Thousands of soldiers conduct annual training at Camp Roberts
CAMP ROBERTS, Calif. – More than 3,000 California National Guard soldiers from across the state have congregated on Camp Roberts for two weeks of annual training where they will conduct a series of combat and disaster-response exercises.
The consolidated training serves to sharpen the Cal Guard’s readiness in responding to both state and overseas missions. The training also leads to a moderate increase in traffic and noise for communities surrounding Camp Roberts.
“This is the arguably our most important training of the year,” said Capt. Will Martin, public affairs officer for the Cal Guard. “By bringing a large body of our troops to one location, we’re able to strengthen our statewide coordination so that when disaster or war strikes, we’re ready to respond.”
Included among the training are unit- and squad-level maneuver drills, medical evacuation and helicopter transport operations, command post exercises that test the Cal Guard leadership’s ability to coordinate missions involving multiple units, and the firing of M1 Abrams tanks, mortar rounds and .50-caliber machine guns.
While California is home to the nation’s most frequently mobilized National Guard force, its guardsmen train at a minimum one weekend each month and two weeks each summer. Annual training reinforces the skills Cal Guard soldiers learned in basic training and their initial occupational training through the U.S. Army.
“We train as we fight,” said Martin. “Camp Roberts provides the ideal venue for simulating some of the arduous conditions we might face in combat or in responding to an emergency here in California.”
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