IOWA Iowa Soldiers return to Camp Ripley for XCTC rotation By Staff Sgt. Samantha Hircock 135th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment - Iowa National Guard | 07.26.2024 CAMP RIPLEY, Minn. – Over 5,000 Soldiers from eight states gathered at Camp Ripley, Minnesota, for an eXportable Combat Training Capabilities (XCTC) exercise from the beginning of July to August 2024. Soldiers representing Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oregon, Illinois and South Dakota worked together to create a large-scale, realistic training exercise that exposed Iowa’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Divi- sion to simulated warfare. XCTC aims to increase the skills, competency and readiness of Soldiers at all echelons through authentic representations of tactical challenges. “The last time the brigade completed an XCTC rotation was up here [at Camp Ripley] in 2019,” said Col. Eric Soults, command- er of the 2/34th IBCT, Iowa Army National Guard. “The brigade went through this rotation in similar fashion, but the difference between then and now is that…we’re adding the complexity that we have all new people in different positions who haven’t seen this, so it’s really almost like resetting the entire brigade.” Though platoon-centric, the program includes company-level training lanes culminating in a brigade-level exercise to ensure all levels are prepared for the full-spectrum of deployment operations. Soldiers conducted several training lanes covering live-fire exercises, air assault movements, resupplies, mass casualty care, convoy operations and more. “I think it’s good for the brigade and battalions and companies to see where flaws are now so that we can fix them and train back at home station to be prepared for [the next level of train- ing],” said Capt. Brandon Lindsey, a healthcare administrative specialist with Company C, 334th Brigade Support Battalion, 2/34th IBCT. “So, for example, if a [mass casualty] incident were to happen – it’s chaos – but our purpose for a MASCAL is to stay calm and collected, be trained and proficient in our tasks so that when that does happen, we’re prepared to take
care of patients in a timely and effective manner, and to save as many people as we possibly can.”
XCTC represents an opportunity, said Lindsey, for many ele- ments to work together to train and there is a high sense of excitement in the experience for Soldiers involved. “The brigade’s primary goal here is to improve the readiness of our brigade combat team,” said Soults. “So, we should come out of here being more proficient in our teams, our squads, platoons…All the way up to myself, the brigade commander, and just be better able to function as a team using all of our systems that will enable us to successfully accomplish our mission.” Observer-coach-trainers (OCT) from First Army oversee the ex- ercises and provide neutral, third-party feedback to Soldiers and leaders. OCTs are trainers who travel to meet the training needs of reserve components. “So, we’re embedded OCTs and we’re also on the outside look- ing in,” said Sgt. 1st Class Terrell Francis, a network communi- cation systems specialist with the 1st Battalion, 345th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 157th Infantry Brigade, First Army Division East. “So, we’re there to actually roll with the unit out to the site. All of us on our team are there to assist them in any way that we can. So when it is time for them to actually tear it down and do it up again, we can actually tell them, hey, this is what we saw wrong and this is what we saw right.” Francis believes the collective experience of OCTs who have deployed is of the greatest value. The OCTs’ goal is to prepare Soldiers for real-world combat, so they create many challenges based on their personal experiences in the field. “We take all of our deployment experience and we put it into different scenarios so they can understand that you’re never going to get the same scenario, ever,” said Francis. “That’s just
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