Guardsmen with Company A of the 311th Brigade Support Battalion, from Nevada and Lamar, the 548th Transportation Company from Centertown, and the 205th MP Battalion from St. Louis, Kennett and West Plains, simulate a four-vehicle convoy with live ammunition. --Michelle Pippin/Missouri National Guard

When 4,200 soldiers, sailors and airmen are training in one area, it takes a lot of food to keep them going. The Missouri National Guardsmen of Company A, 311th Brigade Support Battalion, Nevada, make sure they get it.

Thanks to the supply platoon, the training troops get two hot meals a day --breakfast and dinner -- and a pre-packaged lunch. Breakfast might be steak and eggs or corned beef hash, and dinners include dishes like spaghetti, rotisserie chicken, pork chops and hamburgers.

"This is our main mission, supplying food," said Staff Sgt. Lisa Beaumont, an assistant platoon sergeant from Warrensburg. "The transportation platoon comes up with trucks every other day, so we're packaging two-day supplies of meals."

The food travels two hours from a Rapid City facility to forward operating bases in the mountainous region of Custer State Park. Though some products are transportable in regular pickup trucks, perishable items like fruits and vegetables require refrigerated trucks.

Though food is its main mission in South Dakota, the supply platoon provides any item troops need, from paper products and protective gear to electronic equipment and vehicle parts.

Area guardsmen returned to Nevada on Saturday, where family and friends greeted them and welcomed them with a barbecue served at the armory in Nevada. --Lynn A. Wade/Daily Mail

It maintains an accurate inventory of all the supplies and makes orders as items are needed.

Pfc. Anna McGee, of Sheldon, spent the first half of the two-week joint exercise tracking inventory of various supplies, alphabetizing records and doing basic paperwork in the supply warehouse.

"I like being in the supply section, getting all the Soldiers everything they need," McGee said. "It puts a different perspective on serving. Sometimes we serve our country in war; sometimes we serve our state in times of disaster. But in my everyday job, I serve the troops."

More than 4,200 Guardsmen, Reservists and regular Army personnel from 27 states and four foreign countries are working together in the Golden Coyote 2008, an annual training exercise hosted by the South Dakota National Guard. The joint exercise, now in its 24th year, provides relevant training opportunities in support of the War on Terrorism and homeland security.

Meanwhile, at Camp Guernsey, Wyo., Guard troops, got a rare opportunity to practice firing live ammunition during a convoy live fire exercise.

Cpt. Nathan Wilde, Commander of Company A, 311th Brigade Support Battalion, Nevada, displays a quilt made by a Uniontown, Kan., student, destined to be presented to a servicemember overseas. --Lynn A. Wade/Daily Mail

The 311th Brigade Support Battalion and the 205th Military Police Battalion participated in convoy exercises using M-16 rifles, M-249 Squad Automatic Weapons, 50-caliber rifles and MARK-19 grenade launchers. Soldiers fired on targets including popup targets, concrete structures and vehicles, from distances of up to 500 meters.

"This kind of convoy live fire exercise is difficult to accomplish because there's not a lot of training facilities that can be used with this kind of live ammunition," said Master Sgt. Don Lilleman. "You need a pretty wide-open space for safety purposes. Generally, Soldiers will only get this kind of training just prior to deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan."

Qualifying and training on some of these weapons -- particularly the MARK-19 and the 50-caliber rifle -- is done using only blank rounds so soldiers rarely have the opportunity to see how the weapons they use are truly capable of destroying their targets. In this exercise, soldiers were able to see exactly how much damage their weapons could inflict.

Even Sgt. Rommy Mortensen who has spent three of the last six years in both Iraq and Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne, said he's never seen up close the destruction caused by his favorite weapon, the MARK-19 grenade launcher.

"As part of a fuel supply unit, I spent a lot of time in convoy traveling back and forth from Kuwait to Mazul (Iraq), and I was either the driver or a gunner," Sgt. Mortensen said. "But, fortunately, I never needed to fire my weapon there, so I've never seen it blow things up the way it can out here."

This type of training is vital for soldiers, regardless of their military occupational specialty, given the nature of war today, Lilleman said.

"Too often in theater, soldiers are put into security roles and are expected to use a lot of field artillery, even if they normally drive fuel trucks or work in mechanic roles," he said. "Every one of these men and women have to know how to use these weapons and should know what the weapons are capable of to ensure their survival."