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| Photo credit Cpl. Hong Yoon-ki, Eighth Army Public Affairs U.S. Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team dismount their Stryker following live fire training March 7 on Nightmare Range, South Korea. |
NIGHTMARE RANGE, South Korea - A U.S. Army Stryker unit engaged and destroyed targets here at this South Korean live fire range March 7 during Exercise Foal Eagle.
The Fort Lewis, Wash.-based 2nd Battalion, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team dispatched their targets with heavy vehicle-based machine guns and small arms fire in mounted and dismounted infantry operations.
Agile, mobile and lethal, the Stryker is the centerpiece of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, a multi-mission medium weight unit that complements the U.S. Army's heavy and light combat forces.
Named after Pfc. Stuart S. Stryker and Spc. 4 Robert F. Stryker who both posthumously received the Medal of Honor for their actions in World War II and Vietnam, respectively, the Stryker can be airlifted to any conflict, crisis or contingency on short notice.
The Fort Lewis-based 3rd SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division was the first Stryker Brigade Combat Team formed.
"They [Stryker Brigade Combat Teams] have a whole array of mission areas that they look at that they are ready to reinforce," said Col. Ross E. Davidson Jr., commander of the South Korea-based 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team.
Tested in combat in Iraq, the Stryker unit also proved its mettle during the training exercise in the blustery and rugged terrain near the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
Sgt. Bryson Hounschell, a 2-3rd Infantry Stryker vehicle commander from Stark City, Mo., said the exercise gave his team the chance to train in a different environment.
"This is very different from Iraq," said Hounschell who returned from a deployment there last October. "We're training for a different kind of fight here."
Held around the same time every year since 1961, Foal Eagle is a defensive field exercise. Exercise Key Resolve, an annual Korean Peninsula-wide command post exercise, occurs at the same time.
Col. Bob McAleer, chief of Training, Exercises and Readiness for U.S. Forces Korea and Combined Forces Command, said the threat posed by North Korea requires ROK-U.S. Alliance forces to hold exercises like Key Resolve and Foal Eagle.
"We necessarily must have our plans, equipment and training level at a very high state," said McAller, who commanded a Stryker battalion in Iraq. "In Foal Eagle, we exercise the ability of U.S. forces to come from off the peninsula, primarily from the United States, to deploy here to Korea and then integrate with the ROK [Republic of Korea] and ensure that we are interoperable with the ROK military."
McAleer said several combat units from all four services are deploying for Key Resolve 2011 and training together with the ROK military until the exercise wraps up in late April.
"We have to maintain what we call a 'fight tonight' readiness," said McAleer. "We know that with the forces we have, especially because we're technologically superior, that we would prevail if they were to attack us."
The Fort Lewis, Wash.-based 2nd Battalion, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team dispatched their targets with heavy vehicle-based machine guns and small arms fire in mounted and dismounted infantry operations.
Agile, mobile and lethal, the Stryker is the centerpiece of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, a multi-mission medium weight unit that complements the U.S. Army's heavy and light combat forces.
Named after Pfc. Stuart S. Stryker and Spc. 4 Robert F. Stryker who both posthumously received the Medal of Honor for their actions in World War II and Vietnam, respectively, the Stryker can be airlifted to any conflict, crisis or contingency on short notice.
The Fort Lewis-based 3rd SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division was the first Stryker Brigade Combat Team formed.
"They [Stryker Brigade Combat Teams] have a whole array of mission areas that they look at that they are ready to reinforce," said Col. Ross E. Davidson Jr., commander of the South Korea-based 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team.
Tested in combat in Iraq, the Stryker unit also proved its mettle during the training exercise in the blustery and rugged terrain near the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
Sgt. Bryson Hounschell, a 2-3rd Infantry Stryker vehicle commander from Stark City, Mo., said the exercise gave his team the chance to train in a different environment.
"This is very different from Iraq," said Hounschell who returned from a deployment there last October. "We're training for a different kind of fight here."
Held around the same time every year since 1961, Foal Eagle is a defensive field exercise. Exercise Key Resolve, an annual Korean Peninsula-wide command post exercise, occurs at the same time.
Col. Bob McAleer, chief of Training, Exercises and Readiness for U.S. Forces Korea and Combined Forces Command, said the threat posed by North Korea requires ROK-U.S. Alliance forces to hold exercises like Key Resolve and Foal Eagle.
"We necessarily must have our plans, equipment and training level at a very high state," said McAller, who commanded a Stryker battalion in Iraq. "In Foal Eagle, we exercise the ability of U.S. forces to come from off the peninsula, primarily from the United States, to deploy here to Korea and then integrate with the ROK [Republic of Korea] and ensure that we are interoperable with the ROK military."
McAleer said several combat units from all four services are deploying for Key Resolve 2011 and training together with the ROK military until the exercise wraps up in late April.
"We have to maintain what we call a 'fight tonight' readiness," said McAleer. "We know that with the forces we have, especially because we're technologically superior, that we would prevail if they were to attack us."
