Chosen Company Summer Training
Livorno
On 12 July 2004, Chosen Company deployed to Livorno, Italy where
they trained with the Italian Folgore Paracadusti Brigade. This
Italian Brigade is stationed in Livorno and was a decisive force
during World War II. Rich history and modern day prestige make
them the Sky Soldiers. The Chosen Few spent three days training
with the Italians and redeployed to the Vicenza Military Community
on the evening of 15 July 2004. For three days the Company conducted
a variety of training events. The focus was marksmanship. The
primary training event for each platoon was a day of spent at
the indoor 100 meter range. Paratroopers zeroed their weapons,
qualified on their assigned weapons systems, and competed in
a stress shoot competition.
Adjacent to the indoor range was the challenging Folgore physical
obstacle course and confidence course. Both of these courses
were integrated with an outdoor track to create a demanding
training environment for the stress shoot competition. Chosen
Company trained hard. Each platoon completed at least one night
movement in the mountains of 15 miles. All paratroopers slept
in the woods, they spent a day training on Platoon SOPs, and
ran through various situational training lanes set up by the
Italian Brigade. One day was also dedicated to military operations
in urban terrain (MOUT) training in the Folgore MOUT village.
This training environment was exceptional.
Platoons trained basic MOUT operations, staged raid missions
complete with enemies and blank ammunition, and even engaged
in paintball MOUT training for realistic feedback. Finally,
cooperation and camaraderie with the Italian Paratroopers further
bolstered the terrific relationship between Italian and American
soldiers. A few select Chosen Company Paratroopers had the opportunity
to jump with the Italians and were awarded Italian Parachute
wings by the Commander of the Paracadusti Brigade. At nearly
every training site the few Italians who spoke English and the
few Chosen paratroopers brave enough to speak Italian helped
break the ice in what turned out to be the sharing of techniques
and tactics as well as lots of laughs.
Chosen Company’s deployment to Livorno was a terrific
training operation for the Paratroopers of Chosen Company. Integrating
marksmanship with high altitude training, platoon SOPs, MOUT
operations, and hard living was terrific preparation for deployment
to Afghanistan. |
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Grafenwoehr
The Chosen Few deployed to Grafenwoehr Germany on 16 August
2004. Chosen Paratroopers spent two weeks in Germany, once again
focusing on marksmanship training. Chosen training began with
a simulated battalion mass tactical jump into Bunker Drop Zone
(DZ) on the cool morning of 17 August 2004.
Once the Company assembled on the DZ they moved out to conduct
a Company assault of a suspected enemy location nearby. After
the mission was complete the entire company moved out on a 9
mile foot march to Range 101 where they fired on a basic rifle
marksmanship qualification range. Once the “march and
shoot” was complete, Chosen Soldiers began focused daily
marksmanship training led by Chosen non-commissioned officers.
The days in Grafenwoehr were spent on ranges. Soldiers were
occupied with qualifications on all of the weapons systems organic
to an Airborne Rifle Company to include the M4 carbine rifle,
the M203 grenade launcher, the M249 squad automatic weapon,
the M240B machine gun, the M2 .50 caliber machine gun, the MK19
automatic grenade launcher, and the M9 berretta. Every soldier
in the Company qualified at least sharpshooter on his assigned
weapons systems, with many Paratroopers qualifying expert. Nights
in Grafenwoehr were treacherous. Chosen paratroopers walked
at night, under Night Optic Devices (NODs), carrying full combat
equipment and large amounts of weight. The Commander also issued
Fragmentary Orders to his Platoon leaders and executed the hasty
missions with their platoons. Often these missions involved
large objectives with many moving pieces to manage to include
casualty evacuation and enemy POW searches.
Fire teams (teams of 4 soldiers) in Grafenwoehr completed a
team live fire to ramp up for the culmination event, which was
a squad live fire. Squad leaders lead their men through the
treacherous German forest on this exercise engaging and destroying
any enemy targets which popped up along the way. The objective
were there was an enemy cache of weapons was appropriately nicknamed
the witch’s cauldron due to ominous terrain and difficult
maneuverability. All squads conducted POW searches on the objectives
and administered an IV to a designated soldier who was a simulated
casualty. The mission ended when the simulated casualty was
evacuated with IV intact. Driven by a real world scenario dictated
by each platoon leader on the radio, the squad live fire was
the quintessence of fire control and leader initiative on the
squad and team level. Chosen Company’s deployment to Grafenwoehr
was strenuous and painful. However, soldiers walked away from
this training mentally hard, physically strong, tactically proficient,
and deftly skilled. Long days of marksmanship training and even
longer nights conducting missions and tactical movements greatly
prepared the Chosen Few for future combat missions.
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CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION
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