Service Support… It Ain’t as Easy as it Looks

Service Support… It Ain’t as Easy as it Looks
2BT Newsletter: Daggers Edge V1, Iss14
1st Lt. Chris Lowry
May 30, 2007

Flashback: So there we were, southern California at the National Training Center (NTC). This was supposed to be the ultimate test of our platoon. It was supposed to be the culmination of all of our training as a Forward Support Company (FSC). We were wellrehearsed and trained to standard in all aspects of Service Support, everything from vehicle load plans to Combat Logistic Patrol (CLP) battle drills. According to NTC standards we did exceptionally well. We were ready for deployment… Or were we?

Fast-forward to present day. As you may have already guessed, things did not turn out the way we had planned. Instead of running CLP, we were instructed to do something that none of us had ever done before. We were told that we were to be one of the battalion’s infantry platoons.

I know what you are thinking, “what does a service support platoon know about operating in the combat arms world?” Well, to be quite honest, we did not know much at the time. We had been training for the past year and a half doing nothing but combat logistic patrols. We had to cram a year of training into a little less than 10 days, because we were to augment an infantry company as it conducted route reconnaissance and observation missions for Arrowhead Strike IX. Since we were only operating at night, it was mandatory that we work only in blackout conditions. Luckily, we were already well trained in night operations from conducting our CLPs, so we incorporated that experience into our new mission of dismounted patrols. We went straight from the crawl phase to the run phase and were expected to function as a fully-trained infantry platoon. The standards were set forth by the infantry company Commander we were to operate under, all we had to do was meet them.

On the first night of operations, I could tell the guys were a little nervous and to be quiet honest, I was nervous myself. I had butterflies the size of a 10K generator flying around in my stomach. It felt like the night of the big game, and for us it was the big game. This was the time to show all those people who think the service support branches should be “in the rear, with the gear” that we could hang with the big dogs. And you know what? That is exactly what we did. We ran with the big dogs and not only met the standard, but exceeded it on multiple occasions.

First Platoon / G Company is now a full-time maneuver element, conducting the full spectrum of “combat arms” missions. We do everything the combat arms guys do with not only less training, but different equipment and a variety of different MOSs. We all have different types of backgrounds and schooling within the platoon. We have communications specialists, truck drivers, mechanics, and cooks, as well as fuel, wrecker, and crane operators. Some might look at that as a disadvantage, but I look at it as a major advantage. We are a wide assortment of Soldiers put into an extraordinary situation, but we have risen to the challenge and exceeded everyone’s expectations.