TOPEKA (KSNT) – Soldiers at Fort Riley showed off their Bradley fighting vehicles Wednesday.
Officials said training and operating weapons for gunnery is a foundational skill in the Army. Service members train for four to six weeks on the platform of driver training. Then from there, they do the GST gunnery skills test. It’s for developing the basics, such as how to load ammunition and how to identify targets in the field.
“Anything that we plan is an operation. We start really for plan and prepare. And for us to be successful, we have to rehearse and make sure everyone is on the same page,” said LTC Bernard Mabini, commander, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment.
Staff Sergeant Jacob Kreager is a vehicle commander at Fort Riley. He has been driving Bradley’s for the past two years. His job is to tell the gunner where and what to fire while giving the driver directions.
“Think of it like the brain,” Kreager said. “And then they’re like me. My arms and legs, so. Yeah. Just keep keeping the crew alive. Keeping us where we’re going. Make sure we’re going to the right place.”
Kreager talked about how important the little details are when it comes to operating a fighting vehicle.
“Working on the simple fundamentals is what’s super important for keeping that cohesion together,” Kreager said. “It’s super easy to mess up a little bit, and then once you throw yourself out of sync, it’s going to mess up the entire crew. So, working on the little things is what’s really important and keeping everything super smooth and fluent.”
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Wednesday’s event not only had the Bradley crews working, but also the command post practicing command and control, role one medical facilities, which means practicing evacuation procedures, along with a unit maintenance collection point for disabled equipment.
“But it’s more than just marksmanship,” Mabini said. “I mean, it’s an opportunity for our leaders to make decisions, for our crews to better learn how to communicate, and for us to gain that mastery again as they build trust with each other and trust inside their platforms and in the crews.”
Once they meet this milestone, they will continue into the collective training cycle.
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