“The purpose of the exercise is to evaluate our ability to operate not just as a platoon, but combined, using our internal and external assets such as mortars and our scouts and snipers from battalion and integrating them into our planning and execution of the mission,” said Sgt. Dustin Carden, a squad leader in 2nd Plt. The deployment is an opportunity for the platoon to work with a different country’s military force. “We are going over there to augment a Singaporean infantry company,” said 1st Lt. Nathan Gadberry, the platoon leader. “We’ll conduct a company assault on a mounted objective in an urban area.” “We’re also there to help refine [standard operating procedures] on mounted operations with their Terrex vehicles,” he added. “It’s their equivalent to a Stryker.” Sgt. Joseph MacDonald, a squad leader in the platoon, said he views the future training as a learning experience for his unit. “We’ll see what they know that we don’t know or how they do something differently as well as them being able to learn from us,” he said. As part of certification for Singapore, the battalion commander certified the platoon by observing the entire mission evaluating them on their combat tasks. |