The Gem State Guardian - Spring 2011 - Keep Trees

Regional Training Site – Maintenance Transforms
By Lt. Col. Dean Hagerman, 204th Regional Training Institute
The 204th Regiment’s Idaho Ordinance
Training Battalion, formerly known as the
Regional Training Site – Maintenance, is at
the forefront of the Army’s need to outpace
its adversaries. This effort is seen in the rapid
expansion of class offerings, the upgrading
of facilities, the installation of new training
aids and an additional mission.
“We’re working hard to complete a major
remodel in time to accommodate new
hands-on trainers for Soldiers learning to
maintain M1 tanks,” said Col. Alan Conilogue,
commander, 204th RTI. “These new
trainers are actual turrets from M1 tanks and
contain all of the component systems maintainers
need to master. The system allows
trainers to insert specifi c faults into the
equipment which students must sleuth out,
further enhancing this interactive training.”
To provide additional classroom space
for the anticipated doubling of their student
load, the unit is also revamping and
Sgt. 1st Class Damon Moysard, right,
an instructor with the IOTB Small
Arms Repair Course, provides guidance
to a student learning to adjust
the M-242 Bushmaster 25 mm automatic
gun from the M-2/M-3 series
Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
Photo: Sgt. Shauna Rowen.
4 The Guardian
upgrading classrooms with state-of-the-art
multimedia systems.
High tech training aids are not the only
tool used by instructors. Army schools have
often been behind when it comes to getting
the latest information from the frontline into
the classroom. Using students’ personal, fi rsthand
experience, instructors now incorporate
the latest information on Operational Environment
by asking students to give examples
of performing maintenance in a real-world,
mission-directed environment. The IOTB
facilities are a schoolhouse setting, so students
are constantly asked how they could
perform their mission in an austere, fi eld location.
By doing this, the school ensures that its
students are given the most useful and most
current information possible.
As part of a new mission, the IOTB
sent members several times to Cambodia,
Idaho’s State Partnership Program partner
nation. Once there, they trained Cambodian
Soldiers to maintain trucks provided to them
by the U.S.
As an additional challenge, in the next
year, while adding courses, increasing student
through-put, upgrading facilities and
overseas travel, the IOTB will be evaluated
by both the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine
Command and the Ordinance School, their
proponent command. This evaluation will
decide whether the school is accredited
under new, more stringent standards. The
school’s future will be determined by their
successes.
If past performance is any measure,
despite all of these demands and with a
lot of hard work by the staff and faculty, the
future of Idaho’s Ordinance Training Battalion
looks bright.