Troops hone skills for missions

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

The U.S. soldier, wearing a white Middle Eastern tunic and hat, stood with his arms in the air.

Spc. Matt Armstrong portrays a suspect as Sgt. 1st Class John Owensby trains on the proper procedure for searching an individual at Wheeler Army Airfield. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Not an everyday scene at Wheeler Army Airfield, but these aren't everyday times for the 25th Infantry Division (Light).

Scenarios like the one above — practice for checkpoint security — are being enacted with greater frequency as 8,000 soldiers prepare for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon's announcement Thursday that 4,500 Schofield soldiers with the 2nd Brigade will head to Iraq in February — instead of Afghanistan as previously planned — gives the combat team a new focus, and moves up by four months the deployment of 3,500 3rd Brigade soldiers to Afghanistan.

The missions have also brought another change — in attitude.

Sitting out major combat for a Korean contingency, Tropic Lightning soldiers feel like they're finally about to do their part in the war on terrorism.

"First off, these deployments are why we have this division ... to do what our country needs us to do," said Command Sgt. Maj. Franklin G. Ashe, the 25th Division's highest ranking noncommissioned officer.

The fact that the 25th Division — one of 10 in the Army — remained ready as a deterrent force in the Pacific meant other Army forces could fight in the Middle East, he said.

"Our mission is a very real mission, and it's contributing to peace and stability throughout the world," Ashe said. "Were they (soldiers) frustrated that they weren't in the fight? Yes."

Having the Iraq and Afghanistan missions "gives people something to focus on," Ashe added. "Now they understand, hey, we're going to do what we're training for."

"I think the effect on the division is creating more pride in being a part of this team that's going over to do this job."

The division's biggest combat deployment since the Vietnam War will empty Schofield of much of its troop and helicopter forces for the better part of a year. Each of the partially overlapping deployments will last 12 months.

On Friday, 335 soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment practiced checkpoint security at Wheeler. Most of the soldiers are headed for Afghanistan in April.

The weeklong "Individual Readiness Training" is preparing soldiers for both countries, and includes skills such as rules of engagement, land-mine awareness, land-mine clearing, checkpoint operations, and cultural awareness.

In pairs of two, two dozen soldiers at Wheeler practiced head-to-toe body searches — with the admonition to even comb through beards — while other troops went through vehicle-search techniques.

Essential training

A couple of days before, Spc. Timothy Fowler, 25, learned that a small pile of rocks in Afghanistan can mean a land mine that's been marked to keep children away.

"A lot of the stuff we do, we all know as general knowledge, but this is not our everyday job, and it's good training," said Fowler, who is part of a Chinook helicopter unit. "It makes us more aware of what's going on."

Master Sgt. Donald Troxler, who was noncommissioned officer in charge of force protection and anti-terrorism with Central Command in Qatar from September of 2002 to May, said U.S. forces learned that even cell phones and cans of food can be used as explosive devices.

Another lesson learned was that the Army's approach to security control needed some fine tuning. The command of "halt!" in English was improved with multilingual signs, Troxler said.

"Now we have a greater understanding that we are in someone else's country," he said.

The training can be a matter of life or death. Remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida are regrouping in Afghanistan and mounting increased attacks on U.S. forces, and the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter in Iraq — believed to have been downed by a rocket — raised the American death toll last week alone to at least 33.

"Honestly, the only thing that worries me is leaving family members," said Fowler, who is married and has children ages 1 and 5. "Everything else, I think we're adequately trained to do what we need to do."

Sgt. 1st Class Milton McAngus, with the 68th Medical Company air ambulance "Tropic Dustoff," said, "My soldiers have all stepped up and said they want to go."

Volunteers were taken first because the entire unit isn't deploying, and "out of a platoon of 24, I had no problem filling 12 positions," he said.

Maj. Stacy Bathrick, a 25th Division spokeswoman, said that during the past year, the 2nd Brigade has gone through several training exercises that have kept the Iraq-bound unit ready for any theater of conflict.

"The 2nd Brigade Combat Team's readiness remains the same," she said. "The only change for the unit is its mission."

Making history

For both brigades, it will be history in the making. Not since the Vietnam War has the division deployed troops in these numbers to a combat zone.

The 25th Division fought on Guadalcanal, the North Solomon Islands and in the Philippines during World War II; drove into North Korea and then was forced back in 1950; and was heavily engaged in operations throughout Southeast Asia from 1966 to 1969.

Several platoons took part in the first Gulf War; more than 3,700 25th Infantry Division soldiers deployed to Haiti in 1995 for peacekeeping; and more than 1,000 soldiers were sent to Bosnia in 2002.

"It's an exciting time to be in the Tropic Lightning division," Ashe said. "We're writing another story in our division history."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.