Story by Staff Sgt. Jeremy Fowler
August 27, 2010
FORT McCOY, Wis. -- The U.S. Army Reserve has a five-year cycle for preparing, training and scheduling a unit for deployment. Under the Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) program units are scheduled to be mobilized for one year and be home for four.
During those four years home, however, the units constantly are training and gaining manpower for that year of deployment. A large part of that is the training each unit conducts.
The Combat Support Training Exercise (CSTX) 2010 at Fort McCoy is designed for units in their fourth year of the ARFORGEN cycle. This means each unit participating in the exercise is slated to be deployed at some point in the upcoming year.
"CSTX is a culmination of a vision of the Army Reserve to implement a training strategy that fits into the ARFORGEN cycle for the Army Reserve," said Brig. Gen. Walter B. Chahanovich, exercise director of CSTX 2010 and commander of the 78th Training Brigade.
Through about the end of August, around 1,100 Soldiers will have participated in several training exercises, which were split into five-day increments. The training exercises were evaluated by observer-controller-trainers provided by numerous commands.
An additional 1,600 Soldiers served as enablers and supported the other Soldiers. The enablers also will be evaluated, but the emphasis was on those 1,100 Soldiers entering the fourth year of the ARFORGEN cycle.
For the initial five days in the field, the 718th Transportation Battalion, 275th Combat Support Battalion, and the 77th Sustainment Brigade conducted a command post exercise. The companies supporting these groups were at forward operating bases conducting situational training exercises. The CSTX 2010 trained Soldiers to be the most highly trained troops they can be in preparation for deployment.
