Tag Archives: ntc

116th Armored Cav NTC, June 2019. Overseas deployment in 2020!

Video July 4, 2019 Hutchins AAron

Video, C Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, M1A2 SEP and M2 Bradley live fire (the voice you hear in the video is one of the first female armor platoon leaders in the U.S.):

At the end of May, 2019, the Idaho Army National Guard’s 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team (which includes personnel from Oregon, Montana and Nevada) deployed more than 3-thousand troops to the U.S. Army’s Fort Irwin National Training Center (NTC) in California.

Idaho Air National Guard’s 124th Fighter Wing also deployed their A-10C Thunderbolt-2s to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, to provide close air support at NTC. Even Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) personnel from Brazil joined in.

Video explainer of helicopter ops:

Specialist James Patrick launches a RQ-11 Raven Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV, drone).

Another 1-thousand-plus support troops from several other state militias (Arizona, California, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and Puerto Rico), and several Army Reserve units, joined the 116th Armored Cav.

Specialist Brett Neal on his M1 Abrams based M1150 Assault Breacher.

Video, M1150 Assault Breacher live fire:

11th Cav OpFor ‘surrogate vehicle’ is an M113 dressed up to look ‘Russian’.

The state militias faced off against the U.S. Army’s 11th Cav Opposition Force (OpFor), who provided what’s now called ‘near peer’ threats. Near peer is a reference to China and Russia.

Even Idaho Air National Guard’s 266th Range Squadron played bad guy, deploying fake 1/1 scale models of ‘enemy’ anti-air vehicles.

The wargame lasted 14 days. The official report stated that this training is preparation for 116th’s deployment to NATO Germany in Spring 2020.

VEHICLE I-D: M1A2-V2-SEP ABRAMS IDAHO LIVE FIRE, FEBRUARY 2019, preps for NTC

116TH SNAKE RIVER’S 2015 NTC ROTATION

Technology

Vehicle I-D: NTC and the Bradley

Video June 3, 2017 Hutchins AAron

M3A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle during Decisive Action Rotation 20-04 at the National Training Center (NTC), Fort Irwin, California, 08FEB2020.

M2A3 Bradley from 1st Battalion, 163rd Cavalry Regiment, Montana Army National Guard (part of 116th CBCT based in Idaho), NTC 01JUN2019. Oregon Army National Guard photo by Corporal Alisha Grezlik.

Bird’s eye video view of National Training Center (NTC), Fort Irwin, California:

Company B, 1st Battalion, 155th Infantry Regiment, Mississippi Army National Guard during NTC rotation 02JUN2017. Mississippi Army National Guard photo by Specialist Christopher Shannon.

Mech-Infantry storms NTC desert city:

Staff Sergeant Dustin Carter gives you a short video tour of the M2A3 Bradley:

“Fill ‘er up!” 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, refuel their Bradleys during Decisive Action Rotation 16-09, August 2016. U.S. Army photo by Private First Class Jordan Roy.

3rd Platoon, A Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th CBCT, August 2015. Oregon Army National Guard photo by Major W. Chris Clyne.

Bravo Troop, 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Decisive Action Rotation 14-09, August 2014. U.S. Army photo by Specialist Ashley Marble.

U.S. Army photo by Specialist Randis Monroe, Decisive Action Rotation 14-06, April 2014.

MILITIA UH-60L LOOSES WINDSHIELD AT NTC!

VEHICLE ID: KC-10 TIGER STRIPED F/A-18D & A-10C

MISSISSIPPI MILITIA ‘CLEANS UP’ ITS ACT AT NTC!

116TH SNAKE RIVER’S 2015 NTC ROTATION

Technology, U.S.

Militia UH-60L looses windshield at NTC!

Video June 2, 2017 Hutchins AAron

On 20MAY2017, a Missouri Army National Guard UH-60L Black Hawk suffered a damaged windshield while flying over Fort Irwin (National Training Center, NTC), California. The new windshield arrived for replacement on 30MAY2017:

Staff Sergeant Tim Morgan took this pic of a UH-60 Blackhawk under the Milky Way Galaxy 30MAY2017, at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California.

Mississippi National Guard video, by Staff Sergeant Tim Morgan, of Missouri UH-60 operations on NTC, 30MAY2017:

MISSISSIPPI MILITIA ‘CLEANS UP’ ITS ACT AT NTC!

VEHICLE I-D: NEW HH-60M BLACK HAWK FOR HAWAIIAN MILITIA MEDEVAC

U.S.

Mississippi Militia ‘cleans up’ its act at NTC!

Video May 31, 2017 Hutchins AAron

31 May 2017 (12:50 UTC-07 Tango 06) 10 Khordad 1396/05 Ramadan 1438/06 Yi Si(5th) 4715

Fort Irwin, California, is home to the USA (U.S. Army) National Training Center (NTC). Many National Guard units from around the country conduct massive Force-on-Force war-game ‘rotations’ there, but that includes real-life environmental war-fighting as well.

Moving Earth to keep it clean.

Currently members of the Illinois, Kansas and Mississippi are in the middle of their ‘fun-in-the-sun’ rotation, and the 223rd Engineer Battalion’s 289th Engineer Company is working hard to make sure the Mojave stays clean:

2017 MILITIA MEMORIAL DAY SHOUT-OUT FROM NTC-FORT IRWIN, OR, STOP SAYING ‘HAPPY’ MEMORIAL DAY!

MAMA’S FRIED CHICKEN! IN HOT AS HELL MOJAVE-LAND NTC?

U.S.

Mama’s Fried Chicken! In Hot as Hell Mojave-land NTC?

Video May 28, 2017 Hutchins AAron

Actually, during non-Summer months the high temps at Fort Irwin, California, aren’t that bad. In the Gregorian month of May the average high temperature is 28C (83F). A record high temp for May hit 42C (107F). Back in 1998 I went to NTC with Idaho’s 116th Armored Cav (as a 13F with the 148th FA BN), and unfortunately it was during the hottest time of the year when the average high temp is around 38C (100F), and record highs hit 46C (114F)! By the way, 1998 was one of those record setting years for high temps.

In 2014, TV personality Gordon Ramsay videoed the biggest cooking challenge of the show MasterChef at Fort Irwin, California.

Currently the Illinois, Kanasa and Mississippi National Guards are doing a three weeks ‘rotation’ at NTC, started right before the Memorial weekend. What’re they going to eat? Supposedly you get two yummy (not) MREs and a hot meal per day (reality is you could go days without a hot cooked meal). But Mississippi’s Militia cooks boast they’re up to the job of providing at least one hot cooked meal per day for the 3-thousand-8-hundred-plus Militia personnel on the current rotation, even going as far as optimistically promising Sergeant First Class ‘Mama’ Jackson’s fried chicken:

U.S.

Illinois, Kansas & Mississippi Militias 2017 Memorial weekend fun in the sun NTC style!

Video May 28, 2017 Hutchins AAron

Mississippi’s 1st Battalion, 155th Infantry Regiment M2A3/M3A3 Bradleys lined up for fuel 22 MAY 2017, National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California.

The Mississippi National Guard 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team began their 2017 NTC rotation, with help from Illinois and Kansas National Guard (as well as thousands of Regular Army & Air Force personnel), just in time for the Memorial weekend: