‘Operation Hood Strike’ brought army active duty, reserve and National Guard units to Fort Hood, Texas, for rigorous, practical stress testing. Canadian soldiers also participated in the training.

“We are a complete army. We are a complete engineering regiment. And we will fight with them in wartime. So we get to be here training with them in peacetime,” said Col Justin Pritchard, 36th Engineer Brigade commander.

The soldiers were thrown into a realistic war scenario. Their mission was to cross Lake Belton and approach enemy territory.

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Engineers built a seven-float raft consisting of two ramps and five bays. Capt. Bruce Burgener, 43rd Multi-Role Bridge Company commander, saithe configurationis is the standard ramp and bay configuration for moving M1 Abrams tanks.

“Anything less than that won’t move them,” Burgener said. “Our goal is to achieve as much throughput as possible for friendly forces.”

Burgener said his company has received “a lot of new soldiers” and the training gives his higher-ranking soldiers the opportunity to work with newcomers. He divided this training into three stages: ‘crawl, walk, run.’

“At this stage, we’re on the walk stage for our company,” Burgener said. “So we’re slowly working toward getting to that stage where we’ll be able to work more efficiently with our new soldiers.”

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Once all equipment and personnel are deployed, the attack across the water begins. The Texas National Guard swooped in with Chinook helicopters to conduct reconnaissance and lowered parts of the bridge into the water.

Lt Col. Travis Shahan, 961st Engineer Battalion commander, said air assets are critical to dropping large payloads into inaccessible areas.

“Sometimes, when you’re building a bridge, it’s a little difficult to get all the necessary equipment to the water,” Shahan said.

A Texas National Guard Chinook helicopter is dropping bridge sections into Lake Belton at Fort Hood, Texas. (Fox News)

Soldiers crossing the bridge already know what the enemy terrain looks like because it has been mapped in the tactical command centre. This map allows each soldier, from the highest ranks down to line infantry, to know how they fit into the mission.

Major Salem Maud, the battalion’s executive officer, said, “If you’re working in an office, it’s very easy to plan this thing. But when you’re out here and there’s a plane flying over you in the middle of the night... it’s very difficult.”

A small-scale map in the tactical operations centre shows soldiers what enemy territory looks like. (Fox News)

‘Operation Hood Strike’ takes place annually at Fort Hood but is different each year, as the modern battlefield is constantly changing. While Col Adam Rasmussen, 420th Engineer Brigade commander, said the Army is trying to get soldiers out of harm’s way, he said the war is “still a very humanitarian effort”.

“We want soldiers who can innovate, and there’s no better person to lead a human being out of a breach than a human being who has been through the pain of a breach,” Rasmussen said. “That person knows how important it is to bring in an automated system or an unmanned or an AI system to infiltrate rather than a human being.”

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According to the Army Recruitment Command, the army aims to recruit 60,500 active duty soldiers in 2025. They met their target by 103.47% and recruited 62,050 soldiers.

Recruiting Command reported that the Army Reserve’s goal was to recruit 14,320 soldiers in 2025. The reserve fell short, meeting only 86.76% of its target with 12,426 recruits.

Rasmussen said, “The way we recruit and retain is that we give them very challenging but rewarding training here. They may not enjoy it 100% in the minute, but by the end of the day, they feel like they’ve done the best job in the world.”

“They signed up to do this,” Pritchard said. “Any time we can go out and do what they enlisted in the army to do… it encourages you to be, like, ‘This is why I served.’ This is why I want to stay in the army and continue to serve the country.”

Col Adam Rasmussen, 420th Engineer Brigade commander, said every hour spent training makes Soldiers “more lethal”. (Fox News)

The units involved in ‘Operation Hood Strike’ are not preparing for any specific deployment. Rasmussen said training is still important to get new soldiers up to speed.

“Every hour these soldiers are on the battlefield, they become more lethal,” Rasmussen said.