TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01 - TRADOC - U.S. Army

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01The 1st Combined Arms Battalion lead element consisted of the first elements of the RSTACompany now mounted in six Condors less than 30 minutes out from their new landing areas inAO Foxden. The virtual rehearsal had gone pretty well considering that they had prepared it asa branch plan and had actually done an excursion like it on the last training center rotation, butCaptain Toby Brown was not at all pleased.“Top, I don’t care how much data and feeds we’ve got on the landing areas in Foxden,nothing is as good as eyes on the ground! Why couldn’t they get some other special forces inthere?” he grumbled, knowing the First Sergeant didn’t have a clue. They’d been awake for atleast 32 hours with almost no break from deplaning from the C17s and uploading the Condors.Not much chance of resting on the tilt rotors either, especially with the change in plan and thevirtual rehearsal. Brown’s company was good. The best in the battalion if not the brigade,friends told him, but his guys were tired. Now they would be hitting the ground essentially blindexcept for the video and digital images sent by satellite and some Air Force drones. His missionwas reconnaissance, intelligence, surveillance, for crying out loud, not bloody forcible entry!“Touch down in two!” The chief engineer shouted.RSTA crews in all six Condors were already mounted in their FSV-Rs. Gunners broughtbands of ammo to the receivers of their weapons, locking and loading. Drivers sat poised to hitthe starter as soon as the ramp went down. Infrared systems and millimeter wave radars were upand running drawing power from the umbilical cable connected to the Condor.Condor 1 landed in a plowed field pointed west. As the crew dropped the ramp, flares lit thesky exposing the monstrous quad tilt rotor and its precious cargo. The FSV-R roared off theramp which was already coming up as pilot, Army Reserve Captain Marcus Lee pulled pitch withall he had. Where the flare came from was anybody’s guess, but one thing was certain: It wasn’tfriendly.Toby Brown saw his other vehicles moving east to the edge of the field as they’d rehearsed.He wondered if the sound of the Condors triggered the flare. OPFOR used that trick at theNational Training Center to keep from having to watch the whole damned desert for potentiallanding Condors. How long would he have before the shooting started?Not long enough, as it turned out.0404 hours, eastern portion of AO FoxdenSix FSV-Rs spaced more than 200 meters apart rolled quietly in the direction of PekanbaruInternational Airport some 50 kilometers to the east. Their mission was to recon lanes and clearroutes for the rest of their battalion vehicles as they arrived in Foxden. The rest of the RSTACompany should arrive in two sorties about 15 minutes behind Captain Brown.“Clear. No mines. No IEDs. No sign of hostiles,” Sergeant Topping noted quietly. “Driver,let’s swing northeast heading 060. I want to get a closer look at that power station that’s got ourscreens lit up.”197