Parting comments from mobilization training

By 2nd Lt. Stephen Montgomery

82nd Agribusiness Development Team

All is well here at Camp Atterbury, Ind., and the team is in its final days of mobilization training. The advanced party will be leaving soon, and the rest of the team will follow in the days to come. We’ve had great training here at Camp Atterbury and the weather has been great — except for the day of tornadoes. We were lucky here, as the devastation occurred about 60 miles to our south. It was a rather ominous day, and our thoughts and prayers go out to those families that were affected.

These past few weeks have been extremely busy, but extremely productive for us as we prepare for our upcoming mission.

We’ve spent the last few days on weapons training. While one of the days was spent at the rifle/pistol range, we’ve spent multiple days on a mounted gunnery range, basically shooting from the trucks and practicing mounted operations.

We also recently took part in a base defense exercise at one of the Camp Atterbury’s COLs (contingency operating locations), a training site made up to look like a small FOB (Forward Operating Base). With an early start, the team worked well into the night running base defense operations ranging from ECP (Entry Control Point) and vehicle/personnel searches, to manning towers and mobile patrols. Complete OpFor (opposition forces), pyrotechnics to simulate explosions, and Afghan nationals playing the part of civilians and interpreters alike provided us with some realistic and sometimes intense training.

We spent three days last week on counter-IED (Improvised Explosive Device) training. With a mix of classroom and hands-on, we learned everything from spotting signs of IEDs, tactics used when placing them and how to react to them. As IEDs are a prevalent and often-used enemy tactic, this training was probably some of the most important we’ve had to date.

As with all military training, we’ve seen our mix of long, busy days, the usually hurry-up-and-wait, and even a bit of down time. Spirits continue to stay high as our time here grows short. Everyone is eager to complete the last of our training requirements and finally ship out.

Editor’s Note: Due to operational security concerns, this blog was held until a majority of the 82nd ADT had arrived in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.