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100,000th service member trains for vehicle rollover

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Krystie Martinez
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, Kyrgyzstan --  The Joint Readiness Staging Onward Movement and Integration unit here trained its 100,000th service member on Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle rollover simulators July 4.

"The MRAP is a hardened vehicle that will withstand an improvised explosive device blast so that the crew can survive that explosion," said U.S. Army Maj. Brian Andrews, JRSOI training officer, Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan. "Unfortunately the vehicle is very top heavy and the enemy will use explosives to tip the vehicle over and then spring an ambush. So we're teaching the soldiers how to survive the rollover and how to survive the ambush that's going to follow the rollover."

All U.S. forces going to Afghanistan will participate in MRAP rollover training. Pfc. Devante Flowers, Bravo Company, 1st Brigade, 5th Calvary Division, deployed from Fort Hood, Texas, had the honor of being the 100,000th service member trained.

"I don't even know how to take it in, it's a surprise to me," said the Brooklyn, N.Y. native. "It's pretty cool."

His smile quickly faded as he described the importance of the training.

"If I didn't know anything about this, I don't know what I would do in real life," he said.

The training is lifesaving and taken seriously by all participants. According to Andrews, a reservist deployed from the Vancouver Army reserve center, Vancouver, Wash., 40 percent of service members deployed to Afghanistan will be in a rollover incident.

"In 2008 when the MRAP's were fully fielded, there were huge reductions in fatalities from IED's, but there was a spike in serious injuries and fatalities for rollovers," Andrews said. "So what they did was come out with this training. The first year that this training was out and fully implemented there was an over 80 percent reduction in gunner injuries and fatalities. So that's the bottom line, that's why we do this."

Due to the gunner's high risk of injury during a rollover, a good portion of the training emphasizes assisting them.

"The main thing we focus on is getting the gunner properly secured and down in the vehicle," said Philip Atkinson, TCM's JRSOI senior training and development specialist. "If the gunner doesn't get in the vehicle, they probably will not survive the rollover."

The training begins with a 15-minute safety briefing and transitions into MRAP rollover egress. According to Atkinson, each simulator costs approximately $500,000 and both MRAP cabs used by JRSOI were in real-world incidents.

"These vehicles are very durable," he said. "They are designed to withstand quite an explosion, and really basically have all the parts blow off of the vehicle like tires, engines transmissions and just have the cab stay intact where all the soldiers are so they can survive."

Although the cab protects the service member from outside sources during a rollover, there are many risks within the MRAP. In order to train for those risks, JRSOI places objects inside the simulator.

"We have fake ammo cans, so if they get hit on the side of the head by an ammo can, they could say, 'Wow we should have tied down,'" Atkinson said. "Flying projectiles are another big cause of injury and fatality in a vehicle rollover."

Along with making the training environment as realistic as possible, Atkinson said the training gives service members the ability to trust their equipment and team.