Fort Campbell, KY – In the early hours on August 1st, 2023, Sapper platoons from 21st Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team “Rakkasans,” 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), flew across Fort Campbell skies to kick off Operation Lethal Eagle III, and continue to prove the lethality and readiness of the division.
Once on ground at the landing zone (LZ), the Sapper platoons started clearing obstacles and completed a 1.2 km movement before starting patrol base operations for the night.
“Practicing on whiteboards in the office is one thing to definitely get your feet wet,” said Capt. Matthew Cushing, commander of Akuma Company, 21 BEB. “But until you actually go into the field and you practice it at night, under limited visibility, in an ideal world with MOPP gear on in a contested environment – that’s when you need to train and execute at a high level of expertise in order to actually win the day for the next mission.”
Sgt. 1st Class Sal Santisteban, the platoon sergeant and a company engineer for 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, says his favorite part is the patrol base operations, the integration with the maneuver companies, attaching squads with them to support a battalion and overall working with them as a brigade.
“Ever since I’ve been a Soldier, the integration with the maneuver companies has always been pretty smooth,” said Santisteban. “It not only creates a lot of cohesion and integration as a brigade, but we can also do a lot of cross-training between the infantry with the maneuver companies and our engineer taskings as well.”
Santisteban also stressed the importance of practicing what they teach, and often.
“Rehearsals are a key for every successful mission,” he said. “The more reps you do, it just becomes second nature; everybody knows their assigned task by name and it just creates a successful environment and a successful mission when everybody is on the right page.”
Sappers working with the infantry is all part of the job description, and an operational necessity to enable infantry movement and discourage enemy pursuit.
“We support the infantry, and will be right there with them – wherever they go, we go,” said Spc. Frank Sallusti, an M249 gunner for 2nd Platoon. “We clear obstacles, and in certain situations, we will make obstacles. We are better trained and more trained to destroy that mine wire obstacle and help them to continue mission and reach their objective.”
Cushing says the most important thing to take away from OLE III is finding what your purpose is and approaching the exercise with the right mindset.
“21 days in the fields can be a long time, but it all it can be also a very short time,” said Cushing. “But it all depends on how you wake up in the morning and what you tell yourself. Don’t get me wrong, I miss my dog, I miss watching Netflix. It can be a long 21 days. But if you wake up every single morning, and you want to get better, even if it’s just 1 percent every single day for yourself, for your loved ones, for your battle buddies to your left and right – if you have that mindset, every single day is super easy.”
The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) will conduct Operation Lethal Eagle III from August 1st – 21st, 2023, at Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, KY, to test the division systems and increase readiness for contingency operations.
