Life in the 11th ACR, Part 1: Blackhorse

11th Cav is the professional opposing force at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, CA. Not only do they have a cool unit insignia and strong heritage, troopers assigned to the unit become some of the most proficient practitioners of maneuver warfare anywhere in the world. This series of videos will take you into the lives of the troopers, and their families, and give an idea of what it's like to be assigned to the Blackhorse.

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[AnimarchyHistory]

This series will be your Magnum Opus I think Chieftain. A look into perhaps the most important unit in the U.S Army. It's outstanding

[Red_Four]

I just retired a few days ago. NTC sucked ass, but what I wouldn't give to take another platoon out there and fight with Blackhorse again.

[jamessteggy]

This video could've been two hours long and I still would've watched it in one sitting.

[darthcalanil]

Remember when the US army tried to use The Rock for recruitment ads? They should really just have let the Chieftain do his thing in his style and it would have been way more successful

[thomaswilloughby]

Old Blackhorse trooper here from Fulda. Spent several rotations on the border in OP Alpha. I drove the first tank in the Regiment A11.

[bkane]

Took a town from 11th ACR which had not been lost by them in 6 or 7 rotations.

Or course, one of our company commanders was a SPC by the time the dust settled. XO was a PFC and they had no surviving soldiers, but we held the town.

Thankfully, 11th ACR screwed up and overrun our BDE HQ at ~ the same time. Without BDE to screw thing up, it independent Battalions made great progress.

Strive. Obey. Endure.

[Retiredscout]

HEY SIR!!! Just wanted to stop by and tell you that you are doing a phenomenal job with the channel!! I was with you in Afghanistan when we all went in 09! Keep up the great work, Allons! - Never Broken!!!
SFC Schalles (RET)

[jarink]

Did 3 rotations there in 3 years after Desert Shield/Storm. We had electronic warfare systems, so we railed our vehicles from Ft Riley there and back. The week in the Dustbowl was crap, but the middle two weeks in the maneuver box was usually a good time. Got to fight a range fire, see the turtle corral, and nearly rolled (sideways) a truck off the side of a mountain. Good memories!

[SamGray]

My uncle was with 11th ACR in Germany the 80s, being amongst the first group of new recruits to train for the newfangled M1 tanks.

[jeffreygunn]

I was assigned to the OPFOR at NTC back in the dark ages, long before it was the 11th ACR. We just had a mechanized infantry battalion and an armor battalion, nominally assigned to the 7th ID.

The most miserable year of my career, with the exception of Desert Storm. Ft. Irwin in the early '80s was the armpit of the Army.

[alexgallagher]

"my only limits are what Putin would do"
A hell of a quote

[raynscloud]

11 BLUFOR rotations and 3 years as OPFOR there. Irwin holds a lot of memories for me. Good to see the old place again!

[vicpecka]

RIP David Drake. He rode with the Blackhorse.

[karlbrundage]

My son rotated into Ft. Irwin for a Army Reserve training regimen and he absolutely loved it. He especially liked see the Donkeys and their

[coldsteel]

I was stationed there in Ops Group Cobra team. Hands down the best time I had in the Army. That is the best force of force training available in the world. I was able to work with alot of foreign armies coming out there as well as other services. Good times. Best in the desert! 🐍

[rph]

I was stationed at Fort Irwin for about six months in 1967, had it made there, much better than a tank battalion in Germany. I was assigned to range control;, and was special duty as coach of the post rifle team. I had it made, then big army decided to send me back to Germany. And it does get cold there, in fact for about a week in December 1967, we were snowed in, the old road road to Barstow was dangerous enough in good weather, but with 2 inches of snow, it was certain death. My father was in A Troop 11 th Cav, at the Presidio of Monterey from around 1938 -1940, then he went to the Air Corps. The reason he went to the Cav was because at the time you couldn't transfer from the infantry to the air corps .

[twostep]

So now they have issued desert-camouflage Cav hats?
Dang! I'm so old even regimental commanders look like captains to me.
We went to the Ft. Irwin in January 1979; before they had an official Op-For. So we went against other battalions in the brigade. I remember the cold - it snowed! After that melted (quickly) the desert flowers bloomed.
"Lessons in pain." We used to say, "The best trained unit in the Russian army is the OpFor at N.T.C."
After the N.T.C. got a permanent OpFor, it took years before a Blue force unit defeated them. They used Russian tactics we had previously derided for not allowing initiative by junior leaders. But while we were "developing the situation", they launched into their rehearsed maneuvers and were on us in minutes. Our entire tactical doctrine failed! The first Blue force unit to win did it by adopting Russian tactics of speed and rehearsed movement. Part of this learning curve resulted in going from a 5-tank armor platoon to 4.

[_bms]

Didn't know you had an 11ACR combat patch, that's pretty rare to see. Would've been a massive flex if you wore OCPs around Irwin today lol.

[MDavidW]

Nick, I spent 3-1/2 years there back in the late 1980s before the Blackhorse got there. Life was much the same, only on Sheridans. We were the 177th Armor Brigade then. Lots of fun.
We kicked ass back then too. And we prepared the US Army for Desert Storm. There’s a lot of emphasis on the 11TH being the OPFOR, but it ignores that the OPFOR existed before them, I arrived in 1987, and it had been in place since the early 1980s, and was rife with stories of the “old” days. COL Hamby was a commander of the Regiment and died driving around in the box, and we named our highest recognition after him.
Did 37 rotations in the OPFOR, 12 on post staff escorting VIPs to the box, and two more as BLUFOR, one at Bde and one as a Bn BMO. Great times every time.

[Ty-sqyi]

I was OpFor with Killer Troop, 2/11 from 2012 - 2014. Fort Irwin was the most fun I had during my 6 years in the Army.