Major Army Reserve training exercise wrapping up at Camp Shelby

CAMP SHELBY, Miss. (WDAM) - One of the largest single training exercises in decades at Camp Shelby is wrapping up.

11,000 U.S. Army Reserve soldiers have spent the last few weeks training at Camp Shelby as part of Operation Sentinel Justice and Operation Global Medic.

The training involves troops at Camp Shelby, Fort Polk, Louisiana, Camp Beauregard, Louisiana and soldiers along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Mississippi National Guard leaders say it’s the largest single training event at the post since World War II.

“The unit that’s doing the in-the-box training at Fort Polk is the 116th out of Virginia, and there’s a lot of support and sustainment support that goes along with supporting the unit in the box that stretches all the way to Gulfport, Mississippi,” the Mississippi adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Bobby Ginn said.

The exercise should be complete in a few days.

“We have learned a lot (from the exercise),” Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center Commander, Col. Ashley C. Sullivan said.

“So in case Camp Shelby has to turn on as a mobilization site, as we’ve been in the past, we feel like we’re more prepared today than we were several months ago.”

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