CAMP GRUBER TRAINING CENTER, Okla. – Thunderbirds from the Oklahoma Army National Guard’s 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team participated in the Light Leaders Course from June 3-11, 2025, at Camp Gruber Training Center, Oklahoma, pushing through an intensive leadership development program designed to sharpen small unit tactics and develop agile, adaptable and deployment-ready combat leaders.

“This training event really complements three of the Brigade's priorities,” said Col. Khalid Hussein, commander of the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. He explained those priorities include survivability, lethality, and leader development.

The course is led by National Guard Soldiers from the Army National Guard Warrior Training Battalion at Fort Benning, Georgia, who serve as cadre for the Light Leaders Course and other mobile training programs across all 54 states and territories.

The instructors selected for this active duty mission are required to be top graduates of their Ranger School cohort and are then further developed with follow-on training such as Pathfinder, Airborne and Air Assault schools.

“What we are doing is taking all our experience and knowledge from our training and we are pushing it down and multiplying it into the force,” said Sgt. Garrett Streeks, a ranger instructor assigned to Alpha Company, Warrior Training Battalion.

The course progresses through multiple phases, beginning with classroom based tactical instruction and advancing to hands-on practical exercises, cadre led patrols, and ultimately evaluated missions in a field training environment. Each phase forces Soldiers to apply Troop Leading Procedures, execute synchronized battle drills and lead squads through realistic, high-pressure scenarios.

“What we’re working on here is really the groundwork for what infantry does, from the top to the bottom as far as ranks and procedures go,” said Sgt. Nate Harkins, an infantryman participating in the course from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 279th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. “This knowledge is something every Soldier should know.”

Throughout the course, participants conducted day and night missions involving ambushes, squad attacks, react to contact, crossing danger areas and casualty evacuation procedures. Training was deliberately designed to mirror the chaos and stress of real world combat.

“This course might look like it's adding something to what we do, but it's not," Harkins said. “It's more of an enhancement on the things we already do by enforcing this standard.”

The ultimate goal of the Light Leaders Course is to ensure Oklahoma’s Guardsmen return to their units as more capable leaders, ready to train others and lead real-world missions.

“They are going to be a lot tougher mentally and physically after going through this,” Hussein said. “So aside from the physical fitness, we're trying to develop leaders at the lowest level to be confident, to make decisions when it comes to a deployment on the battlefield.”
 
By preparing Guardsmen through this focused and demanding training, it ensures that Oklahoma’s infantry leaders are mission ready, capable and equipped to lead from the front.

For more photos, visit https://www.flickr.com/photos/oklanationalguard/albums/72177720326946774.