Army reservists exercise combined arms breach at Fort Hunter Liggett
Thousands of US Army reservists are preparing for a future military conflict all this month at Fort Hunter Liggett near King City.
It is part of the annual Combat Support Training Exercises that allow different units to practice scenarios together.
About 100 soldiers from all over the world, including the United Kingdom and Canada, practiced a combined arms breach early Sunday morning.
In this exercise, trainees must clear obstacles like mines and barbed wire, fill an anti-tank ditch and set up a bridge for troops and armored carriers. All of this needed to be done under suppressing gun fire by opposing forces. Everyone shot blanks from their weapons during the drill.
Colonel Scott Nelson said Fort Hunter Liggett has the perfect environment for this type of drill.
“This is a fantastic place for us to come and train. This is the largest Army Reserve training installation that exists in the United States,” he said. “And what it allows us to do is have a very big maneuver space.”
Combined arms breach requires different types of units to work together. Chemical units had to respond to a mock chemical attack on the convoy. The engineer battalion must make sure all obstacles were taken care of. Infantry units had to secure the breach from enemy counter attack.
Trainees popped smoke into the air, which acts as a screen that hides all these units from enemy fire in real life combat. Even so, removing obstacles is a slow and deliberate process, which means casualties can climb.
“They’re trying to suppress the enemy here, you can see the enemy still got heavy firepower in the back over there. They’re trying to lay down fire to suppress these guys, who continue to do their job to create those breach lanes and open them up and mark them for the follow on forces can get through there and destroy the enemy,” said Captain Tom Piernicky, a public affairs officers who took media through the training.
These types of drills are meant to keep army reservists in tip top readiness, so that if the time comes, they have worked all the kinks out.
“That’s what training is about. So you want to make mistakes here, this is the place to make mistakes. You don’t want to do that in combat,” said Colonel Nelson.
“This is invaluable training. It’s rare that we get out here and do this and this is kind of the bread and butter of the engineer corps,” said Captain Aaron Pusztai, an army engineer. “So us to be able to come out here and do this is really, it’s great training for everybody.”
