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JB MDL to host Army Reserve training

  • Published
  • By Airman Sean M. Crowe
  • Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  Army Reserve leadership, to include 84th Training Command, 1st Army and Atlantic Division, is slated to host training and exercises here for the Army Reserve and National Guard.

The leadership hosted a Joint Training Conference here to provide an array of Army leaders with details on the upcoming exercises. The conference included briefings and driving simulators to give the soldiers a preview of the training.

"The joint base provides an ideal training environment by providing support elements such as: ports, flightlines, ranges, the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center and other bases nearby," said Brig. Gen. Bryan W. Wampler, 78th Training Brigade commander.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst will host two Army Reserve exercises each year. One exercise, Warrior Exercise, or WarEx, is collective Army warrior training with a focus on mission specific capabilities. The other exercise, Combat Support Training Exercise, is a more complex exercise with a focus on mission and a higher operation tempo.

"For the past few years, JB MDL has had a very high deployment population and hasn't been able to support our WarEx's and CSTXs," said Maj. Gen. David Puster, 84th Training Command commanding general. "The goal is to train combat-ready Army reserve units and assimilate the soldiers into working with joint partners. We made the decision to have the exercises here last summer and got that approved. We will have one exercise in 2013 and two exercises a year after that. We would like to do a joint exercise here to include the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force because they will be with us when we deploy. It's not a single-service effort."

The 87th TC trains all Army Reserve assets with a staff of 205,000 Soldiers. All the Soldiers are expected to go through the training here with the ultimate goal of trying to produce and provide trained and ready units to the combatant commander, Puster added.

"The units will not be setting up on forward operating bases when they are deployed," said Wampler. "We are trying to train our Soldiers for the environments they will deploy to in the future, which are very similar to the environments here. Certain requirements need to be met during the road to war, so we train our soldiers by mirroring pre-deployment site surveys, brief backs and route reconnaissance."

The Army Reserve plans to send 4,000 to 5,000 Soldiers to JB MDL for the first exercise in the summer of 2013.