More than 150 Marines, Airmen and Sailors participated in Operation Appalachian Thunder (OAT) Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) July 8-Aug. 10 at Stonewall State Park in Roanoke, West Virginia.

The IRT missions are dual-hatted, providing real-world training to service members and a needed service to a U.S. community at no-cost.

“West Virginia is beautiful and we look forward every year to bringing people here,” said Andre D’amour, Stonewall Resort general manager. “What the IRT mission is doing is enhancing the park for our visitors and not just setting us up for next year, or the year after, but for the rest of the decade.”

West Virginia is home to several state parks with RV campsites in high demand — reservation windows open and fill within hours each year. Recognizing the need for increased space, Stonewall State Park is the first to begin RV-lot expansion, giving visitors a better opportunity to secure a reservation.

At the helm of these efforts is IRT, saving the state approximately $2 million in fair-market value expenses.

“We are bringing members across multiple services and units into West Virgnia,” said Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer 3 Kollin Craig, OAT officer in charge. “We are leveling out some areas in the state park for future development by the resort.”

However, the mission was not limited to one project.

“… as well as the 20-plus miles of trails that need maintained,” Craig said. “We are going out fixing some erosion issues, making some non-standard bridges and generally clearing the vegetation.”

The first iteration of the RV-lot expansion project took two-weeks and included 83 service members including two Sailor corpsman, four, Airmen from the 567th Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron and 77 Marines from eight different units. While the members accomplished a lot for the park, they also received invaluable training they can’t get at home station.

“We operated over 1,400 equipment hours, which is astounding in just a two-week time frame,” Craig said. “One of the good things about this exercise is the ability for active-duty and reserve service members to interact, especially with reserve service members in civilian occupations. Having a reservist who operates heavy equipment 40 hours a week in a civilian-capacity, he can teach the active duty something.”

The benefits don’t stop there.

“I think at our core that we want to help people and IRT helps,” said Air Force Col. Hames Hogan, Office of the Secretary of Defense IRT director. “With the training piece, we are able to provide for our service members, but then they also get to give the community something tangible. You get the pride of knowing that you gave a community something — it is really cool.”

Craig echoed his sentiment.

“Anyone can go to 29 Palms and dig a hole, but to come out here and make a long-lasting thing that I can bring my wife and kids to, that is pretty cool” Craig said. “I have a ton of job satisfaction … I love it.”