Major Readiness Exercise For JBLM Troops This Week

From Joint Base Lewis-McChord: America’s First Corps will execute a Joint Readiness Exercise over the next several days to validate its ability to deploy on short-notice. The exercise will test I Corps and JBLM’s ability to move materiel and personnel by land, air and sea rapidly with short to no notice. About 5,000 Soldiers of 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, will deploy by sea from Washington to California, with movement on to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., to validate I Corps’ ability to meet combatant commander requirements around the world.

Officials from the base have coordinated with state and local authorities to reduce impacts on local roads and commutes. The safety of Soldiers and community members is of utmost importance.

The exercise simulates a scenario where a brigade combat team of America’s First Corps Soldiers at JBLM have a small window of time to deploy to a global contingency operation via sea vessel. JBLM’s close proximity to a number of sea ports in the Puget Sound, combined with its joint air lift capabilities, make the base the premier power projection platform to send troops and equipment to any contingency around the world.

Once at the National Training Center, 2-2 SBCT will conduct a month-long training exercise testing its combat readiness for decisive action against a near-peer opponent. The combination of the deployment readiness exercise and the NTC training event is critical to sustaining readiness for future contingencies. I Corps is ready to deploy, fight and win decisively in any environment. Readiness is its number one priority.

The Stryker Brigade has been training for its turn at NTC for several months, and just completed a major tune-up exercise called Bayonet Focus in June at Yakima Training Center. The change in mission of how and when the brigade would deploy to NTC required immediate and deliberate action to coordinate a new plan. That change was only communicated to I Corps and JBLM last week, giving the Soldiers and Civilians there just a few days’ time to react. All of this was purposed to test JBLM and I Corps’ systems and procedures to deploy forces rapidly whenever the Nation calls.

America’s First Corps is ready to deploy, fight and win decisively in any environment. Readiness is our number one priority.

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