XBradTC

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XBradTC

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The National Training Center

This documentary is a bit dated, being from somewhere around 2000 or so, I’d guess based on the weapons, uniforms, and equipment. First formed in1980, the NTC was originally intended to give brigades a realistic taste of what they would face when battling a Soviet Motorized Rifle Regiment. As the threat has changed over the…

This documentary is a bit dated, being from somewhere around 2000 or so, I’d guess based on the weapons, uniforms, and equipment.

First formed in1980, the NTC was originally intended to give brigades a realistic taste of what they would face when battling a Soviet Motorized Rifle Regiment. As the threat has changed over the years, the threat presentation at NTC has evolved as well. During the height of the war in Iraq, BCTs rotating through would have a training experience highly tailored to their anticipated deployment to Iraq, complete with actors portraying tribal leaders, and mock urban environments that mirrored the location they were deploying to.

But as the COIN emphasis of the Army has shifted with our much reduced presence in Iraq, the NTC has returned to its roots of major force on force training evolutions.

The NTC was such a monumental success in training the heavy brigades of the Army that a second center, the Joint Training Readiness Center was established at Fort Chaffee, AR,  though later moved to Fort Polk, LA. And in Europe, the training area at Hohenfels became the Combat Maneuver Training Center, now known as Joint Multinational Training Center.

Ideally, an Army BCT will go through a training cycle of about 18 months, starting with individual tasks, small team tasks, and progressing through squad, platoon, company and battalion level collective training, each training evolution building upon the lessons learned at the previous echelon. BCT level training would culminate with a rotation through one of the three training centers, followed by a major deployment, or period of readiness for contingency deployment. At the end of that cycle, the process starts again.

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Responses to “The National Training Center”

  1. SFC Dunlap 173d RVN

    One of the rare moments where I “yacked” my guts up doing an hour NOE in a C-141B culminating in an Airborne Op. Man that was some serious yankin and bankin!!

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  2. Paul L. Quandt

    SFC Dunlap:
    Yes, our pilots always said the C-141B flew like a fighter aircraft.
    Paul L. Quandt
    former C-141B crewchief

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  3. Esli

    In the last two years, I never saw a BCT at JMRC go through any level of training above gunnery and at most platoon lanes prior to arriving at JMRC in the last two years. Those that had any significant training prior to arrival then went and switched out all of their leadership prior to arrival.

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  4. Esli

    Although the BN LFX at NTC is unmatched and probably one of the top two highlights of my time in the army, I’m going to offer a heretical opinion and say that the tactical missions during the force-on-force period at JMRC are both more challenging to plan and to execute than at NTC for a variety of reasons that are too lengthy to write on this phone keyboard.

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  5. timactual

    I am curious about how you keep JMRC from turning into a sea of mud and splintered tree trunks after over half a century of usage. One of my clearest memories (which isn’t saying much these days) of Baumholder is watching tanks slither hull-deep across fields of mud. Tracks are not kind to terrain. Nor are entrenching tools.

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  6. Esli

    There are about nine rotations a year but not all of them are heavy units. Some are airborne infantry and some are Stryker infantry. Some are multinational mixed bags of light tracked and wheeled vehicles. The other thing, though, is that we have a hard time getting a lot of units to get off the roads. When I got to JMRC I couldn’t believe how green it all was, having experienced it as muddy and brown as you describe it when I was training there before Iraq kicked off in 99-03. Bottom line is that it just doesn’t get worked as hard as it used to, even though there are way more troops in the box now then there used to be.

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