17 February 2023 (11:57-UTC-07 Tango 06) 28 Bahman 1401/26 Rajab 1444/27 Jia-Yin 4721/17 февраля 2023 года

The Idaho National Guard revealed that over the past few years the training area known as Orchard Combat Training Center (formerly known as Orchard Training Area [OTA], back when I was a member of the Idaho Army National Guard) was greatly expanded, from approximately 143-thousand acres to more than 170-thousand acres!

Orchard Combat Training Center (OCTC) is located on federally owned BLM (Bureau of Land Management) property.  In the past few years the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has spent big taxpayer dollars making the OCTC a premier combat training area, but it still doesn’t come close to the size of the U.S. Army’s Fort Irwin-National Training Center, in California.

The expansion of 2022 required more money to be spent, on upgrading the OCTC fire department. When I was in the Idaho Army National Guard there was no fire department on the OTA, but that changed in 2013, due to the massive spending by the DoD to create a new OCTC.  To justify a fire department located out in the middle of BFE western Idaho, in 2014, the Idaho National Guard established mutual aid agreements between Orchard Fire & Emergency Services, the Boise Fire Department and the Oasis Volunteer Fire Department. In 2020, a deal was made with the Idaho Transportation Department. Currently, there are deals in the works with the Mountain Home Fire Department, and Mountain Home Air Force Base.

Idaho Army National Guard photo by Crystal Farris, 11JAN2023.

The result is that the OCTC Fire & Emergency Services has responded to more than 120 fires, and more than 40 emergency service calls on Interstate 84: “The Orchard Fire and Emergency Services is able to support emergency responses in local communities and during accidents on the interstate through mutual aid agreements. The agreements provide a benefit to not only those in need during emergencies, but also our firefighters who continuously hone their skills.”-Lieutenant Colonal Eric Sharp, OCTC director

Idaho Army National Guard photo by Crystal Farris, 11JAN2023.

Since 2019, the Idaho National Guard’s Orchard Fire & Emergency Services got federal taxpayer money for new vehicles, equipment, plus more than $6-million in building renovations which expanded the fire-station’s size from 10-thousand square feet to 21-thousand square feet.  Also, the number employees went from 15 to 30.

October 2022: IDAHO’s upgraded OCTC INVADED BY APACHES FROM ARIZONA & SINGAPORE?

August 2021: SINGAPORE APACHES TEST IDAHO’S NEW OCTC D-A-G-I-R SYSTEM

April 2021:

IDAHO’s OCTC HOME TO FIRST EVER NATIONAL GUARD D-A-G-I-R!

U.S. Disaster, November 2021: IDAHO MILITIA & BOISE FD TRAIN FOR SWIFT WATER RESCUES, WITHOUT WATER!