Right now about 3,000 members of the Iowa National Guard are undergoing their annual summer training in Minnesota. The Army has taken the difficulty of this year’s training up a notch.
Brigadier General Derek Adams with the Iowa National Guard said, “We’re training them for combat. Not because of anything that’s going on in the world, but this is part of their normal training rotation.”
The training soldiers at Camp Ripley are doing is called eXportable Combat Training Capability, or XCTC. Army leadership wants them to do practice real life scenarios against an enemy.
Specialist Seth Wilhelm, 1-133 Infantry, of Dubuque says they’re getting to practice with live rounds, something they often don’t get to back home. “It’s hard to really understand how those missions work out when we are not using live rounds, but when we’re using live rounds it feels a lot more like real,” Wilhelm said.
Not everyone is in the infantry. Even soldiers whose job it is to prepare food have been sent to get realistic field training.
Sergeant Madecyn Anderson, 334 Brigade Support Battalion, of Cedar Rapids said, “It’s very different from drill where we’re just in the actual kitchen serving people. But here, we have to set up all of our stuff up in the field, and it’s a whole different environment. It’s hot outside, it’s can be rainy, but here it’s actually been good so far.”
Captain Tim Hadley, 1-133 Infantry, of Oelwein, is a Chaplain. He says the conditions aren’t always forgiving.
“The mosquitoes are small birds that we call them here. Sometimes it’ll be a little bit much. You know, you’re in the field 4-5 days. I haven’t showered since last Tuesday,” Hadley said.
