FORT JOHNSON, La. –
Virginia National Guard Soldiers assigned to the Staunton-based 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team provided opposing force support during Joint Readiness Training Center rotation 24-09 July 8 - Aug. 3, 2024, at Fort Johnson, Louisiana.
More than 250 Soldiers, including elements from the Lynchburg-based 1st Battalion and Winchester-based 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, as well as the Fredericksburg-based 229th Brigade Engineer Battalion, supported the rotation acting as OPFOR for the Oregon-based 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team as they conducted their JRTC rotation.
The 116th team provided support to the “Geronimo” opposing force testing the 41st’s combat readiness. The unique mission differed from the 116th’s usual training, benefitting the unit’s readiness for future operations.
“The OPFOR role allowed these Soldiers to work directly with Geronimo Soldier, which is a unique opportunity to see how they approach their mission of testing the Army’s top forces,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Hoffman, commander of 3rd Battalion. “Serving as OPFOR provides insight into the friction points the rotational training unit experiences. This is valuable information as the 116th IBCT prepares to be the RTU in Summer of 2026.”
“We haven’t done the OPFOR rotation in recent years,” said Lt. Col. Brandon Price, commander of 1st Battalion. “It is a great opportunity to see JRTC from the ‘other side.’ You can learn quite a bit about yourself by observing and reacting to another friendly unit that operates in similar fashion to your own. The training environment there with the force-on-force dynamic also elevates the pressure and makes for a much more realistic and stressful training environment.”
“This training is essentially different than any other training our Soldiers might experience on an average drill weekend,”explained 1st Sgt. Christopher Roark, Charlie Company first sergeant. “Being out here allows our Soldiers to adjust and adapt physically and mentally to what it’s like staying in a position for 24-48 hours or longer at times.”
“The scenarios we’ve been put in are a new challenge,” said Spc. Christian Gonzales. “Most of us out here have never done anything like this before and this training has been very helpful for knowing how to react and respond.”
Prior to entering “the box” to support Geronimo, the contingent of 116th IBCT Soldiers conducted squad-level training to include live-fire opportunities.
“The company moved to the range area at Fort Johnson and conducted day and night squad live fires that they had planned and resourced prior to the rotation,” said Price. “That was a heavy lift but a great experience for our teams to build maneuver proficiency. After some situational training exercise opportunities, they moved into ‘the box’ alongside Geronimo elements where they served as the aggressors against the 41st IBCT. Their missions ranged from area security to reconnaissance to dismounted assaults during day and night conditions; their offensive operations culminated in a company-level assault in the final phase of the rotation.”
The 229th BEB also provided essential support for the OPFOR mission, focusing on electronic warfare, countering unmanned aerial systems and terrain denial. According to their commander, Lt. Col. W. Chandler Pearson, the team’s capabilities were critical to the mission, especially as Geronimo does not have combat engineers organic to their organization.
The BEB’s electronic warfare platoon flew hundreds of sorties utilizing small unmanned aerial system capabilities to sense, fix and place effects on elements of the 41st IBCT often within seconds,” said Pearson. “This was a first of its kind utilization of the platoon and critical to their development and the enhancement of the platoon’s critical skills for the 116th IBCT. Sappers also supported combined arms breaching with simulated MICLICs, terrain denial through both simulated obstacles and thousands of meters of wire as well conducting raids and support basic maneuver tasks.”
“Being able to see the other side training that is conducted at JRTC allowed us as a platoon to be able to better understand how big of a roll that a engineer battalion plays into a brigade or larger elements schemes of moment,” said combat engineer Sgt. Travis Hardy. “This allows for us as a platoon to come back to our units and provide key examples of how if we don’t complete our mission or if we are trained properly we will cause larger issues for the entire brigade.”
According to Capt. Kenneth Swan, Bravo Company commander for 1st Battalion, the 116th’s Soldiers performed admirably during prolonged and intense heat and humidity.
“I couldn’t be happier with the performance of every Soldier over the course of the month.,” said Swan. “They completed day and night squad live fire exercises in 100-plus degree weather with high humidity in full kit, and morale was high throughout those long days.”
That effort and grit through adverse conditions resonated with 1st Battalion’s commander as well.
“The field environment at Fort Johnson with the high humidity is challenging, and even in cantonment they endured pretty spartan conditions,” said Price. “Our team trooped right through it all and maintained an aggressive attitude throughout the whole rotation. I am always impressed by their get-the-job done mentality and the professionalism with which they carry out any assignment.”
Working side-by-side with Geronimo, the 116th’s Soldiers got a chance to experience a different side to combat training, including new and emerging technology designed to keep the Army up to date with the modern battlefield.
“Geronimo is a living and thinking force that is proactively implementing new technology such as Bluetooth detectors and other Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance capabilities,” said Hoffman. “They utilize drones with single core chips programmed in house to adjust to changing tactics. This is exactly the kind of innovative and learning approach we need to be taking. Agile and adaptive is the name of the game.”
Swan said in addition to acting as OPFOR, the longer-than-usual annual training rotation provided other opportunities for his Soldiers.
“Our normal training is a sprint to accomplish a significant number of tasks in a 48 to 72-hour period once a month and an AT period of 14 days,” Swan said. “The OPFOR mission was a marathon of high stress events over a long period which forced Soldiers to really think about and work through a lot of the small things we take for granted. They adapted and excelled which speaks to the competence of our junior leaders and noncommissioned officers.”
Read more about the 116th IBCT at https://bit.ly/3zemdVH.
(Reporting by Spc. Ericka Gillespie and Mike Vrabel)