V Corps 'Vipers' ready to rock
by Sgt. Amy Abbott
CAMP VIRGINIA, Kuwait (Army News Service, March 19, 2003) -- "It's important that you stay close together. I've said it 100 times, and here's 101: 'We ain't got no friendlies in front of us,'" said a stern Staff Sgt. Wade Cherms.
The platoon of "Vipers" from B Company, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, Fort Riley, Kan., listens intently to the guidance from their squad leader. As they sit in the sand, wiping a day's worth of tough training in the desert's sweltering heat, they discuss what they did well, and what they can improve next time.
The 2nd platoon soldiers, from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of V Corps' 1st Armored Division, spent March 16 going through room- and trench-clearing procedures. With a staged set made up of sandbags and taped dividers, the soldiers cleared "bunkers" and secured "hallways."
"Just like everything else we do - practice, practice, practice. It hones their skills," said Battalion Command Sgt. Maj. Charles Griffin. "Like anything else, if you get complacent you loose your edge."
During their after action-review the Vipers discussed everything from switching out their lead men to moving through the course faster and fiercer. Cherms summed up the AAR by asking, "Did we all get some training out of this?!" The platoon's answer was a unanimous battle cry: "HOO-AH!"
"The training gives our platoon more familiarization. I feel we're already prepared and this is just a refresher," said Pfc. Dean Gonzales, a Squad Automatic Weapon gunner in the platoon's second squad.
Familiarization is something a soldier can never get enough of, the Vipers say.
"The guy next to me could get killed if I make the wrong decision or position him wrong," said Spc. Don Angle, first squad team leader. "This makes us stay focused. The Vipers are definitely ready for anything, because we have excellent leaders who train us hard."
Not just hard, but often. Veterans of the Kuwaiti desert, they were here with their battalion from May until October of last year. Then they returned home for a brief two weeks before "training up" for another mission and their return to Kuwait earlier this month. Now that they're back to the sandy browns of the desert, they're training day and night to perfect and enhance their skills.
"My personal opinion is that this is the best trained mechanized infantry battalion in the United States Army right now," said Griffin.
"This is our job and this is what we train for," added Spc. Salas Ruben, a rifleman in the Vipers' third squad. "We're ready for anything and our confidence is high. We're cocked, blocked and ready to rock!"
(Editor's note: Sgt. Amy Abbott is a member of V Corps Public Affairs.)
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