Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment take part in Tuesday's training. (Seth Robson / S&S)
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment take part in Tuesday's training. (Seth Robson / S&S)
A South Korean soldier watches vehicles from 2nd ID's 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team cross the Imjin River. (Seth Robson / S&S)
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment prepare for Tuesday's river crossing. (Seth Robson / S&S)
IMJIN RIVER, South Korea — The 2nd Infantry Division’s new 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team (1HBCT) completed two weeks of field training Tuesday with hundreds of vehicles and soldiers crossing the Imjin River.
The Warrior Field Training Exercise involved soldiers from 1HBCT and other 2nd ID units and included Tuesday’s river crossing, said 1HBCT commander Col. Mike Feil.
The exercise was a test for the recently reorganized brigade, composed of two task forces based around 1st Battalion, 72nd Armored Regiment and 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, he said.
“We have had a very beneficial training environment to take advantage of the new organization,” Feil said.
The FTX tested some of the combat team’s new high-tech reconnaissance capabilities, digital information systems and tactical information exchange. They give commanders a better battlefield view of friendly and enemy forces, he said.
“We can see ourselves and the enemy more clearly and act fast and act decisively. (In the FTX) 2-9 could defeat and destroy 30 to 50 per cent of enemy combat systems (using indirect fire) before committing ground forces,” he said.
The combination of Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks within the units improved teamwork, Feil said.
“We always use Bradleys and tanks together but the ability to build a cohesive team and sustain it is enhanced by the reorganization. Teamwork is much better,” he said.
The new brigade structure required it to work with the Republic of Korea army during the exercise, he added.
“This is the first river crossing of this season. We used to have our own bridging assets. Now we are establishing a relationship with the ROK army,” Feil said as a procession of tracked vehicles traversed a floating bridge across the Imjin nearby.
About 175 vehicles and more than 500 soldiers from 2-9, 1st Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment and several other units crossed the Imjin on Tuesday morning, he said.
2nd ID Engineer Brigade commander Rock Donahue praised the 906th ROK Engineer Company, which erected the bridge for the U.S. forces. Some of the engineering soldiers, who have crossed the Imjin many times, were on hand to help the South Koreans, he said.
“With our transformation, we are going to have to rely on the ROK allies to perform these functions and these assets that we don’t have within 2nd ID,” Donahue said.
Soldiers waiting to cross the river said they were excited to be part of the reorganized brigade but after two weeks in the field, some also were thinking about a hot shower and warm bed.
Sgt. 1st Class Kirk Hamlin, 36, of Hampton, Va., serving with Battery A, 1st Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, said his last shower was on the morning of Feb. 26.
The smell, he said, “really lets you know we are true combat soldiers.”
