EXCLUSIVE ACCESS | British Troops In The USA On EX RATTLESNAKE

[Music] it's extremely grueling we always say that we're we stretch you to the point where we can see all your your holes the joint readiness training center rotation is like a cricket uh bat in the face over and over again what's that right i'm sean gwezzcek and i'm joining the welsh cavalry as they spend 12 days in what's known as the box a feared training area that's been used to test troops to their limits for decades we trained soldiers before world war ii we trained soldiers before the vietnam conflict we trained soldiers before the deployments to afghanistan and iraq and now we're preparing them for future battlefields fort polk in louisiana is one of three elite us army training centers in the world it's known as the joint readiness training center once inside the most feared arch in america soldiers face 12 days of tests as they practice for war good afternoon my name is first class angel but before they enter there are a few things they need to know not about the enemy it's the environment that could be a bigger threat poison ivy poison oak and poison sumac are now coming back out being into springtime so try to avoid getting that stuff on your hands and then rubbing your face heavy rains and tornadoes pigs we've had a lot of pig encounters so wild boar there are six extremely poisonous snakes in this area the cottonmouth likes to chase soldiers and that's not to mention the swamps [Music] oh and how many training areas have signs like these [Music] it won't just be snakes and alligators they need to worry about their enemy is a highly trained local force familiar with the terrain and used to winning in battle as usual no prisoners questions i think we are considered the most hated unit in the united states army how often do you win uh i would say how often do we lose and that would be never okay so task or maybe change it the welsh cavalry first the queen's dragoon guards have to integrate fast tomorrow is our first action for the us unit it's been a crazy week this week okay and there's been ups and downs and they're not sure what to make of us like that we go out there tomorrow and we come back and we show them the skills that we've got it is going to blow their minds and we need to perform these next couple of days it begins half the battle group will be inserted on blackhawks many of them won't have been on a blackhawk before no none of them i think there's two of us pretty much in the entire squadron to be there what is it like i don't agree with these they don't they don't agree with me and i don't agree with them you're not particularly looking forward to this training they they fly a bit different to a uk helicopter the way we enter and exit is from the three o'clock the nine o'clock don't go too far forward don't go too far back all right go ahead and come in they need training to arrive by air so they've got to practice loading off and on chinooks and blackhawks so essentially just practicing what we need to do so the load plan is slick um and everyone knows where they need to be and when and then we're quick at getting off essentially when we're in and potentially has this environment at the other end we here start yelling egress egress egress i mean there's an emergency you guys need to get out of the aircraft it's nice working with the american guys because we're very similar it's i think a lot of the young lads are realizing how similar the americans are to us its languages are different so just the way they talk about things that's it when you're coming off i want to make sure you go up to six o'clock being the most desirable 3 9 12 being least desirable due to low drooping rotors three two one six inches showtime right now thousands of soldiers are preparing to enter the box and you really get a sense as to just how big the scale of this exercise is the welsh cavalry will be joining them are about to get on the black hawks right behind me you guys are going to be on the fourth aircraft on the runway so one two three four this one right here we've got to make sure that we can all get on within two minutes and then get off within 30 seconds [Music] it's the first time they've seen the ground here everything is new and we landed hours later than originally planned with many carrying more than 50 kilograms on their backs they'll spend the next 12 days inside the box so worth doing it now and then push off to give you two seconds once they're on position we now have to set off with the wrecking platoon on a 15 kilometer mission to conduct long range reconnaissance and surveillance on the enemy and report back vital intelligence four fires equal five five we have to turn the cameras off so as not to give away our position but we're not going to sleep we have to walk all night wearing night vision goggles the environment and the spiders and the poison ivy and the snakes is at the forefront of my mind it should be an interesting night what's up behind you [Applause] i know it sounds really strange but it's actually really nice to wake up and actually be able to see the terrain and see the ground because what was quite disorientating throughout the night looking through the night vision goggles is that you know it's very uneven ground we crossed swamps at one point we had to go back on ourselves because someone actually was completely submerged um in the swamp so there's obviously lots of unmarked waterways seasonal waterways as they call them on the maps most of them aren't marked uh they often look quite shallow and uh one of the uh corporals unfortunately uh went crossing the wrong spot and uh went ahead head under uh at 2am in the morning which wasn't which wasn't some fun there was one point during the night where we had to hide from the enemy who were literally just meters away from us and thankfully they didn't discover us but yeah it's just giving it's giving me a real sense as to what it's like being out on the ground on a live exercise where you can get lost and um anything can happen the last 24 hours was definitely sleep depth but it comes part of the job so definitely sleep that frustrating um everything here is like twigs and branches that just seem to find every gap in your glasses um so they're quite funny um yeah it's and then the ground it's super dry but then the minute you lie on that ground it just you sink into it it's like a sponge and every 15 minutes you remove um so it's kind of lucky we didn't sleep because if i had my sleeping bag out and a couple of hours sleep i would probably be swimming i think the guys will learn some lessons about heat carriage carriage of kit and i just think some of those really low level skills to keep themselves administered in the field people's feet will be getting wet and then getting hot people will be carrying lots of kit water consumption has been a really big one for us so those low level basing skills that form the foundation of any operational deployment will definitely thrash out here and the guys will be much better off for it so how do the americans rate the performance of the welsh cavalry so far well what i watched them do is show just mastery of the fundamentals we had a long range reconnaissance mission that they walked through some of the worst terrain we have here in fort polk they got into a position of relative advantage they were able to observe the train they were able to render phenomenal accurate reporting about what the enemy was doing and then they passed the wild boar 230 infantry into the fight it was it was masterfully done there's two weeks of tests to go and this is the man behind them it's extremely grueling we always say that we're we stretch you to the point where we can see all your your holes so every rotation pushes a brigade to the point of of really really exposing what all their weaknesses are next time in the heat of battle see just how difficult the enemy is making life for the troops on exercise rattlesnake and take a look at the special forces vehicles on loan to the welsh cavalry shiangrez czech forces news fort polk louisiana if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like and subscribe to our channel

Channel: Forces News

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Keywords: Forces News, Forces TV, British Armed Forces, British, Forces, military, serving, military personnel, Ministry of Defence, British defence, British military, JRTC, JRTC fort polk, USA, United States, US Army, UK Army, British Army, welsh cavalry, military exercise, exercise rattlesnake, rattlesnake, ex rattlesnake, international military exercise, louisiana, fort polk

Id: gF7YlEBFWkM

Length: 10min 52sec (652 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 07 2021