nastyleg
09-20-2011, 07:11 PM
By Rick Steelhammer - The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette via AP
Posted : Tuesday Sep 20, 2011 12:43:26 EDT
STANDARD, W.Va. — Afghanistan-bound military personnel from across the nation will learn to operate Mine Resistant Ambush Protected troop carrier vehicles, or MRAPs, on reclaimed surface mine land adjacent to the West Virginia National Guard’s Memorial Tunnel training complex.
The heavily armored 23-ton MRAPs, which can hold up to eight soldiers, were developed in response to heavy losses being suffered by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan from improvised explosive devices.
Related reading
While the official opening for the new Advanced Mobility Training Area was held on Monday, the idea for creating a West Virginia National Guard-managed training range for MRAPs began to take shape nearly nine years ago.
It was then that former Adjutant Gen. Allen Tackett began discussions with the state Office of Coalfield Development and officials from Pardee Resources Group, which owned the coal land, and Tyler-Morgan Coal Co., which was mining it.
“Mountaintop removal mining lets us work with the operator to build the kinds of training ranges we need, at no expense to the government,” as part of the coal operator’s post mining reclamation plans for MTR sites, Tackett said.
Pardee and Tyler-Morgan were quick to sign on to the concept, Tackett said, while regulatory and legal hurdles took longer to clear.
“But the eight-and-a-half-year journey to get where we are today was worth it,” Tackett said “... It saves the government money and it brings people to West Virginia to train and operate these vehicles.”
The new training range shows that “professional surface mining can be coordinated with the Department of Defense to provide real-life training scenarios that can save lives when soldiers get to the battlefield,” said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association and a retired Army National Guard officer.
Military personnel coming to the site begin developing their MRAP driving skills on the world’s only MRAP simulator, now in operation at the Center for National Response’s housing and dining complex near the Memorial Tunnel at Standard.
Among other things, the simulator is capable of making 360-degree rollovers, recreating the sound of small arms fire striking the vehicle’s armor, and directing simulated machine gun and grenade launcher fire at computer-generated ambushers.
From there, trainees will move on to a 13-acre site where Tyler-Morgan’s heavy equipment operators built a driving course involving a series of hills, embankments, boulder-pile obstacles and uneven terrain for beginning crews to gain hands-on experience.
A West Virginia Army National Guard team that included soldiers who manned MRAPs while stationed in Afghanistan designed the course.
Once crews have become familiarized with the vehicles at the former mine site, they move on to a 20-mile network of narrow, mountainous roads on coal company property. There, they will practice driving in formation over difficult terrain with limited visibility. A two-week training course is currently offered.
“We hope to add ranges in the future where the MRAPs’ weapons systems can be engaged,” said Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, who recently replaced Tackett as West Virginia’s adjutant general. “We are also looking at building water obstacles and a place to practice medevac training” with MRAP crews and helicopter-borne medical personnel.
Hoyer said the new Advanced Mobility Training Area has already been used for Humvee and military ATV training, and may eventually add training for Stryker armored fighting vehicle crews.
MRAPs come equipped with a variety of weapons packages. The MRAPs used by West Virginia Army National Guard Special Forces units in Afghanistan were equipped with .50 caliber machine guns and 40mm automatic grenade launchers.
The roof-mounted MRAP weapons system is operated remotely from inside the vehicle, using a fighter aircraft-like array of instrumentation and computer displays. Rooftop night vision cameras linked to an interior display screen allow the vehicle to be driven without headlights at night.
The MRAP’s heavily armored, V-shaped undercarriage deflects the blast wave of detonated explosives, directing most of the released energy away from the vehicle.
One West Virginia Army National Guard soldier helping design the training facility can attest to the MRAP’s bomb-deflecting ability.
During one of his three deployments to eastern Afghanistan, 1st Sgt. Charlie Withers was riding in an MRAP when it was struck by an improvised explosive device.
“We were part of a quick reaction force that was responding to some of our people who were under attack and needed assistance,” he said. “When we hit the IED, the front end jumped up at a 45-degree angle and fell back into a hole. It disabled the weapons and the communications, but all four of us were OK. A lighter-skinned vehicle wouldn’t have survived.”
Master Sgt. Cleon Humphrey, who is working with Withers on the training range, was riding in a vehicle passing through Gardez, Afghanistan, when an MRAP directly in front of it tripped an IED.
“It blew the front wheels and the engine off, and when the dust cleared, I expected to see nothing left,” Humphrey said. “But the passenger compartment was OK, and our guys walked away from it.”
Withers said he received his MRAP training in the flatlands of Indiana before his deployment to Afghanistan. “The terrain here is a lot more similar to eastern Afghanistan, although there are less trees over there,” he said. Since MRAPs are top heavy, training on slopes and embankments is essential to prevent rollovers, he added.
“This Advanced Mobility Training facility is the first in a series of public-private projects called Fort West Virginia that will involve other reclaimed mine sites,” acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said during Monday’s ceremony. “This is yet another example of how the West Virginia National Guard provides outstanding service to the country.”
“There are going to be tremendous cutbacks in defense spending,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., “so we need to look to look to the National Guard to meet our needs in the years to come.
But the National Guard needs a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff” to help make that happen, he said.
“This shows that when coal people and government get together, things will happen — mountains will be moved,” said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.
“This tunnel is one of the nation’s best kept secrets,” Rahall said. “But it’s important that West Virginians know what’s being done in West Virginia for national security.”
Training in mountainous West Virginia, rather than Indiana, makes sense, since “these aren’t easy vehicles to maneuver,” said Rep. Shelley Capito, R-W.Va., who rode in an MRAP in Kabul during a visit to troops in Afghanistan.
The new training area demonstrates viable post-mining uses for MTR sites, she said, as well as the value of public-private partnerships.
While cooperation between members of West Virginia’s Congressional delegation may have waned in recent years, Capito said, “one place partisanship has had no place is in support of our National Guard and our troops.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/09/ap-mrap-training-area-opens-at-west-virginia-guard-base-092011/
Posted : Tuesday Sep 20, 2011 12:43:26 EDT
STANDARD, W.Va. — Afghanistan-bound military personnel from across the nation will learn to operate Mine Resistant Ambush Protected troop carrier vehicles, or MRAPs, on reclaimed surface mine land adjacent to the West Virginia National Guard’s Memorial Tunnel training complex.
The heavily armored 23-ton MRAPs, which can hold up to eight soldiers, were developed in response to heavy losses being suffered by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan from improvised explosive devices.
Related reading
While the official opening for the new Advanced Mobility Training Area was held on Monday, the idea for creating a West Virginia National Guard-managed training range for MRAPs began to take shape nearly nine years ago.
It was then that former Adjutant Gen. Allen Tackett began discussions with the state Office of Coalfield Development and officials from Pardee Resources Group, which owned the coal land, and Tyler-Morgan Coal Co., which was mining it.
“Mountaintop removal mining lets us work with the operator to build the kinds of training ranges we need, at no expense to the government,” as part of the coal operator’s post mining reclamation plans for MTR sites, Tackett said.
Pardee and Tyler-Morgan were quick to sign on to the concept, Tackett said, while regulatory and legal hurdles took longer to clear.
“But the eight-and-a-half-year journey to get where we are today was worth it,” Tackett said “... It saves the government money and it brings people to West Virginia to train and operate these vehicles.”
The new training range shows that “professional surface mining can be coordinated with the Department of Defense to provide real-life training scenarios that can save lives when soldiers get to the battlefield,” said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association and a retired Army National Guard officer.
Military personnel coming to the site begin developing their MRAP driving skills on the world’s only MRAP simulator, now in operation at the Center for National Response’s housing and dining complex near the Memorial Tunnel at Standard.
Among other things, the simulator is capable of making 360-degree rollovers, recreating the sound of small arms fire striking the vehicle’s armor, and directing simulated machine gun and grenade launcher fire at computer-generated ambushers.
From there, trainees will move on to a 13-acre site where Tyler-Morgan’s heavy equipment operators built a driving course involving a series of hills, embankments, boulder-pile obstacles and uneven terrain for beginning crews to gain hands-on experience.
A West Virginia Army National Guard team that included soldiers who manned MRAPs while stationed in Afghanistan designed the course.
Once crews have become familiarized with the vehicles at the former mine site, they move on to a 20-mile network of narrow, mountainous roads on coal company property. There, they will practice driving in formation over difficult terrain with limited visibility. A two-week training course is currently offered.
“We hope to add ranges in the future where the MRAPs’ weapons systems can be engaged,” said Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, who recently replaced Tackett as West Virginia’s adjutant general. “We are also looking at building water obstacles and a place to practice medevac training” with MRAP crews and helicopter-borne medical personnel.
Hoyer said the new Advanced Mobility Training Area has already been used for Humvee and military ATV training, and may eventually add training for Stryker armored fighting vehicle crews.
MRAPs come equipped with a variety of weapons packages. The MRAPs used by West Virginia Army National Guard Special Forces units in Afghanistan were equipped with .50 caliber machine guns and 40mm automatic grenade launchers.
The roof-mounted MRAP weapons system is operated remotely from inside the vehicle, using a fighter aircraft-like array of instrumentation and computer displays. Rooftop night vision cameras linked to an interior display screen allow the vehicle to be driven without headlights at night.
The MRAP’s heavily armored, V-shaped undercarriage deflects the blast wave of detonated explosives, directing most of the released energy away from the vehicle.
One West Virginia Army National Guard soldier helping design the training facility can attest to the MRAP’s bomb-deflecting ability.
During one of his three deployments to eastern Afghanistan, 1st Sgt. Charlie Withers was riding in an MRAP when it was struck by an improvised explosive device.
“We were part of a quick reaction force that was responding to some of our people who were under attack and needed assistance,” he said. “When we hit the IED, the front end jumped up at a 45-degree angle and fell back into a hole. It disabled the weapons and the communications, but all four of us were OK. A lighter-skinned vehicle wouldn’t have survived.”
Master Sgt. Cleon Humphrey, who is working with Withers on the training range, was riding in a vehicle passing through Gardez, Afghanistan, when an MRAP directly in front of it tripped an IED.
“It blew the front wheels and the engine off, and when the dust cleared, I expected to see nothing left,” Humphrey said. “But the passenger compartment was OK, and our guys walked away from it.”
Withers said he received his MRAP training in the flatlands of Indiana before his deployment to Afghanistan. “The terrain here is a lot more similar to eastern Afghanistan, although there are less trees over there,” he said. Since MRAPs are top heavy, training on slopes and embankments is essential to prevent rollovers, he added.
“This Advanced Mobility Training facility is the first in a series of public-private projects called Fort West Virginia that will involve other reclaimed mine sites,” acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said during Monday’s ceremony. “This is yet another example of how the West Virginia National Guard provides outstanding service to the country.”
“There are going to be tremendous cutbacks in defense spending,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., “so we need to look to look to the National Guard to meet our needs in the years to come.
But the National Guard needs a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff” to help make that happen, he said.
“This shows that when coal people and government get together, things will happen — mountains will be moved,” said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.
“This tunnel is one of the nation’s best kept secrets,” Rahall said. “But it’s important that West Virginians know what’s being done in West Virginia for national security.”
Training in mountainous West Virginia, rather than Indiana, makes sense, since “these aren’t easy vehicles to maneuver,” said Rep. Shelley Capito, R-W.Va., who rode in an MRAP in Kabul during a visit to troops in Afghanistan.
The new training area demonstrates viable post-mining uses for MTR sites, she said, as well as the value of public-private partnerships.
While cooperation between members of West Virginia’s Congressional delegation may have waned in recent years, Capito said, “one place partisanship has had no place is in support of our National Guard and our troops.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/09/ap-mrap-training-area-opens-at-west-virginia-guard-base-092011/