Third Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division soldiers have spent the past few weeks filtering through Individual Readiness Training on Fort Stewart in preparation for their upcoming deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The training, which takes seven days, is a combination of classroom instruction and practical field exercises that culminate in an understanding of the potential conditions in a combat environment and how to meet them.
Despite deployments being commonplace in the Army, many soldiers are going through IRT for the first time.
First Lt. Nicholas Amuna — a platoon leader for 473rd Quartermaster Company, Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade — who was in charge of planning and executing IRT for the brigade, said that not only is the training multifaceted, it is efficient.
Approximately 60 soldiers are trained during each IRT-iteration, where skills sets like reacting to contact from improvised explosive devices and properly executing an operations order are the tasks of the day.
“All of the groups have embraced the [operations] order format,” Amuna said. “They’re excelling in the training, and everything is going according to plan.”
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Carson, a communications specialist with STB and a first-time IRT attendee, agreed that the classroom and field training were helpful. He said he appreciated both facets of the training equally, especially the improvised-explosive-device instruction.