Posted on 04/30/2006 8:08:52 AM PDT by SandRat
Pvt. Daniel Gorun secures an area Saturday while first aid is being administered to a fallen comrade during training on Fort Huachuca. At top, Pvt. Claudia Reynoso poses as an Iraqi woman working at a camp as soldiers approach during Saturday's training exercise. (By Mark Levy-Herald/Review)
FORT HUACHUCA — A squad of Demon Dogs soldiers listened intently to three GIs who served in Iraq explain to them what they did right and wrong during training on Saturday.
The knowledge imparted by their company commander, first sergeant and a drill sergeant was designed to increase their knowledge of what they may face when they deploy to Iraq.
For Sgt. Jose Anica, who is re-training from being a medical lab technician to the intelligence arena, the Army is doing more to prepare soldiers, especially those who have just entered service, to be ready through Warrior Task Training.
Unlike some other members of the squad, Anica, 23, has some combat training behind him.
Although the Riverside, Calif., resident has yet to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan, he has taken part in field exercises involving setting up and protecting combat hospitals.
“The Warrior Task Training is more in-depth, it tested my tactical leadership abilities,” he said.
Anica was the designated squad leader for the Saturday morning exercise. The squad consisted of two teams that had to go through a scenario consisting of changing operational requirements.
The squad was given an initial operational order but soon there were changes, as the training continued in the rolling terrain of the fort’s western area.
After the nearly three-hour Situation Tactical Exercise, which is sometimes called Squad Tactical Exercise, the intelligence analyst soldiers in training went through an improvised explosive device attack, were fired on numerous times by insurgents, came across what appeared to be friendly natives, were attacked by a suicide bomber, had mortars fired at them, came upon unexploded explosive ordnance and found a weapons cache.
Anica, who enlisted in the Army more than three years ago, is finally getting the opportunity to become an intelligence analyst.
That was his initial goal, but because he wasn’t a U.S. citizen at the time of enlisting the field was closed to him. Noting he and his family “are legal immigrants from Mexico,” the GI said he came to the United States when he was 8. Now that he has his citizenship, he can do the job he initially wanted.
Pfc. Jamie Kwak, who is four years older than Anica, is new to the Army, having enlisted in October. He said the more he and others learn in a environment like Fort Huachuca the less they will have to be taught in a combat situation.
Both soldiers are realists, knowing the sounds of blank training gunfire and small, controlled explosions can never be taken for what they may encounter in the heat of a real battle, when the noise of bullets whistling overhead and earth-jarring explosions creates high levels of anxiety.
Kwak said it is better to make mistakes in training where a soldier can walk away alive instead of possibly being wounded or killed in a combat situation.
“I feel the more training we get the better,” the Los Angeles native said.
Kwak is heading for an assignment at Fort Hood, Texas, and Anica to Fort Drum, N.Y. They will go after they graduate, which will be May 11.
In the field to learn
When the training was complete, Anica, Kwak and other soldiers of 3rd Squad of the 1st Platoon of Company D, 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, sat on bleachers in front of a sand table that showed the exercise area.
It was time for a question-and-answer period and some pointed comments by three of the soldiers’ leaders and their own self criticism.
As Capt. Thomas Pike, 1st Sgt. Charles Young and Sgt. 1st Class Michael Greenfield, the drill sergeant, spoke and listened, the squad outlined what they remembered about the exercise, which started with being hit by improvised explosive devices.
Due to security concerns, photography and specific comments about that aspect of Saturday’s training were off limits.
Post spokeswoman Tanja Linton said new Department of Defense guidance is limiting coverage of IED training and how soldiers are being taught to counter the devices. According to news reports, IEDs are the main cause of deaths and wounds to U.S. forces in Iraq.
“We want to maintain the edge in countering IEDs,” Linton said.
Soldier survivability is critically important, and since “the enemy is very adaptive,” there will be no discussions about what is being done regarding IEDs, she said.
After the IED ambush, the soldiers came under fire from a machine gun position higher up on a hill.
The squad’s two teams went into an attack mode, but the verbal after action report highlighted errors in how they took out the gun position.
From there the squad went on to contact survivors of humanitarian convoy.
The area where the attack happened was in open country, with no cover such as trees and rocks.
The object was for the soldiers providing security to go into a prone position. But one did not.
Greenfield approached the soldier quietly asked him what was he doing wrong. The answer was kneeling instead of being prone.
“I had a brain fart, drill sergeant,” the soldier responded.
There was drill sergeant yelling, just a calm way of bringing attention to an error that could have meant death or wounds if it happened on a battlefield.
It would not be the only mistake made by squad members.
The squad learned where the humanitarian relief supplies were taken and headed for a small village.
They came under attack again in an area with hardly any cover, requiring them to overcome those obstacles as they went down a hill and went up another.
Then it was time to go into the village, which was a large metal building.
The squad entered the village as sounds of a Muslim call to prayers were repeated to provide a little more realistic atmosphere.
Some squad members then encountered a woman, who turned out to be a suicide bomber.
Of everything they did that morning, perhaps the one area that did not go well was how they handled a role-playing woman.
Decisions to save lives
That error was highlighted during the after-action reports. Pike, who is 1996 graduate of Buena High School, said the squad was not wary of the woman as she approached.
“She blew herself up,” he said.
It was unnecessary for him to have to add, most of the squad went with her.
Even with the mistakes, the captain, first sergeant and drill sergeant agreed the squad did pretty well when looking at all the aspects of the exercise.
The key is making sure soldiers do not walk as a close group, Pike said, again noting that would have caused fewer deaths and wounds of squad members involved in the suicide bomber scenario earlier in the day.
“Dispersion saves lives,” said the captain, who was a scout platoon leader in Iraq last year. He served in some hot spots, including Ar Ramadi.
Always look for cover, Pike added.
“Run like hell and make the right decisions,” he said.
The squad did particularly well when it came to moving, by not walking along roads, Pike said.
Young said, “All in all, you guys didn’t do a bad job.”
Pike said it is important to keep in good physical shape and maintain discipline in the long days and nights in Iraq.
“You will be exhausted. You’ll get tired, hot, hungry and frustrated,” he said. “Everyone has a breaking point.”
And the captain challenged the intelligence soldiers to do more to understand the infantryman and others in combat arms, by knowing how they think and the language they use to provide them the best information possible.
“Go out with them, they’ll respect you more,” Pike said.
Huachuca turns out sensitive soldiers
GIs are taught how to avoid offending Iraqi population
ARRRRRrrrrrgggggggggggg!!!!!!!
No wonder things are as confused as they are.
ARRRRRrrrrrgggggggggggg!!!!!!!
Who's confused?
They were doing this back at Fort Sill basic training a couple of years ago. Seemed to be well received.
The UBER-LIBERAL Tucson paper talks about T-O-L-E-R-L-A-N-C-E and the local paper taks about teaching the soldiers how to fight, survive and win.
Ah, well I tolerate learning how to kill the enemy, but that's me.
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