Originally posted by portcullisguy:
Shortbus, I did Stalwart Guardian last year, and although I had fun, it seemed apparent why the other troops began referring to it as "fat camp 03".
They fed us IMPs for the entire time, and we had no "fresh" until the End Ex BBQ (and I must admit, the BBQ was quite good, but that‘s a long time to wait for fresh BBQ steak).
There will be a little more fresh this year - but not a whole bunch.
Right away I could tell the purpose of this annual milcon was not to exercise the troops at your and my level. It‘s for the higher formation officers to learn how to work with other groupings, units, etc., and to exercise their skills and training at the higher level.
A fair one. The balance is very hard to achieve. This year the focus is much more at the Company level.
It was very organized, but almost too much so.
For example, during the live-fire ambush, which involved each company from each "battalion" (the three LFCA brigades were reduced to Light Infantry Bn‘s for the ex, as that‘s all they really numbered, and each regiment became either a platoon or company, or in some cases, a section), they couldn‘t do everybody all at once, so over three days each platoon took turns humping out behind one of the ranges (quite far I might add), in order to set up at pre-designated fire positions, completely removing the platoon commander and the gun det commander from the ambush equation, which I don‘t think would happen in "real life". You will learn on a later course that the platoon‘s C6 is THE most important asset at the platoon level, and even the det commander can overrule (or at least "suggest") the proper siting of the C6 gun over the pl commander‘s initial placement. It‘s that vital.
That stand was added at the very last minute, after a soldier was injured preparing for what was meant to be a Brigade level fire defensive. I admit that it was not all that well done. This year, we will have only one live fire activity - the block. I was on the recce this weekend, and it has been designed to allow the Company Commander much more latitude. He (or she) and the R Gp will get to recce the position the day before, and subject to arty and fast air safety distances, has a lot of latitude in where weapons are sited. If they are in teh wrong spot this year, look to your chain of command.
Each of the phases of the ex seemed to take forever, and although we were supposed to be tactical after the 2nd or 3rd day, there must be a new "yellow school bus" camoflauge in the CF, because that‘s what we rode around in all week.
Yep - a real problem. This year we really will be tactical, and 2 Svc Bn will provide extra troop lift to avoid the use of school busses for tactical runs. Each soldier will be issued a basic load of blank ammo at the start of the ex, and will ned it - the OPFOR is a US Army Reserve Coy from US Samoa, and they will be active in the hide area.
The company-level FIBUA assault with Simunition was pretty fun. It‘s just bad luck that I ended up in a reserve section and didn‘t get in on the shooting.
The helicopter rides were a blast, and the drills a cinch to learn.
What seemed pretty silly from a troopies perspective was the company-level live fire defensive, which involved armour and the recce platoon, as well as engineers. We kept shooting at these high-tech pop-up targets that always appeared in the same place, of course. The left and right arcs weren‘t as restrained as on the ambush, but still it felt kinda silly after about 3 or 4 mags emptied into the same few pop-ups. Our C6 kept having problems (I was the #2, although I had never been trained on the C6 in SF role at the time), and we were at the end of the week and really sort of had it with the whole affair by then.
Intersting. There was an entire company pack of defensive stores behind each company position, and yet no one used them. defence is hard work, and takes practice.
I‘m sure someone got a few gongs for organizing the whole shebang, but it wasn‘t any fresh-faced pte from the 48th, that much I know!
No gongs - just a chance to plan a better ex this year.
But, still, it‘s fun to do a big ex like that, and it‘s a chance to put your skills and knowledge to use that you just learned on your courses. I enjoyed finally meeting the lads from my unit, and working with different folks.
Ok, that was a long one! Need to know more, pm me...