Innovative Readiness Training provides mission-essential training for Wyoming National Guard units while building strong partnerships with our neighbors by applying military personnel and their unique skillsets to assist with worthy community needs.

Berm movement and placement mimic building berms for fighting positions for both vehicles and Soldiers. According to Carswell, it meets the intent for understanding how to move berms and the dimensions required. For the Soldiers of the 133rd, it falls under survivor-ability operation training as a mission-essential task. IRT projects help increase readiness and ensure the company is ready to respond when called.

The project also serves as a benefit to the community. Before this, the shooting complex’s most extended range for rifle usage was 100 yards.

“A lot of people like to be able to shoot at similar distances that they will be hunting. Some are comfortable shooting at 100 yards and using ballistic tables to figure out where they’d be at longer ranges. Others like actually doing it. So we’re offering this upon completion to our longer-range shooters,” said Keith Tast, Director of the Laramie County Shooting Sports Complex. “It’s a benefit to everybody. To the unit, to us as a business, as a county entity, and certainly to all of the customers.”

According to IRT Director Chief Warrant Officer 5 Doug Drost, a Blue Sky still needs to be added, like a lattice or sun shade, to eliminate the possibility of bullets from going up, as well as a firing point. “We have the capability with the engineers to help with all of that. It hasn’t been asked for yet, and we have to ensure we have the assets, but this project could continue,” Drost says.

The Soldiers of the 133rd are proud of their accomplishments and look forward to future projects for the communities of Wyoming. They head to Guernsey in July to complete other projects and then to Arlington for a project with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, working in a wildlife habitat management area.