Editor’s note: This article ran in the Jan. 13, 1978, issue.
By SSG Joe Algood
If you can’t take the war game to the country, then bring that country to you.
That’s what B Company, 34th Armor, has done on the back of their orderly room by constructing a sand table map of an area taken from a German topographic map. If they desire, they can do the same with any area to which that company might be deployed and later have to defend.
The sand table has been scaled to equal the distance of 10 miles or about two-and-a-half kilometers wide by 14 kilometers long.
Very flexible
By using sand, different colors of dye, colored moss, and blocks of wood shaped into buildings, the miniature war game table can represent distinct detail and terrain features. The table map can also be arranged into an L-shape, T-shape, rectangle, square, or almost any layout with which a company might be faced in a combat situation.
The table structure itself was made from scrapped pieces of two-by-four and old nails from the tie-downs that were used on flatcars which hauled equipment for REFORGER 77.
Even though similar models of this type were used by the armor battalion, prior to REFORGER, this may be the first one to be constructed at company level.
The company-sized war game table was designed by CPT Ronald Rowlette, commander, SGT John Kellner and SSG George Turner.
Kellener and Turner, who built sand table war games as a hobby before coming into the Army, quickly recognized their one time association as helpful in developing training aids for the troops after becoming tankers themselves.
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According to Turner, the war game table is very efficient in that troops learn their mistakes before going into the field.
The table is so flexible that any area from any map can be displayed in the sand thus giving the troops a better idea of what they are doing.
Friday afternoon is proficiency testing in B Company.
E-5s and above are selected at random by the C.O. but are not forewarned until about 30 minutes prior to the test.
It’s like being in a PT formation explains Turner. A man can be in the formation doing PT for as long as a year, but when he is called upon to head the formation his mind goes blank.
No notice
This is the same concept behind tank training on the sand table. The men are called in and given a certain type of situation or problem, and they have to react. Most of the time, says Turner, the man is completely lost and nervous at first but, during the course of training, he becomes aware of what is happening.
The test problem lasts about five hours, and the second time a man is selected, he is more confident and has a better idea of what he is supposed to do, even though the problem or situation is different from what he was tested on before.
ARTEP help
The map sand table also helps the unit toward better proficiency in their ARTEP (Army Training Evaluation Program) explains Turner, because they are able to take an area from the map of the downrange area, set it up on the sand table with all the terrain features and work from there.
If there is any portion of the map that is not clear, the tank commander can go downrange, check that particular area, come back and put it on the sand table.
Turner says that, whereas the unit would normally look at a map and estimate how long it will take to go from one point to another, on the sand table you know exactly how long it takes to maneuver a tank over the terrain in which you are operating.