FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — What was once a small rural community and farmland is now the largest training area on Fort Leonard Wood. Training Area 244, also known as the Normandy Training Area, stretches over 900 acres and serves as the primary joint-service training environment for Department of War construction engineers.
Managed by the 554th Engineer Battalion’s Horizontal Skills Division, Training Area 244 contains remote equipment operation sites, centralized maintenance bays, training facilities, administrative buildings and classrooms.
The area is shared by the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force, creating a realistic joint-training environment that replicates battlefield and garrison operations.
U.S. Army construction engineers who conduct their initial training there include the military occupational specialties of 12N Horizontal Construction Engineer, 12G Quarrying Specialist and 91L Construction Equipment Repairer.
These Soldiers train on nine major equipment platforms, including dump trucks, excavators, wheel loaders, backhoe loaders, scrapers, graders and cranes.
According to Patrick Holt, HSD training specialist, “construction skills directly enable mission success across the battlefield.”
“You can’t build a road, hospital, or helicopter landing pad without pushing dirt first,” Holt explained, adding that every combat engineering task begins with mastering these basic principles.
Holt said engineers learning these MOSs at Training Area 244 serve as force multipliers on the battlefield.
“Everybody’s dependent on you to do their job,” Holt said. “They can’t do their job until you’re done with yours.”
To better prepare students for today’s battlefield, Training Area 244 has updated its training approach by including simulation technology. The bulldozer, excavator, loader, scraper and grader simulators allow students to develop proficiency before operating live equipment.
Holt said training continues to transform to meet the demands of a technology-driven force.
“We don’t train what we used to train. We train on what’s relevant to today’s Army,” he said.
While HSD maintains the largest footprint on the training area, the U.S. Air Force trains a comparable number of airmen in their courses.
According to Dustin Silk, a training manager with the Air Force’s 368th Training Squadron located on Fort Leonard Wood, more than 2,000 airmen conduct their training on Training Area 244 annually. The U.S. Air Force specialties 2T1X1 Ground Transportation and collocated training for 3E2X1 Pavements and Equipment courses train there.
Like Air Force students, Marine’s train on service-specific pieces of heavy equipment while also integrating with Army courses and simulators.
Marines in the occupations of 1341 Engineer Equipment Mechanic train alongside 91L Construction Equipment Repairer Soldiers in a combined maintenance course, while Marine 1345 Engineer Equipment Operators train with 12N Horizontal Construction Engineer Soldiers on grader simulators.
Marine Master Gunnery Sgt. Jason Giles, Engineer Equipment Instruction Company Academics chief with the U.S. Marine Corps Detachment at Fort Leonard Wood, discussed how cross training is a defining feature of the training area.
“This shared instruction increases efficiency, maximizes manpower and exposes students to joint operational standards they will encounter during deployments”, Giles said.
Navy Chief Petty Officer Tyler Brown, Equipment Operator School course manager with the Navy’s Center for Seabees and Facilities Engineering Detachment also at Fort Leonard Wood, shared a similar outlook on the Navy’s presence on the training area, and combined training between Navy students and their U.S. Army counterparts.
Brown said integrated training “greatly enhances the operational readiness of military engineering forces for real-world missions around the world”.
According to Brown, approximately 200 Navy Equipment Operators complete the naval-specific instruction alongside their Army counterparts each year.
The training area’s capabilities exceed further than land movement. It also houses the U.S. Army Prime Power School, training 12P Power Distribution Specialists and 12Q Power Production Specialists, and serving as the only institution that produces the U.S. Army’s medium-voltage power experts.
According to Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Dugan, USAPPS commander and deputy commandant, about 140 Soldiers and sailors train there annually on multiple generations of power systems.
Dugan said combined training, “fosters a joint learning environment that reduces redundancy while preparing Soldiers and sailors to execute global missions ranging from combat and contingency operations to disaster response.”
To learn more about U.S. Army MOSs mentioned in this article, visit the 12N Horizontal Construction Engineer, 12G Quarrying Specialist, 12P Power Distribution Specialist and 91L Construction Equipment Repairer pages on goarmy.com.
More photos of training at Training Area 244 may be viewed on Fort Leonard Wood’s Flickr page.
