32 ARMY � August 2010

The Kit Carson statue at Fort Carson, Colo. Inset above,wearing gear to protect him from paint rounds at the FortCarson submunition military operations in urban terrain(MOUT) site, a soldier from Company C, 1st Battalion,

22nd Infantry (C-1/22 Infantry), 1st Brigade Combat Team(BCT), 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), checks for anopposing force shooter during training for deployment to

Afghanistan. Inset far right, PV2 Nicholas Shaw-Fryer—as-signed to the 1st BCT’s Company D, 1st Battalion, 66thArmor (D-1/66 Armor)—takes a knee as his squad trains

on Fort Carson. Over the past year, his battalion parked itsarmored vehicles and transformed itself into a light infantryorganization. The 4th Division’s 1st BCT is the Army’s first

heavy brigade selected for deployment to Afghanistan.

August 2010 � ARMY 33

he bronze Kit Carson statue at Fort Carson’s visitor

gate points westward to the craggy horizon of the

Rocky Mountains, Colorado’s signature natural

landmark and the post’s greatest asset in training soldiers for

the Afghanistan war.

At the base of the Rockies, Fort Carson, home of the 4th In-

fantry Division (Mechanized), sits at an elevation above

6,000 feet, and the nearby range juts steeply to top out at14,115 feet with Pikes Peak, which towers over the highprairie and expanse of Colorado Springs, the fort’s home-town.

It is an area that is nearly ideal forpreparing and training to meet therigors of Afghanistan, shaving weeksor months from the altitude acclima-tion that troops must endure whenthey arrive in Afghanistan and pro-viding a physical training course forthe climbs that likely await them intheater.During the past year, the 4th Divi-

sion’s 1st Brigade Combat Team(BCT)—which relocated to Fort Car-son from Fort Hood, Texas, last sum-mer and is the Army’s first heavybrigade scheduled for deployment toAfghanistan—has been maximizingthe mountain training opportunity asit transformed itself into a light in-fantry unit in both ability and attitudeto be part of the U.S. force buildup forOperation Enduring Freedom and op-erations that are planned as a majorpush against the Taliban.The brigade parked its Abrams tanks

and Bradley fighting vehicles andstepped up individual soldier prepara-tion, concentrating on dismountedcombat skills and physical trainingaimed at increasing endurance and pa-trolling on steep and uneven groundwhile carrying heavy loads.“We’ve spent a lot of time walking

up and down hills,” said MAJ DavidMeyer, the 1st BCT’s executive officer.He noted that general training goalsand operational outlook shifted to re-

shape the brigade as a light infantry unit.“In a heavy brigade, vehicles are an essential element, so

the main challenge was to become primarily dismounted,”he said. “On Fort Carson, we [have high enough elevation]

34 ARMY � August 2010

Left, 1st BCT soldiers are issued mountain boots for theAfghanistan deployment. Below, 1st BCT soldiers re-ceive instruction on the newest version of the enhancedindividual body armor vest being issued to them.

Above, SGTMichael Bartley

and PFC ZacheryFrancis—assignedto the 1st BCT’s

Troop A, 7thBattalion, 10th

Cavalry—fire newlyissued enhancedbattle rifles duringsquad designatedmarksman training.

Right, C-1/22Infantry soldiersprepare to exit abuilding duringforce-on-force

training.

to begin with, and we utilized the ter-rain around us, incorporating roadmarches and trail running into ourtraining, toughening our feet, tough-ening our backs and understandingour loads—load planning for individ-uals, not tanks—and doing internal cross-leveling to createvery capable platoons.”But some things did not need revamping: “What did not

change is that we are still training lethal platoons,” MAJMeyer explained. “And leadership is leadership.”Some skill sets had to be adapted. Since heavy brigades

are equipped with 120 mm mortars, the 1st BCT mortar

crews had to be trained on the 60 mm and 81 mm mortarsthey will use in Afghanistan, for example. The BCT alsotripled its mortar density, building mortar crews fromscratch.“It’s easy to focus on equipment; it’s easy to focus on

‘stuff.’ Those are things that are tangible,” MAJ Meyersaid. “Ultimately, it’s leadership and people. Ultimately,

36 ARMY � August 2010

A D-1/66 Armor patrol receives instruction on improvised explosive device detection on a Fort Carson range.

A 1st BCT M2 .50-caliber machine-guncrew zeros the weapon.

C-1/22 Infantrysoldiers return fireduring force-on-force training.

it’s a mind-set—a mind-set that we have to prove our-selves. Success is the mind-set.”“The change of mind-set, we call ‘the juice,’” said CPT

Mikel Resnick, commander of the 1st BCT’s Company D,1st Battalion, 66th Armor (1/66 Armor). He explained, “It’sphysical and mental toughness. It’s a total shift: We’re notan armor company anymore; we’re a light infantry com-pany. We’re not an armor battalion anymore; we’re a lightinfantry battalion. In fact, we don’t even refer to ourselvesas the 1/66 Armor—we say we’re Task Force 1/66.”The captain said that during the previous seven to eight

months, his company—cross-leveled tobe a 50-50 armor/infantry unit—con-ducted only dismounted operations,leading up to its mission rehearsal exer-cise at the Joint Readiness TrainingCenter (JRTC), Fort Polk, La.“We were the first tank company to

go through JRTC, and they couldn’ttell that we were tankers,” CPT Res-nick said.The company instituted a grueling

physical training (PT) regimen of roadmarches, running obstacle courseswith 100-pound loads and NationalFootball League combine-based chal-lenges that were militarily adapted.The soldiers did hill sprints wearingindividual body armor (IBA) andclimbs up sides of the nearby Rockiesin IBA.“The key element was that off-post

PT,” CPT Resnick said. “Here at FortCarson, we can do PT at 8,000 or 9,000feet, and that can’t be replicated any-where else.”The 1st BCT’s objective was to cre-

ate independent and self-reliant pla-toons, adapted specifically for opera-tions in Afghanistan with more combatpunch and added capabilities. Combatmedical capabilities were increasedusing training techniques borrowedfrom the Ranger first-responder pro-

gram to create advanced combat lifesavers who the 1st BCT call “Raider first responders” for their Raider brigadedesignation.The number and capabilities of squad designated marks-

men were ramped up, issuing enhanced battle rifle sets—which are composed of the latest variant of 7.62 mm, M14-based rifles, accurized and outfitted with a 10-powerscope, bipod and lightweight stock—and bringing in atraining team from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit(USAMU) to train the brigade’s squad designated marks-men on the system and distance shooting in general.

38 ARMY � August 2010

Soldiers from D-1/66 Armor crest a rise during a cross-country training patrol.

Right, SSG JoelMicholick checkshits during squaddesignated marks-man training. He

was part of a mobiletraining team from

the U.S. ArmyMarksmanship Unit,

based at FortBenning, Ga., that

came to Fort Carsonto teach a course for

1st BCT soldiers.

Enhanced battle rifles, the squad designated marksmen’s weapons.

SSG Joel Micholick, an instructor with the Fort Benning,Ga.-based USAMU mobile training team, which incorpo-rated volunteer civilian instructors from the Civilian

Marksmanship Program, said, “Wetake a soldier and give him an under-standing of trajectory and how to in-corporate environmental effects likewind—generally, what things can af-fect a shot, why they happen and howto adjust for them.”Squad designated marksmen from

the 1st BCT unboxed their new weap-ons, and the USAMU team helpedthem in adjusting scope eye relief, trig-ger pull and the like. The team con-ducted classroom instruction and tooktrainees to the range to zero theweapons and for practical application,which meant a lot of shooting.“My hope for these guys is that we

can teach them to use their weapons ef-fectively, integrate that into the squadand ultimately be a force multiplier,”SSG Micholick said. “The team’s goal is

to give soldiers confidence in the weapon system and theknowledge to survive and succeed.”Along the lines of the squad designated marksman en-

40 ARMY � August 2010

Above, SGT TiffanyKnotts—a member

of the 1st BCTbrigade commandgroup’s personal

securitydetachment—instructs PV2James Rwne

(shooting) and SPCGoran Churchin onthe M2 .50-calibermachine gun. Thethree soldiers are

assigned to the 1stBCT’s 1st SpecialTroops Battalion.Right, a C-1/22soldier passes ashot-up rangetarget vehicle

during force-on-force training.

hancement, the brigade has incorporated a squad-desig-nated linguist training. Approximately 300 of the brigade’ssoldiers graduated from an intensive seven-week course inDari and Pashto conducted by a mobile training team or-ganized by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Lan-guage Center. Classes were held fours days a week, sixhours a day, to give soldiers a “tactical vocabulary” of atleast 300 words (a minimum standard exceeded by manystudents) as well as practical skills in constructing sen-tences and conveying ideas by conversing with nativeAfghan instructors in scenarios they are likely to encounteronce in theater.“The overall idea of our training is independent empow-

erment, creating self-reliant and independent platoons,”MAJ Meyer explained.As of this writing, the 1st BCT, the Army’s newest light

infantry brigade, has deployed to Afghanistan and will testits skills in combat soon. �

August 2010 � ARMY 41

Above, a 1st BCT soldier takes aim while training at the Fort Car-son submunition MOUT site. Below left, SGT Samuel Hackwell(D-1/66 Armor) patrols with his fire team at Fort Carson.