The Crucible - The JRTC Experience Podcast

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the one-hundredth-and-sixty-sixth episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.’ Hosted by the outgoing Senior Enlisted Advisor and Command Sergeant Major for the Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk, CSM Oracio Pena, Jr on behalf of the Commanding General and Commander of Ops Group (COG). CSM Pena will become the CSM for G-3 at Transformation and Training Command (T2COM). Today’s guests are four seasoned senior NCOs within one of our infantry task forces. CSM Bryan Jaragoske outgoing, acting Command Sergeant Major of Operations Group (formerly BC2 CSM). CSM Lucas Young is the TF CSM for Task Force 2 (IN BN) and CSM Edwards Cumming is the TF CSM with Task Force 3 (IN BN). And last but not least is CSM James Miller, the Command Sergeant Major of 1-509th IN (ABN) (OPFOR), known as Geronimo.

This episode examines the long-term trends, strengths, and shortcomings of infantry platoons and squads observed across multiple JRTC rotations. Senior leaders discuss how the character of warfare is changing and how small units are adapting to increasingly complex operational environments shaped by drones, electronic warfare, contested communications, and peer threats. While today’s Soldiers have become increasingly proficient at integrating emerging technologies such as small unmanned aircraft systems, digital mission command tools, and other modern battlefield capabilities, the discussion emphasizes that technology alone cannot compensate for weak fundamentals. Leaders highlight recurring observations including declining fieldcraft, overreliance on digital navigation, poor security during halts and patrol bases, inconsistent priorities of work, and a tendency to neglect foundational infantry skills in favor of new technology. Throughout the conversation, the panel reinforces that lethality begins with disciplined execution of the basics, and that units which master the fundamentals are best positioned to capitalize on technological advances. 

 

The discussion also provides practical recommendations for platoon sergeants, squad leaders, and team leaders preparing for combat or a JRTC rotation. Topics include maximizing security zones, conducting reconnaissance and security patrols, integrating analog and digital mission command systems, sustaining dispersed formations, strengthening reporting and operational security, and developing initiative through disciplined home-station training. Leaders stress the value of hip-pocket training, ruthless repetition, realistic live-fire exercises, and creating leaders who can adapt when technology fails. A recurring theme is that squads should never wait to be told to execute priorities of work or prepare for the next mission. Instead, successful formations continuously train, anticipate friction, and maintain the mindset that every halt is an opportunity to improve survivability, sustain combat power, and prepare for the next fight. Ultimately, the episode argues that while the tools of war continue to evolve, disciplined leadership, tactical proficiency, and mastery of the fundamentals remain the decisive factors that separate effective infantry units from those that struggle on the modern battlefield.   

 

Part of S03 “Lightfighter Lessons” series.

 

For additional information and insights from this episode, please check-out our Instagram page @the_jrtc_crucible_podcast.

 

Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest warfighting TTPs learned through the crucible that is the Joint Readiness Training Center.

 

Follow us by going to: https://linktr.ee/jrtc and then selecting your preferred podcast format.

 

Again, we’d like to thank our guests for participating. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and review us wherever you listen or watch your podcasts — and be sure to stay tuned for more in the near future.

 

“The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the one-hundredth-and-sixty-fifth episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.’ Hosted by MAJ Marc Howle, the Brigade Senior Engineer / Protection Observer – Coach – Trainer and MSG Jared Cawthon, the BDE Fires Support NCOIC OCT for the Brigade Command & Control (BDE HQ), on behalf of the Commander of Ops Group (COG). Today’s guests are subject matter experts from within JRTC’s fires support enterprise: MAJ David Nelson is the FA BN S-3 Operations Officer OCT, SFC Larry Gillispie, Jr. is the Fires Direction Center Senior OCT, and SFC Ryan Bruno is the Battery 1SG OCT for TF Fires (FA BN / DIVARTY). And MSG Austin Moss is the Senior Targeting NCOIC OCT for BC2.

 

This episode examines the fires technical rehearsal and why it is one of the most important, yet often overlooked, events in preparing a brigade for combat. The discussion explains how the fires technical rehearsal validates the entire sensor-to-shooter kill chain, ensuring observers, fire support personnel, fire direction centers, and gun crews can execute the plan before rounds are fired in combat. Leaders emphasize that the rehearsal is far more than a communications check—it validates fire support coordination measures, target refinement, firing data, ammunition availability, primary and alternate shooters, PACE plans, and the timing required to synchronize fires with maneuver. A recurring theme is that a simple plan supported by detailed fire support products and disciplined version control enables the brigade to identify friction early and refine tactical triggers into achievable technical triggers before execution. 

 

The conversation also highlights common shortcomings observed during JRTC rotations, including conducting the first technical rehearsal only after arrival at the training center, poor transition from plans to current operations, inadequate battle rhythm integration, and failure to involve the entire fires enterprise in rehearsals. Leaders discuss the importance of digital sustainment training at home station, rehearsing degraded communications, validating ammunition requirements, conducting deliberate handovers between shifts, and continuously refining the fire plan as the tactical situation changes. The episode reinforces that technical rehearsals should become a routine battle rhythm event rather than a one-time exercise, allowing staffs to uncover problems before they become combat failures. Ultimately, the discussion argues that disciplined technical rehearsals build confidence, improve synchronization between maneuver and fires, and give commanders the information needed to execute timely, accurate, and lethal fire support on the modern battlefield.         

 

Part of S13 “Hip Pocket Training” series.

 

For additional information and insights from this episode, please check-out our Instagram page @the_jrtc_crucible_podcast

 

Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest warfighting TTPs learned through the crucible that is the Joint Readiness Training Center.

 

Follow us by going to: https://linktr.ee/jrtc and then selecting your preferred podcast format.

 

Again, we’d like to thank our guests for participating. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and review us wherever you listen or watch your podcasts — and be sure to stay tuned for more in the near future.

 

“The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the one-hundredth-and-sixty-fourth episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.’ Hosted by MAJ Amy Beatty, the G-4 Senior Sustainment Planner from Plans / Exercise Maneuver Control Task Force on behalf of the Commander of Ops Group (COG). Today’s guest is the Battalion Commander for the 82nd Light Support Battalion, LTC Peter van Howe.

 

The 82nd Light Support Battalion (LSB), formerly the 82nd Brigade Support Battalion (BSB), serves as the sustainment backbone of the 3rd Mobile Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, providing logistics, maintenance, medical, transportation, and distribution support to enable the brigade’s rapid deployment and expeditionary operations worldwide. Known by its Hollywood call-sign, “Gator,” the battalion has a long history of supporting airborne and contingency operations, ensuring paratroopers can seize, hold, and fight from key terrain under austere conditions. As the Army transitions from the BSB to the LSB construct, the battalion continues to evolve its sustainment capabilities to support dispersed operations, contested logistics, and prolonged combat against peer threats. The battalion’s motto, “Service to the Line,” reflects its enduring commitment to projecting, generating, and preserving combat power for the brigade, ensuring maneuver forces remain lethal, mobile, and ready to fight whenever and wherever the Nation calls.

 

This episode explores the employment of the Light Support Battalion (LSB) and how sustainment formations are adapting to survive and sustain maneuver forces on the modern battlefield. The discussion focuses on base cluster design, command and control, survivability, distribution operations, and the constant balance between protection and sustainment throughput. Leaders examine different approaches to organizing the Brigade Support Area, emphasizing that there is no single solution and that sustainment leaders must remain flexible based on the enemy situation, terrain, mission requirements, and available resources. Topics include dispersed versus consolidated support areas, use of forward logistics elements, deception operations, engineer support, survivability positions, signature management, and the employment of decoy command posts. A recurring theme throughout the episode is that sustainment formations must think and fight like maneuver formations, continuously adapting their posture to maintain survivability while preserving the ability to project, generate, and preserve combat power for the brigade. 

 

The conversation also focuses on the critical relationship between maneuver units and the sustainment enterprise. Leaders discuss the importance of accurate LOGSTAT reporting, synchronization across echelons, understanding the roles of the S4, Support Operations Officer (SPO), G4, and G8, and ensuring sustainment is integrated into planning from the outset. Additional topics include running estimates, logistics common operating pictures, rehearsals, battle rhythm events, sustainment forecasting, and the role of NCOs in MDMP. The episode highlights how sustainment success depends on shared understanding, continuous communication, and deliberate synchronization in time and space. Ultimately, the discussion reinforces that the LSB is far more than a logistics provider—it is a combat multiplier that enables brigade operations by ensuring forces can continue to fight, move, communicate, recover, and sustain themselves throughout prolonged operations against a capable peer threat.   

 

Part of S05 “Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids, Batteries, Water, & Fuel” series.

 

For additional information and insights from this episode, please check-out our Instagram page @the_jrtc_crucible_podcast.

 

Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest warfighting TTPs learned through the crucible that is the Joint Readiness Training Center.

 

Follow us by going to: https://linktr.ee/jrtc and then selecting your preferred podcast format.

 

Again, we’d like to thank our guests for participating. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and review us wherever you listen or watch your podcasts — and be sure to stay tuned for more in the near future.

 

“The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the one-hundredth-and-sixty-third episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.’ Hosted by MAJ David Pfaltzgraff, the Brigade Executive Officer Observer – Coach – Trainer and MAJ Marc Howle, the Brigade Senior Engineer / Protection OCT for the Brigade Command & Control (BDE HQ), on behalf of the Commander of Ops Group (COG). Today’s guests are subject matter experts from within one of JRTC’s infantry battalion task forces: MAJ Reed Ziegler is the executive officer and CPT Michael Boster is a Rifle Co Commander OCT for TF-1 (IN BN).

 

This episode explores the importance of transitions on the battlefield and the mindset required to execute them successfully. Leaders discuss how many units arrive at JRTC with a strong offensive mindset but often struggle when operations require a rapid transition from one tactical task to another. The conversation focuses on the difference between simply completing a mission and maintaining a continuous combat mindset that anticipates what comes next. Topics include transitioning from offense to defense, preserving combat power, recognizing decision points, identifying transition criteria during planning, and understanding when risk to force or risk to mission requires commanders to adjust their approach. A recurring theme is that successful units do not wait for instructions after achieving an objective—they immediately begin preparing for the next problem while maintaining security, momentum, and situational awareness. 

 

The discussion also examines how home-station training and planning practices often unintentionally condition leaders to think in discrete events rather than continuous operations. Leaders highlight common observations such as units seizing an objective only to become static, failing to establish hasty defenses, neglecting security, or losing initiative while awaiting guidance. Additional topics include building transition criteria into MDMP, preparing for both offensive and defensive actions simultaneously, understanding that the enemy always gets a vote, and developing the endurance required to sustain operations over extended periods. Ultimately, the episode argues that combat is not a series of separate offensive and defensive events but a continuous contest of action and reaction. The most successful formations are those that constantly ask, “What’s next?” and remain mentally prepared to transition faster than the enemy can adapt.       

 

Part of S13 “Hip Pocket Training” series.

 

For additional information and insights from this episode, please check-out our Instagram page @the_jrtc_crucible_podcast

 

Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest warfighting TTPs learned through the crucible that is the Joint Readiness Training Center.

 

Follow us by going to: https://linktr.ee/jrtc and then selecting your preferred podcast format.

 

Again, we’d like to thank our guests for participating. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and review us wherever you listen or watch your podcasts — and be sure to stay tuned for more in the near future.

 

“The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the one-hundredth-and-sixty-second episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.’ Hosted by MAJ David Pfaltzgraff, the Brigade Executive Officer Observer – Coach – Trainer and MAJ Marc Howle, the Brigade Senior Engineer / Protection OCT for the Brigade Command & Control (BDE HQ), on behalf of the Commander of Ops Group (COG). Today’s guests are subject matter experts across JRTC: LTC Mario Burch is the Senior Signal WfF OCT, MAJ Steve Yates is the BDE S-6 Signal OIC OCT, MAJ Mike Stewart is the BDE S-3 Ops OIC OCT, and CW2 Chris Puthoff is the BDE S-6 Signal Network OCT for BDE Command & Control (BDE HQ). And CPT Craig Muncaster is the BN S-6 Signal OIC OCT for TF Fires Support (FA BN).

 

This episode explores the importance of developing, training, and employing effective PACE (Primary – Alternate – Contingency – Emergency) plans as a cornerstone of command and control in Large Scale Combat Operations. The discussion emphasizes that a PACE plan is not simply a communications checklist or a menu of available systems, but a deliberate framework that enables commanders to maintain decision advantage despite contested, degraded, or disrupted communications. Leaders discuss common mistakes observed at JRTC, including building PACE plans around systems that units are not proficient with, relying on multiple communication methods that share the same digital backbone, and failing to account for how enemy actions, terrain, or operational phases will impact communications. A recurring theme is that communications systems must be realistic, transport-diverse, and nested with the commander’s operational requirements rather than built solely around available technology. 

 

The conversation also focuses heavily on training and implementation, stressing that PACE plans must be rehearsed extensively at home station before arriving at a combat training center. Topics include mission command validation exercises, integrating all warfighting functions into communications training, developing phase-specific PACE plans, accounting for enemy jamming and electromagnetic threats, and ensuring commanders understand when and how to transition between communications methods. Leaders emphasize that communications plans should evolve throughout an operation based on conditions, control measures, and enemy activity rather than remaining static. Ultimately, the episode reinforces that successful command and control depends not on having the newest equipment, but on disciplined training, realistic testing, shared understanding across the staff, and a PACE plan that can survive first contact with the enemy.     

 

Part of S13 “Hip Pocket Training” series.

 

For additional information and insights from this episode, please check-out our Instagram page @the_jrtc_crucible_podcast

 

Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest warfighting TTPs learned through the crucible that is the Joint Readiness Training Center.

 

Follow us by going to: https://linktr.ee/jrtc and then selecting your preferred podcast format.

 

Again, we’d like to thank our guests for participating. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and review us wherever you listen or watch your podcasts — and be sure to stay tuned for more in the near future.

 

“The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.