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I had a rotation through NTC this spring, and I seen things that made me cringe. Looking for other stories that had similar and worse experiences.
During rotation they lost the contract to clean the porta johns 2 days in. Yup 4000 soldiers on Sante Fe and only the hardstand toilets 1/2 mile away..... And they I don't think they renewed the contract until just before we came out of the box.
Any other exceptional displays of incompetence?
During rotation they lost the contract to clean the porta johns 2 days in. Yup 4000 soldiers on Sante Fe and only the hardstand toilets 1/2 mile away..... And they I don't think they renewed the contract until just before we came out of the box.
Any other exceptional displays of incompetence?
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Fort IrwinNTC
Fort IrwinNTC
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 15
Suspended Profile
This experience could have happened anywhere, but since it happened at Irwin...after one of our live fire events during our rotation in 1997, they took us back to tent city in a few deuce and halves. The driver of ours had created a portable pooper out of an ammo crate, and forgot about it when we loaded into the back. It smelled bad enough, but in cramming all of us in there, it leaked and spilled out. I don't know what he had been eating, but it ran all along the floor, where we were sitting asses and elbows. We were already cranky from being right on top of one another, but add crap to the mix.
Sidenote: isn't it amazing how most of our worst experiences tend to revolve around defecation?
Sidenote: isn't it amazing how most of our worst experiences tend to revolve around defecation?
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Our unit Maintenance troop 3rd ACR in 91 had a bunker collapse on the 1st Sergent and Commander, during an attack from Op Four, i dont think i have ever made a dash to get them out any faster , After spending 9 Months with Capt , Roger Reid , AKA Co. i did not wanna see those guys goes go out like that . all went well for them ,, thank god
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When I was last there in 2012, they kept running out of water. If you didn't grab water before 0900, good luck. Just come in from a mission? Stay thirsty, my friends. They never did fix it.
You would think that as many times as Soldiers have gone to the field in Irwin or elsewhere, water consumption and resupply would be well established.
You would think that as many times as Soldiers have gone to the field in Irwin or elsewhere, water consumption and resupply would be well established.
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LTC (Join to see)
1SG (Join to see) - 1SG, the issue is units have become accustomed to living on a FOB or base camp and supplies were automatically re supplied. Logisticians became lazy and were not proactive in the planning process. Every unit today now practices reactionary logistics. The Army has a way to go in retraining its logisticians and XOs to understand consumption and time/space relationships.
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1SG (Join to see)
LTC (Join to see) - I don't know sir. Seems to me that in the planning conferences such items are specifically talked about. It wasn't in my lane during the PCs, but I did read the draft annexes that were the product. If the log portions were anything like the areas I did need to deal with, there was a civilian counterpart actually involved asking questions like "have you considered water consumption by vehicles, showers, laundry, etc...". Units are free to disregard that, and end up learning a hard lesson.
What I don't understand is that countless BCTs have rotated through NTC; most of them several times. If they are so foolish as to not even consider looking at lessons learned by their own or sister units in prior rotations, they deserve to feel pain. That is what NTC is for. But we aren't typically talking about some wet behind the ears 2LT running the S-4 for a brigade. This should be an experienced Major.
In my humble opinion, units tend to focus on how to defeat the OPFOR (a fool's errand, since they regenerate, read your email and internal communications, and are intimately familiar with the terrain) and can't be bothered to give attention to real problems such as log, commo retransmission and blind areas, and technical challenges with all the gee-whiz cool guy gear they don't often train on for C2 and interoperability. I get that putting it all together is hard, but we do this all the time at CTCs and downrange, and this is what staff officers are for.
What I don't understand is that countless BCTs have rotated through NTC; most of them several times. If they are so foolish as to not even consider looking at lessons learned by their own or sister units in prior rotations, they deserve to feel pain. That is what NTC is for. But we aren't typically talking about some wet behind the ears 2LT running the S-4 for a brigade. This should be an experienced Major.
In my humble opinion, units tend to focus on how to defeat the OPFOR (a fool's errand, since they regenerate, read your email and internal communications, and are intimately familiar with the terrain) and can't be bothered to give attention to real problems such as log, commo retransmission and blind areas, and technical challenges with all the gee-whiz cool guy gear they don't often train on for C2 and interoperability. I get that putting it all together is hard, but we do this all the time at CTCs and downrange, and this is what staff officers are for.
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LTC (Join to see)
1SG (Join to see) - Well stated and I agree. If I was still in the Army I would grade our unit by the War Fighting Functions rather than the Brigade Commanders training plan (which is important). I observered 10 rotations at NTC, and every Brigade Commander focused on 3 WfF. Sustainment and Protection were afterthoughts. I agree with the lack of knowledge in the field grade ranks in the area of sustainment. What's worse is The apathy from CASCOM or The Sustainment Center of Excellence. The GOs are clueless on how to address the issue and allow The Maneuver Center of Excellence to walk as over them and logistics doctrine.
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I spent two years at the NTC. Probably the worst things were the two rotary accidents that occurred during 87 and 88. We lost five soldiers between the two accidents. Hard to believe but we just continued training after both of these accidents.
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CW3 (Join to see)
It happens. I’ve been here for 3 years and have seen 4 aircraft incidents, with 2 fatalities. Nothing stops the training.
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