Posted on 04/24/2006 8:51:41 AM PDT by freepatriot32
FORT JACKSON, S.C. - Navy sailors are trading sea legs for land combat as the U.S. Army is opening its largest training base to help them survive when sent into Afghanistan or Iraq.
The Navy is sending thousands of men and women to support Army units in those regions and wants its sailors to hone their fighting skills.
"Hit the ground and brace yourself with your weapon!" senior drill instructor Warren Brown yelled at a dozen trainees slithering across a mud-soaked field. "Look around, pick yourself up and go! You're under fire!"
After struggling up from the mud with her M-16 in hand, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jade Permenter insisted Brown's instructions to keep her head and butt down might save her life someday.
"This is excellent training, really. It will be very helpful. I'm headed to Iraq. I need this," said the 34-year-old reservist nurse from Columbus, Ohio.
So far, some 1,200 sailors have gone through an intense, two-week course crammed with the basics of basic training: learning to fire M-16 rifles, toss hand grenades and conduct house-to-house patrols while weighted down with body armor - tactics normally foreign to those accustomed to life aboard a ship.
They learn the ins-and-outs of improvised explosive devices - the roadside bombs that have been exacting a deadly toll on American servicemen and women. They learn how to take and give instructions while under fire on a convoy and how to enter a booby-trapped building.
"They are eager to learn, they are like sponges," Brown said of his trainees, many of whom are 30-or-40-something senior officers headed to staff jobs in the Middle East. "It's not about being Army or Navy anymore. The name of the game is staying alive."
Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl, spokesman for the Navy's Education and Training Command in Pensacola, Fla., said the program may train up to 10,000 sailors over the coming months.
On a visit to the training field, Fort Jackson commander Brig. Gen. James Schwitters said the course was designed to give the Navy sailors "battlefield awareness."
"It's how to survive, if they need to survive. It's knowing what to do, what action to take to support those around you and not to do things that would make a situation worse than it is," Schwitters said.
In a pouring rain, small groups of sailors, guided by a drill instructor, learned to use "Army speak" while searching a building for explosive devices.
"Stack on me!" yelled the leader as several ran up against a building, calling out a number and direction as they moved past each another. After checking the door, they swept inside as each trained their weapon on a different segment of the room.
"Huaaaahhh!" They yelled, giving the Army's rallying cry.
At Fort Jackson, the sailors spend 12 to 16 hours a day in training over the two-week period. Normal Army basic training lasts about nine weeks. Some 50,000 Army trainees go through Fort Jackson's training or advanced schools every year.
While fresh Army recruits spend two to three weeks training with their weapons, the sailors have only two to three days to acquaint themselves with the rifles. But unlike the Army recruits, the sailors are not required to pass the rigorous qualification tests before moving on to other posts. Nevertheless, it is a lot to take in, trainers say.
"It's like putting a firehouse in your mouth," said Army Lt. Col. Doug Snyder, who is in charge of the training unit. "It's remarkable what we are putting these sailors through."
The goal is not to emerge "combat ready," Snyder said. However, he said, "They could protect themselves or others. And these skills could be greatly expanded upon" once they reach their posts.
Lt. Cmdr. Ed Moninger, of Seattle, is a reservist headed to Kuwait to manage supplies. "I'm a manager for Amazon.com, so what I do in civilian life is a little like what I do for the Navy."
Moninger, 37, said the training at Fort Jackson reminded him of workouts he had at the Naval Academy. "In the Navy, we're very technical, very specialized in our jobs. But the Army is much more physical."
Petty Officer 3rd Class Sahraie Waheed, of Slate Hill, N.Y., said he volunteered for the training and is headed for Iraq. The idea of being "ground-based," is fine with the 24-year-old, since he has a lot of friends who are Marines, Waheed said. He declined to say exactly what his job was, saying it was classified.
"Personally, I was motivated by 9/11," Waheed said. "But I think we're all doing this to ensure that our fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines come home safely."
Personally I think that may be why we got along with the grunts so well. More than once I swung at a dogface just because the grunt beside me in the bar was needing somebody to watch his back.
"It's like putting a firehouse in your mouth," said Army Lt. Col. Doug Snyder, who is in charge of the training unit. "It's remarkable what we are putting these sailors through."
I sure hope the good Army Colonel didn't say what they quoted him as saying. I hope he was trying to say they put a fireHOSE in their mouths.
"Personally I think that may be why we got along with the grunts so well. More than once I swung at a dogface just because the grunt beside me in the bar was needing somebody to watch his back."
Well that and you had stuff we needed like bulldozers, plywood, electrical wire, etc. to make our lives a little more comfortable when we were at base camp. When we first arrived at Chu Lai it was a luxury to have 3 small pieces of 2x4 to put under the legs of our cots to keep them from sinking into the sand. without those pieces of wood you would find yourself sleeping on the sand by about midnight and you would be surprised how hard that sand could be.
C-Rats boxes did the same trick.
2 week course? Good luck. I had 8 weeks in Alpha Company at Ft. Jackson..the meanest DI not behind bars as well. Thank God.
Yep, that's "Hol-mang" Thanks!
I been pung. Thanks.
I don't. I don't want Army down in the hole of a 1200 PSI propulsion plant. What is worse is the ongoing consolidation of ratings in the Navy which were already too diverse. My rating included Turbines, reduction gears, air craft elevators, cryogenics, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration. etc. It took months just to train someone to be a competent watch in these places. My rating Machinist Mate is now combined with Boiler Technicians as well.
As one who has been in the Navy and afterward went into an artillery unit in the Army National Guard there are major issues and the Pentagon and Sec of Defense needs to stop the combining jobs downsizing nonsense.
The ones training for this seem to be corpsmen or Medics in Army terms.
I enlisted in 1976 and never saw a weapon but a ,22 for an hour in basic. We had Marines {now gone} and Gunner Mates who specifically trained in that. A weapon below decks is useless.
The Sand Pebbles was a great flick that detailed quite accurately as to how well trained most swabbies were for sevice in boarding parties. Once upon a time they were actually "naval infantry" in the mold of the Japanese Naval Infantry who fought the US Marines so fiercely at Tarawa. Oh how the times have changed due to the likes of Elmo Zumwalt and Clinton era feminization.
I was there and witnessed the distruction. The main reason I didn't stay in.
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