012 S04 Ep 01 – Armor-Mech Team Lessons Learned from Team Cronos, 3-67 Armor BN (2nd ABCT, 3rd ID) w/MAJ Laplante & CPT Corino

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the twelfth episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.’ Hosted by the Commander of Ops Group (COG), COL Matthew Hardman. Today’s guests are the division liaison officer from 3rd Infantry Division, MAJ Joe Laplante and the armor-mechanized team’s commander, CPT James Corino. The armor-mech team that supported 1/82 ABN was Team Cronos, C Company, 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Armor Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.

 

The 67th Armor Regiment has the honor of being one of the oldest armor units in the U.S. military as they were first formed in 1929 as the 2nd Tank Regiment (Heavy) and redesignated as the 67th Infantry Regiment (Medium Tanks) in 1932 and then became the 67th Armor in 1940. During WWII, they took part in the invasion and fierce fighting that followed for North Africa, Sicily, and then mainland Europe. Later they would take part in Operation Desert Storm followed by the various operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. The company team has the Hollywood call-sign of “Cronos” while the BN’s call-sign is the “Hounds of Hell” and the ABCT's call-sign is "Spartans." The ABCT’s motto of “Send Me” while the BN’s motto is “Ready for War.”

 

For the rotation in question, Team Cronos supported the rotation by providing an armor-mech team to a light infantry brigade combat team in order to provide a highly lethal and mobile force, so as to facilitate winning engagements on any battlefield in any operational environment across the globe. Its effectiveness increases through the synergy of combined arms including M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams main battle tanks, M2A4 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, infantry, engineers, and support elements.

 

In this episode they discuss they the various nuances of effectively employing an armor-mech team as part of a larger light infantry task force and the massive learning curve for honing the light-heavy paradigm. The U.S. Army has only recently began task organizing light infantry BCTs from XVIII Airborne Corps with armor-mech teams again and so the Army is having to re-learn some of the fundamentals once again. Sustainment, logistics, and maintenance cannot be over emphasized. Having a liaison from the armor-mech team’s division to the supporting light infantry BCT is definitely an identified “Best Practice.”

 

Part of S04 “Scouts Out” series.

 

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“The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.