IED lanes help to protect Provider Soldiers

IED lanes help to protect Provider Soldiers

Capt. Amanda Nalls
210th BSB, 2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. (LI)

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq — Almost every day in theater sees Provider Soldiers traversing the many roads that link patrol bases across the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division’s (LI) area of operations. Despite the fact that Company A, 210th Brigade Support Battalion “Providers” has led almost 70 combat logistics patrols across the sometimes deadly routes, they have never once detonated an improvised explosive devise or sustained a casualty from enemy activity.
The company owes its success to outstanding leadership, conscientious Soldiers and an unusually high level of training developed and tested by the battalion staff.
2nd Lt. Brandon Stahl, 210th BSB officer, and native of Shiremanstown, Penn., has made it his personal mission to ensure that Provider Soldiers return safe from every mission outside the wire.
Although Stahl’s intelligence section, which consists of only two analysts, is the smallest in the 2nd BCT, he has maximized their effectiveness and developed innovative ways to train the battalion’s Soldiers on the most current enemy techniques.
Stahl’s latest project is an IED training lane, which allows Soldiers to practice their skill at detecting IEDs while on the move. Stahl and his Soldiers have painstakingly gathered and positioned materials that correspond with actual enemy IEDs seen along the routes that Provider Soldiers travel on a daily basis.
As a combat logistics patrol rolls through the lane, they encounter -among other obstacles - crushwire concealed in reeds, artillery rounds hidden in mounds of trash and mud, and “Christmas tree” wire strung across the route.
The patrol must identify at least four of the six IEDs in each lane in order to be considered proficient. “It’s very realistic training,” said Sgt. 1st Class James Felix, the 210th BSB personal security detachment noncommissioned officer in charge and native of Memphis, Tenn. “It’s especially important for Soldier that don’t get as many chances to get outside the wire to see the techniques that the enemy is using to target them.”
Felix and his team were among the first in the battalion to test the lane and will become the battalion’s resident experts on IED lane training and defeat techniques.
“While all of these Soldiers have been out numerous times and are very experienced, this lane is another tool that paints a picture of what they can expect to see out in sector. It helps sharpen their skills so that they do not become complacent,” Stahl commented. As enemy techniques change throughout the deployment, so too will Stahl’s methods of training Soldiers on ways to identify and combat those techniques.
His efforts are just one of the many ways the brigade ensures that Soldiers are highly trained and ready for any situation the enemy can throw at them.
IED lanes are conducted at least two or three times a month.