{"id":487326,"date":"2025-06-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=487326"},"modified":"2025-06-21T00:10:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T00:10:24","slug":"iowa-army-guard-soldiers-train-at-tigerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=487326","title":{"rendered":"Iowa Army Guard Soldiers Train at Tigerland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n A U.S. Soldier assigned to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, pulls security at the Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, La., June 15, 2025. JRTC is designed to improve unit readiness through force-on-force exercises that prepare Soldiers for missions they may be assigned in real-world operations.
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\n A group of U.S. Army Soldiers lie in a field after exiting a UH-60 Black Hawk at the Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Johnson, La., June 10, 2025. Soldiers practice entering and exiting the aircraft to enhance proficiency for real-world missions.
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\n Soldiers assigned to 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, take part in a briefing on upcoming operations at Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Johnson, La., June 7, 2025. Rotational units at JRTC synchronize battle rhythms to ensure mission success during the 21-day training cycle.
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FORT POLK, La. \u2013 More than 4,000 Soldiers from the Iowa Army National Guard trained throughout June at Fort Polk, undergoing one of the Army\u2019s most demanding combat training events in preparation for an upcoming overseas deployment.<\/p>\n

Known since the Vietnam War era as \u201cTigerland,\u201d Fort Polk and the Joint Readiness Training Center have become synonymous with forging combat-ready Soldiers through intense, realistic training. For Iowa\u2019s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, this rotation marks a pivotal moment: their first full brigade deployment since 2010.<\/p>\n

At the Joint Readiness Training Center, or JRTC, Soldiers are evaluated under pressure. Their minds are stressed, their physical limits are tested and their endurance is pushed to the edge. From junior enlisted Soldiers to senior Iowa Army National Guard leaders, all participants endure mental, physical and emotional exhaustion.<\/p>\n

The JRTC is one of four Army combat training centers. The others are the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) in Hohenfels, Germany; the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; and the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California.<\/p>\n

The JRTC, however, is known for being the most grueling. The simulated combat environment, complete with force-on-force scenarios and constant stressors, provides Soldiers with some of the most realistic training they will encounter in their careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of methods that we use to test Soldiers while they\u2019re in the training area. One is simply the stress and pressure of combat,\u201d said Brig. Gen. Derek Adams, the senior trainer for rotation 25-08. \u201cWe try to simulate that as best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the senior trainer, Adams works closely with observer-coach\/trainers and the JRTC leadership to design, execute and evaluate the training rotation. He coordinates with the Operations Group, which oversees the exercise, monitors unit performance across all warfighting functions and delivers objective feedback through after-action reviews to improve readiness at every level.<\/p>\n

\u201cJRTC emphasizes DOD\u2019s (Department of Defense\u2019s) priorities of lethality, warfighting and readiness by training the entire brigade combat team, from the individual Soldiers to the brigade combat team level,\u201d Adams said. \u201cIt\u2019s a large, complex organization, and this training reflects that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This type of training marks a broader shift in Army doctrine.<\/p>\n

The Army is transitioning from the counterinsurgency operations of the past two decades to large-scale combat operations, or LSCO. Large-scale combat operations prepare Soldiers for potential conflicts with near-peer adversaries by emphasizing large-scale maneuvers, complex logistics and sustained combat power.<\/p>\n

\u201cLSCO changes sustainment operations sheerly in the magnitude of what occurs,\u201d said Col. Tony Smithhart, commander of the 734th Regional Support Group (RSG). \u201cYou\u2019re talking about large numbers of Soldiers, large numbers of equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RSG is structured to provide logistical support to up to 20,000 Soldiers in a deployed environment. As the Regional Support Command for the JRTC, the RSG was tasked with coordinating all sustainment efforts. This included feeding more than 5,800 Soldiers, managing medical treatment and staging and preparing more than 2,500 pieces of equipment for operation.<\/p>\n

Planning for the JRTC began more than a year before the first boots hit the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made my first trip to Fort Polk about 18 months ago to determine the actual area we\u2019d operate in,\u201d Smithhart said. \u201cSince then, my team at the 734th Regional Support Group has returned about six times to coordinate with Fort Polk staff, validate our node concepts and rehearse operations to support reception, staging, onward integration and base camp management.\u201d<\/p>\n

The JRTC has earned its reputation. The environment is humid and rainy, the terrain is unforgiving and the scenarios evolve constantly.<\/p>\n

All of these factors come together to form a stressful and taxing exercise, but one that will toughen Soldiers. Despite numerous aspects working against them, the Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, proved they not only have the grit to complete their upcoming deployment successfully but also to complete any mission that is asked of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale of this operation is critical to the development of our Soldiers,\u201d Smithhart said. \u201cIt\u2019s been called a generational training opportunity, and I believe that\u2019s accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nationalguard.mil<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheNationalGuard<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/USNationalGuard<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 A U.S. Soldier assigned to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, pulls security at the Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, La., June 15, 2025. JRTC is designed to improve unit readiness through force-on-force exercises that prepare Soldiers for missions they may be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487328,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-487326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=487326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":487332,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487326\/revisions\/487332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/487328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=487326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=487326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=487326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}