6th Brigade, 25th Infantry Division
The 6th Bde. was initially organized as part of the 25th Inf. Div. As such, members of the brigade wear the “Tropic Lightning” shoulder patch of the 25th Inf. Div. The 1st Inf. Div. is designated to return to Fort Riley from Germany sometime in the future. The 6th Bde. will become part of the 1st Inf. Div. sometime in the future, but as of late 2005 the actual designation had not been announced by the Department of the Army. When that redesignation occurs, the brigade’s members will switch to the “Big Red One” shoulder patch.
As of May 2005 the Army was looking for Fort Riley enlisted Soldiers to volunteers for the new 6th Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, being stationed at America’s Warfighting Center in Kansas. To volunteer, Soldiers must not be filling a critical or shortage military occupational specialty in their current brigade or unit and must not be scheduled for deployment. Soldiers will be stabilized for a period of three years beginning Jan. 16, 2006.
Soldiers must be fully eligible to re-enlist for the three-year requirement if applicable. Time on station (24 months or less) waivers will be automatically approved by DA. Soldiers returning from deployment may have their 90-day stabilization period waived by the first lieutenant colonel in their chain of command.
The arrival of the 6th Brigade, 25th Infantry at Fort Riley will serve as a good test case to demonstrate the post's ability to accommodate more troops. Approximately 3,400 troops began arriving at Fort Riley over the 18 months prior to the Brigade's activation in the 2nd Quarter of FY2006.
Inside the old 937th Engineer Group headquarters building on Custer Hill 19 September 2005, the atmosphere resembled the beginning of morning physical training. Soldiers sweated and moved quickly in the heat, responded immediately to whatever new task was ordered and faced the end of the immediate mission with determination and purpose. It wasn’t morning, however. It was the middle of the afternoon. It wasn’t PT, either, although there was a lot of physical activity taking place.
The Soldiers are putting together a new combat brigade at Fort Riley. They have little time to waste and expressed some hope the air conditioning would soon be fixed to cool things a bit inside. A few more than 120 Soldiers belong to the new brigade so far. They’re trickling into the 25th Infantry Division brigade every day in “ones and twos, threes and fours,” said Col. Ricky D. Gibbs, the airborne infantry Soldier commanding the new light infantry unit of action. Larger groups of new personnel will be arriving in the near future as the “Tropic Lightning’s” new brigade grows toward its authorized strength of about 3,400, he said.
The brigade plans to officially “stand up” Jan. 16, but even then it won’t have all its people assigned, Gibbs said. Soldiers will continue to join the brigade into the summer of 2006, he said. “My No. 1 priority is ensuring that we receive and welcome Soldiers and families as they come into the brigade and the Fort Riley area. I think the happiness of the Soldier and the family (is vital), getting the families settled, kids in school, Soldiers inprocessed,” Gibbs said.
While the new brigade staff works on setting up its systems and tactical standard operating procedures from scratch, Directorate of Public Works arranged labor will “completely reset” each building the new brigade will occupy, Gibbs said. That means extensive renovation, including structure upgrades and putting in new furniture, he added. “We want the Soldiers to feel good about where they go to work and where they live,” Gibbs said.
The brigade needs lots of equipment to fulfill its mission, but only a little of that has arrived. “We have about 16 lines of equipment ... that are going to be in the brigade. They’re not 100 percent filled,” he said. In fact, Gibbs said he has fewer than 10 “Humvees” now. A light infantry brigade, such as the 6th Bde., moves with “Humvees” and trucks, Gibbs said, so there will be no tracked vehicles in the brigade. Other lines of equipment include such things as rifles, protective masks, etc. A “line of equipment” refers to one type of equipment issued to the brigade.
Brigade staff members step lively in their efforts to organize the new unit of action from scratch even though people assigned to the “life-cycle” unit will generally be together for a fairly long time, at least the next three years.
The Army’s strategy, Gibbs explained, is to stand up a lifecycle brigade and give it enough time to become proficient as a combat team. The 6th Bde. is going through the first phase of that life cycle – reset and train, he said. Training will begin after all the SOPs and tactical documents have been written.
“The first two weeks in November we will do what I call ‘omega training.’ The leaders will go to the field and work through the tactical SOPs to validate what we wrote and to work through them so we know them,” Gibbs said. “It’s training the trainers,” he emphasized. The SOPs will cover everything from applying camouflage to a Soldier’s face to the markings that will be put on rucksacks, how to pack a rucksack and tactical maneuvers, Gibbs added.
After “omega training,” the brigade will train all its Soldiers and units to a level of competence that puts the brigade in the second phase of the life cycle – “ready” status, Gibbs went on. That status indicates the brigade is capable of deploying to a combat area, he said; but, “it doesn’t mean we will be called to deploy.” The final year of the life cycle is generally the time a unit of action would deploy, Gibbs said; but, again, that doesn’t mean the brigade would deploy. Deployment depends on the needs of the Army, he emphasized. Should the 6th Bde. never deploy, the three-year life cycle starts over with a new corps of leaders, Gibbs said.
