FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – Soldiers from Pennsylvania Army Guard’s B Company, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team conducted training at the live-fire shoot house here during the unit’s annual training.
The shoot house event was the capstone to several months of planning and training by Staff Sgt. Logan Pratt, the company’s training noncommissioned officer.
Prior to leaving Kenya on the unit’s recent deployment, Pratt sat down with Maj. Nathan Giroux, the company commander who has since moved on to a different command, to discuss the objectives of the upcoming training year.
Giroux and Pratt agreed that the company had made great strides in training over the past couple of years leading up to the deployment, and they wanted to build on this progress.
While the train-up had stressed squad and company-sized movements to an objective, Giroux and Pratt felt that it would be beneficial to concentrate training on proficiency in clearing an objective safely and as a team.
“After our NTC [National Training Center] rotation, multiple squad live-fires, platoon live-fires and company live-fire, I noticed the lack of being able to enter and clear an objective,” Pratt said. “We wanted to build on the progress we had made through those training events.”
Pratt has long been interested in close-quarter battle drills and has attended and earned his certification as a live-fire shoot house master trainer.
Using this training and experience, Pratt developed the training plan that would eventually culminate in the entire company going through the shoot house. He worked closely with Giroux, Capt. Jacob Tingley, 1st Sgt. Donald Shakespeare, Sgt. 1st Class Luke Heim, Capt. Devon Schoonover, battalion staff and other B Company leaders to develop the plan, gather all needed documentation and safely conduct the training.
Although there was no formal set of training gateways, Pratt developed a path that led to the safe conduct of training approved by leadership. The company went through the required Individual Weapons Qualification, tables 1-6, then moved to Urban Rifle Marksmanship training, tables 1-6.
Though other gateways are not part of Army doctrine, the leaders felt it would be beneficial to include them. These included classroom instruction on urban operations, followed by multiple rounds of dry training through Fort Indiantown Gap’s high-risk entry facility, which is largely used by law enforcement. This facility enables team- and squad-sized elements to practice breaching and clearing methods within a complex floor plan.
Each team went through the house numerous times under various scenarios, first dry and then with chalk rounds. This allowed the trainers to validate where the Soldiers were firing when entering and clearing a room.
Once these gateways were completed, the validated Soldiers completed several training stations at the live-fire shoot house range complex. The Soldiers then were tasked with safely completing dry and chalk runs through the actual shoot house to complete their validation.
“This training was amazing,” said Sgt. Jacob Puline, a team leader in Second Platoon. “We did something new that most guys have only done once at Basic Training. Not only were the older guys taking charge, but we got to see the younger guys making decisions, and as a company, we grew not just as a unit but as individual Soldiers. The focus wasn’t just on a squad but each guy and their ways of taking on an obstacle.”
Once all the Soldiers had been validated, Pratt gave them a final safety briefing. He told them this was an opportunity that many Soldiers do not often get, and urged them to be safe and take as much training value out of it as possible. He punched their bulletproof plates, checked their helmets and other Personal Protective Equipment and sent them to be cleared into the shoot house.
With a safety behind each team, the Soldiers executed the breaching and clearing movements they had been practicing all week. Each team succeeded in safely maneuvering through the house, firing live ammunition at targets placed throughout the house.
Sometimes, a training plan can take months to come to fruition. This training was completed safely to standard, and each Soldier made vast improvements.
Given the yearly requirements of the training schedule, some of these Soldiers may not receive this training again. However, it was essential for them to gain this experience to build upon in case it is ever needed.