USMA cadets meet the cavalry face to face

[cec]

USMA cadets meet the cavalry face to face
By SPC. IAN BOUDREAU/Turret Staff Writer For sophomores at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, summer vacation this year wasn’t exactly a vacation. It was, for more than a thousand of them, their first taste of armor.
Members of the 16th Cavalry Regiment on post hosted the 1,311 cadets as they participated in Mounted Maneuver Training, an annual summer exercise that’s been held for more than 25 years. For most of the cadets, it was the first time they’d gotten a chance to see the Army’s armor and cavalry assets in action, and to get a hands-on feel for the weapons systems used in the cavalry.
“It gives the West Point cadets the opportunity to be exposed to all aspects of the Army,” said Sgt. 1st Class David Ainslie, an instructor with West Point’s Department of Military Instruction.
The cadets were at Knox’s St. Vith Range July 26, getting orientation classes on the MK-19 grenade launcher, M-240B machine gun, and the M-242 Bushmaster machine gun.
“They get about 45 minutes of trigger time,” said Capt. Robert Geiner, the commander of Troop D, 1st Squadron, 16th Cavalry Regiment. “We want to recruit the best we can for the Cav. They love it... they want more ammo.”
After a morning’s worth of weapons familiarization, the cadets moved to Knox’s Checkpoint 37, where they got a chance to watch Abrams tanks and Bradleys maneuver.
“Generally, they really enjoy it,” Ainslie said, “because they get to see something different from what they’re exposed to for the rest of the year.”
Cadets at West Point train in engineering and infantry at the school’s Camp Buckner, but it takes a trip to Fort Knox for them to see tanks in action.
“We’re immersed in infantry at Buckner,” said Sean Flachs, a junior from St. Louis.
Flachs attended MMT at Knox last year as a sophomore. He said he’s been impressed this year with the increased hands-on emphasis.
“Last year was sort of a demonstration,” he said. “It’s a bit more in-depth this year.”
The hands-on training is geared primarily toward the sophomores, who are called “yearlings.” For the juniors and seniors who attend, the experience is in leadership. The sophomores are divided into companies, while juniors, like Flachs, serve as platoon and squad leaders and company commanders. The seniors work at the battalion level as staff officers and command staff.
Flachs said his role as a squad leader has been educational.
“It’s different,” he said. “You actually have to deal with unhappy troops.”
Female cadets are not able to choose the Armor Branch, but some discovered that they could have roles in the Cav when they came to Knox this year.
“On the way here, we were thinking, ‘Whatever, they’re just tanks,’” said Graciela Orantes, a sophomore from Chicago. “But I noticed the firepower you have (in a tank), and the amount you can do with such a smaller number of Soldiers.”
“All I knew was that we were going to get an introduction to the Armor Branch,” said Amy Sexauer, a sophomore Army “brat” who grew up in Georgia. “This has been pretty sweet... the amount of technology in a tank is amazing.”
Sexauer said she’d been excited at the prospect of firing weapons, but didn’t realize that she could very well join a cavalry unit someday.
“Even as females, there’s actually realistic training for us, too,” she said.
The five-day training exercise goes through four iterations each summer, Ainslie said.
“It gets them a feel for how they’ll actually be operating in the field,” he said.



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[strykerboy41]

Well i had fun supporting the MMT mission and had fun with the caddets on my tank we showed them the ropes the best we could in fact the female tank commanders were not so bad. alltho i did have 6 diffrent caddets puke in my gunners hole two in one day.