1st Cavalry Division Headquarters staff and 3rd Cavalry Regiment trained together in a joint command post exercise from Feb. 28 through March 4 at Fort Hood.
“This week, the division is keenly focused on CPX 2 in conjunction with ‘Rifles Forge,’ the pinnacle event for 3rd CR as it prepares for NTC (National Training Center) 22-07,” said Col. Nathaniel Crow, 1st Cavalry Division G3. “The additional CPX gives the division headquarters the opportunity to exercise our command and control system, while also providing observer coach/trainers for Brave Rifles, giving valuable feedback and helping unit leaders see themselves.”
The purpose of an OC/T is to observe units during training exercises to control the training unit’s environment and to provide feedback during the after-action review. While the Army has units dedicated to this mission, such as Fort Hood’s First Army Division West, 1st Cavalry Soldiers served as OC/Ts only temporarily, in order to enhance Brave Rifles’ readiness.
“The outcome is being able to deliver an honest report back to 3rd Cav. Regt., so they know the areas that they may want to focus on in any final training before they go to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California,” said Maj. Jack Meyers, 1st Cavalry Division space operations officer.
While 1st Cav. Div. assisted 3rd Cav. Regt. with Rifles Forge, the exercise doubled as 1st Cav.’s CPX 2.
“The exercise prepares our division staff and 3rd Cav. Regt. for deployment/contingency operations through realistic, rigorous and effective training,” said Crow. “Successful completion of both CPX 2 and 3rd CR CTE set conditions for successful mission completion at WFX (Warfighter Exercise) 22-4.”
“For 1st Cav., this is one step in a two-year training progression, leading up to the fiscal year 2023 Warfighter series, where division will get evaluated by Mission Command Training Program out of Fort Leavenworth,” Meyers said. “We started last summer with some tent exercises, or Tentex, moved into CPX 0.5 just before Christmas, CPX 1 in January, and this is our CPX 2, leading into Global Defender 22/Warfighter 22-3 in April, Warfighter 22-4 after that, and later on we’ll go into the Warfighter 23 series.”
Serving as OC/Ts, 1st Cav. Div.plans to provide feedback to 3rd Cav. Regt., but since the exercise doubles as training for the command post, they will also need to self-assess their performance during the exercise.
“Over the next reporting period we look forward to an AAR (After Action Report) with Brave Rifles,” Crow said, “but also a division internal AAR continuing our training progression and readiness for future operations. We’ll evaluate, for instance, how well we have established and integrated mission command systems among command posts.”
While the CPX is one exercise in a long chain of command post exercises for the Cav., the immediate focus is on Brave Rifles.
“The most important part of this exercise is the readiness piece for 3rd Cavalry Regiment,” said Meyers, “getting them ready for NTC.”
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