moved back outside to discuss what they did right and what they did wrong when they stormed the building.
“For me, it was a shock. They all have these rooms, all these places to hide,” Staff Sgt. Eugene Bateman, 41, Hermiston, said. Bateman, a full-time Guardsman stationed at the Hermiston armory, said he enjoyed the training, but conceded it was realistic.
“It is tough keeping up with these young guys,” he said with a laugh after one assault was over.
“It (the training) is real life. The stress, the noise. You don’t know what to expect,” he said.
Staff Sgt. Scott Thompson, 37, led his squad into the building on several assaults and also said the exercise contained an element of pressure.
“It’s stressful every time you go into a building, and you don’t know what to expect,” he said.
Pat Caldwell is the editor of the Argus Observer. He can be contacted at PatC@argusobserver.com
