As U.S. forces pull out of towns and cities in Iraq, the 3rd Brigade Heavy Combat Team prepares for its fourth deployment. The brigade is heading to the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California for a month.
The first plane leaves for the National Training Center, Wednesday morning. And training really gets going for the 4,000 3rd Brigade soldiers come July 10th. And commander, Colonel Peter Jones says his guys are ready.
“To use a football analogy, you know, we've done the training camp, we've had our pre-season, and now were into the regular season.”
Pre-season happened in May with Hammer Focus. Mission readiness exercises boosted soldiers' confidence. Regular season starts at the National Training Center.
“And we're given those situations and those games that we're going to get, just as if we're in Iraq,” said Jones.
That's because the National Training Center replicates Iraq in the middle of the Mohave Desert.
“Where you experience an IED go off, and you see the wounded,” he explained some of the situations soldiers experience at NTC.
Ever since the first deployment, NTC has been the culminating exercise for soldiers. 35, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division soldiers were killed during the last deployed. But Jones says he's seen this training save lives.
“When it's all said and done, you know, you all brush yourself off and you take the lessons learned and say I can make it better the next time.”
But these lessons don't come cheap. Training at NTC comes with a price tag that's around $20 million. But once they’re done, troops are ready to deploy.
“We will enter what they call the "Train and Ready Pool," really the "ready pool forces" after the mission readiness exercise at the National Training Center,” said Jones.
The 3rd Brigade will be at NTC until the last week of July. As of right now it looks like the 3rd Brigade will deploy in the fall. Now, that hasn't been confirmed, yet. And in August the 3rd Brigade is going to get 36 additional officers. Those high ranking officers are going to help transition power over to the Iraqi forces during the deployment.