3/1/A-CO, 1-2IN - Alpha Company, First Platoon, Third Squad

Present outside of combat unit

1LT J.Drake briefly

Objectives

• Convoy operations
• Reaction to IDF
• LDAs
• Formation practice

Accidents

N/A

Areas of Strength

• Assuming formations while on the move
• Providing support by fire

Areas of Weakness

• Communication

Suggested Improvements

Mission Summary

Spartans formed a convoy consisting of three Humvees and drove to OBJ Liwa's love shack. While en-route I observed how the convoy behaves, if they are following correct spacing, watch their sectors, and communicate with each other on convoy comms. Communication was a bit patchy throughout and lead vehicle didn't spot an IED that was placed in a fairly obvious location. At one point the convoy got ambushed by a squad-sized element and successfully drove away from it, not stopping at all while in the kill zone.

Once at our dismount marker, Spartans formed a squad column as per training objective and walked all the way to OBJ Liwa's love shack, successfully keeping formation all the way. Once at the objective we sat down in a classroom environment and discussed what we've done so far and how to improve and then we discussed LDAs and IDFs as well as the next objective for our drills. Once the squad was briefed we started heading towards OBJ Chicken kiev and had to clear a town on the way. One team set up a support by fire position while the other commenced to clear one half of the town. At one point the team clearing the town started taking fire and the support by fire team responded by suppressing roughly where it was coming from however they were unable to see any enemy contact from their position. Because of that they relocated closer to the other team and set up at a point where they can see the enemy. From there the clearing team started moving into the other half of the town to clear it and halfway through there were mortar rounds being dropped nearby and were presumed to be ranging rounds so I had the support by fire team relocate closer to the clearing team as to avoid a possible mortar barage. Once the town was clear we started moving towards OBJ Kiev and encountered an entrenched armour position consisting of a BTR, a BMP, an M2 machine gun, and a team sized element. Because we had the element of surprise I told the squad to set up as soon as they can which was something I was hoping to practice; minimising the length of time it takes for the squad to set up to fire on an enemy position. Once set we launched Javelin and MAAWS rounds at the armour and picked off remaining infantry. From there I initated Battle Drill 1 to make sure that position was clear.
Because we were running out of time, I asked the squad if they prefer to do the objective, which was just going to be clearing a town, or if they'd rather set up defensive positions and try to repel an enemy wave so they can practice using their weapons. They chose to set up defensive positions which they did and I started spawning increasingly difficult enemies, ranging from Tigrs, BMPs, tanks, and even helicopters, as well as healthy amount of infantry for the machine gunners. Once enough time has passed I called an ENDEX and we debriefed on what happened that day.

Overall Sentiment

POSITIVE