Members of Company D, 6th Royal Australian Regiment and the U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, (Light) train together on Dragon Missiles.

"In the six years I've been here, I've seen the OpFor [Opposition Force] get 'handed their lunch' [defeated] twice. This mission was one of those: I would say this [Australian-U.S. task force] is one of the top I've seen."

Rodney Sheetz
Battlefield Analyst,
National Training Center

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Heat waves flowed like a stream above the rocky desert hillside. The July sun, barely over the horizon to the east, already pushed mercury levels to the breaking point. Occasional human movement behind rock walls on the hill drew attention from no one on the open land that spread for miles below.

The Australian soldiers watched and waited quietly for a sign on their first-ever force-on-force mission at the U.S. Army's National Training Center (NTC), Fort Irwin, California. The NTC is where U.S. Army units are tested in real-world combat environments against a highly trained opposition force (OpFor) dedicated to winning every battle.

"Enemy! Enemy! Set up now!" Tiny lines of dust appeared to the left flank of Company D, 6th Royal Australian Regiment (RAR). The Australians had worked almost the entire night before, concealed by darkness, to build their rocky defensive positions.

Now, with the enemy in sight, they sat still and waited. They watched as the distant dust trails of enemy vehicles appeared and disappeared. The vaunted NTC OpFor was moving through a different pass to attack the allied armored forces far off on the battlefield.

The Australian infantrymen waited and watched about a mile from the Hawaii-based, U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry (1/14) but no enemy vehicles passed by. "We came here to fight," sighed an Australian squad automatic weapon gunner. "I can't believe they took a different route."

Hawaii Welcome

The Australians weren't always so frustrated with the way Exercise PACIFIC BOND '97 unfolded. In fact, their first reaction, soon after arriving at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii two weeks before, was slightly different. One week prior to departing for NTC, the Australians received a warm welcome to Hawaii from 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry, complete with a barbecue, live Hawaiian music, and hula dancers. "We had an excellent welcome from 1/14, and they made it very clear we were an integral part of their battalion. We will be working close together with them as their fourth infantry company," said Maj. Matt Quin, commander, Company D, 6th RAR.

The soldiers smiled as they talked about what NTC would be like. They had trained in the deserts of Australia and were now looking forward to the challenges of California's Mojave Desert. "We are quite pleased we were chosen to be the first foreign company to participate as part of the friendly forces there. It's rare that PacBond exercises even go to NTC. They usually go to JRTC," said Maj. Quin, referring to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana.

The Australians wasted no time training with the 1/14 while in Hawaii. They trained on American equipment they would use while at NTC, including night vision devices, and learned how American units load and unload from helicopters during air insertions.

"These soldiers have been training a very long time to achieve a standard," said Warrant Officer Class 2 Sam Snape, Sergeant Major, Company D, 6th RAR. "Their morale is very high and they are looking forward to NTC."

NTC Challenges

Task Force 1-14 (a composite force built around the U.S. 1/14) wasted no time setting up after arriving in early July 1997. Barely four days after setting foot on NTC soil, the Americans and Australians moved into position for their first mission.

Even as mission changes came down hard and fast, Company D was considered part of 1/14 for each battle strategy. "I considered the Australians a fourth maneuver element. We treated them as one of our own which provided us with more flexibility on missions. They were a great combat multiplier," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Mase Crowe, Commander of the 1/14.

Despite the frustration of not getting to fight on their first mission, the Australians remained determined to show everyone there what they could do. Before long, they got their chance.

The third mission was designed to be a split operation with two companies, B and D, inserted in the Iron Triangle to the north and the other companies, A and C, inserted near Hidden Valley to the south. The intent was to cut off any alternate routes the opposing forces might take, forcing the enemy to re-route straight down the Central Corridor, a vast open area running east and west. Realistically, they hoped to just slow the enemy down a little.

Trouble

Trouble started early when the majority of Company A, driven to their objective in trucks, were hit and destroyed by indirect artillery fire. Company C, traveling in helicopters, was hit at its landing zone, but the majority of the unit was able to find cover behind nearby rocks.

Up north, the Australians of Company D, also flying in, didn't fare any better. Their original landing zone was under fire so the pilots decided to land at an alternate landing zone. It was hot too, but this time the pilots decided to land.

"We had to hold out in the middle of the desert until we could flag down some trucks to take us back to our original objective," remembered Lt. Alastair Stehouwer, platoon commander, Company D, 6th RAR.

The next morning, the OpFor moved fast and furious attacking the Australians and everybody else with a vengeance. They held nothing back, hitting the task force with tanks and ground troops.

After indirect fire ravaged the majority of the hill Company C occupied, the sole surviving soldiers--eight in all--were attacked by three tanks and a 26-soldier infantry platoon. Two hours later, Company C still commanded the hill. "My soldiers had been looking for a fight for a long time. We were hungry for it. That mission set the tone for the rest of them," said Staff Sgt. Allen Hackney, a squad leader in 1st Platoon, Company C.

Aussie Victory

About the same time, the Australians watched in amazement as several enemy tanks rolled through their position. This time, the frustrated soldiers decided to do something about it. "We were holed up in a little gorge watching all these tanks go by. One of the boys said it looked like an armored Apocalypse Now," recalled Lt. Stehouwer. "They asked if they could go out after them, so we sent them out in little teams to attack the enemy. They wound up taking out several vehicles."

The Australian company not only destroyed several vehicles but effectively shut down the OpFor advancement through the Iron Triangle. "In the six years I've been here, I've seen the OpFor get 'handed their lunch' [defeated] twice. This mission was one of those," said Rodney Sheetz, a battlefield analyst at NTC's operations center. "I would say this [Australian-U.S. task force] is one of the top I've seen."

Lessons Shared

Private (Pte.) David Arnel, Company D, 6th RAR, said the American system of standing operation procedures has been talked about by the Australians and might be implemented. "Hopefully, we'll be able to put them into place and improve our army as well. Some of the new weapon systems hopefully will [also] be implemented in the Australian army in the not-too-distant future," he said.

Soldiers from both countries saw cooperation and tactics as beneficial for everyone. "They had their own tactics and we had ours, but it worked out well, because we successfully trained with them a couple of times back on Schofield in the trenches," said U.S. Infantryman Private First Class Johnny Demastes. "It was a good experience working with a unit from another country."