Patriots play role in contingency expeditionary force mission

Published July 3, 2013
By Capt. Antonia Greene-Edwards
174th Infantry Brigade Public Affairs

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Upward of 40 trainer/mentors from the 174th Infantry Brigade served as embedded observer/coaches augmenting the 78th Training Division Combat Support Training Exercise (CSTX) in addition to its primary duty of training mobilized service members for the deployment expeditionary force mission recently here.

The three-week long annual training exercise involved more than 2,000 Army Reserve Soldiers from across the country from headquarters elements and transportation companies to military police and engineers.

"There are more vehicles and personnel on the ground than we've seen in a while," said Sgt. 1st Class Panki Miah, 174th Inf. Bde. T/M who served as an inject exercise coordinator for the CSTX. "I've found more range trails and training areas than I ever knew were here."

The 174th Inf. Bde., like much of 1st Army, is taking on the additional role of supporting the Reserve and National Guard ready phase as the number of deployment missions in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM continues to reduce.

"Our mission is evolving from strictly deployment training to incorporate rotational distributed forces," explained Capt. Michael Castelli, 174th Inf. Bde. plans officer. "Although our primary mission remains deployment expeditionary forces training, we are seeing more tasks from 1st Army Division East to assist the Army Reserve and National Guard with executing their annual training plans."

The recent CSTX at the joint base was the first of several Reserve component training exercises the 174th Inf. Bde. T/Ms are tasked with supporting this year. The Patriot Brigade is scheduled to travel in August to Fort Pickett, Va. to support the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, New Jersey Army National Guard and to Fort Drum, N.Y., to train and mentor the 86th IBCT, Vermont Army National Guard.

"Active-component Soldiers plan and execute training routinely," said Castelli. "It's what we do every day. Partnering with the Reserve and Guard to help them get the best training value out of their condensed schedules is only natural."

Miah's job, and other 174th T/Ms, was to ensure the training scenarios or injects requested by the various trainee operations sections were coordinated and executed to standard. Miah served as the link between the embedded O/Cs traveling with the training unit convoys and the opposing forces, commonly called OPFORs, who actually initiate the injects on site.

"There's a lot of moving parts out here making sure combat stressors are on time and at the right location," said Miah, in between answering calls on his cell phone and requests on his tactical radio frequency. "With training going on 24/7, it's hectic, but we're all here to assist and coach letting the Soldiers know what they are doing is right."

Training is a performance-oriented, standards-based system. Developing appropriate scenarios that measure a unit's proficiency at certain mission essential tasks is what drives training at all levels, explained Castelli.

Soldiers assigned to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst have been training and mobilizing other Soldiers for 90 years - from World War I to today. Camp Dix, as it was once called, was the World War I training ground and demobilization center for the 78th Training Division. 1st Army, the 174th Infantry Brigade's higher headquarters, hung its hat here in 1947 when Dix was designated a basic-training post.

"Training is a two-way street," added Miah. "Sometimes you learn more from what goes wrong than from always getting it right the first time. The exercise was a good experience for the trainers and the trainees."

The 78th Training Division is scheduled to conduct more readiness exercises at the joint base come January and February, requesting continued support from the Patriot Brigade.

The 174th Infantry Brigade coordinates and manages training to ensure forces are trained, ready and available for the Army to source specific units for specific missions whether units are preparing for missions at home or abroad.

"My objective is to make sure things are happening right and there's no violation in the scenario play," assured Miah. "Most important to me is that these Soldiers get the very best training each time."

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