Rules of Engagement: Local National Guardsmen retrain in preparation for a tour in Iraq

By MATTHEW RALPH

FORT KNOX, Ky. — Except for the mind-numbing sound of Arabic music and prayers, all is quiet in a narrow alleyway littered with a rusted out pick-up truck, trash cans and wooden boxes.

Too quiet.

As a group of Army National Guard soldiers move in one-by-one, climbing through a pair of open windows on both sides of the alley, the droning sound of a prayer to Allah is drowned out by a loud boom.

When the red dust settles, a flame burns from the bed of the rusted out pick-up truck. Two soldiers lie still on the ground.

The improvised explosive device, or IED as it is commonly known, has claimed both soldiers, complicating the mission to capture a village bomb-maker and seize a large cache of weapons.

Welcome to the streets of Iraq.

In the woods of Kentucky.

Known officially as the Urban Assault Course, the alley mock-up at the Fort Knox military base looks a lot like a Hollywood movie set with the special effects and piped in sound effects.

But the scenarios acted out are all too real.

Debriefing with the men later, Sgt. John Ingle, of Sellersburg, didn’t sugar-coat it.

“When you go to clear a village, there’s a good chance someone is going to die,” Ingle said. “IED’s. They’re going to happen.”

The urban course setting is designed to familiarize the soldiers with conditions and scenarios they will face when they arrive in Iraq in 2008.

The urban course is one of many training scenarios the soldiers are experiencing to build confidence in themselves and each other during a two-week pre-mobilization training that concludes this week.

“It’s all part of getting geared up to go,” Lt. Patrick Broderick, of Floyds Knobs, said as he stood above two plywood rooms where soldiers were practicing “clearing a room.”



Two years early

While two weeks of annual training is standard for National Guard reservists, the two-week stint at Fort Knox is a unique first for guard members under a pilot program being tested to transition infantry troops into cavalry to help meet troop demands for the ongoing War on Terror.

Some 700 soldiers in the 151st infantry battalion — stationed out of Connersville, Madison, New Albany, Salem and Scottsburg — were notified in May to be on alert for deployment.

Sgt. Jason Thornbury, a Jeffersonville resident who works full-time for the Guard out of the New Albany barracks, is one of a number of troops in the battalion who served a tour in Afghanistan ending in July 2005.

Under the traditional time frame, he wouldn’t be returning to active duty again until 2010. But a surge of some 20,000 additional troops called for by President Bush earlier this year has accelerated those time frames, according to Master Sgt. Edward Seaman, who works for the National Guard Bureau in Washington.

“These guys came off in July 2005 and next thing you know the phone rings and you’re coming to the party two years early,” Seaman said. “We’re running twice as fast.”

Running hard and fast in a different direction.

As cavalry, the battalion will be providing security for convoys.

That requires training moving humvees across dangerous terrain, withstanding attacks from insurgents and firing mounted weapons.

That’s where the Virtual Battle Simulator comes in.



Not your corner arcade

A partitioned area of a dark warehouse with dozens of computer stations may not look like much, but the entire city of Baghdad can fit into a space no larger than a school classroom. In a virtual world on computer screens, of course.

It is in this virtual Baghdad where strategy and procedure discussed in a classroom setting can be applied to real-world scenarios.

It’s not as close to the real thing as actually recreating a convoy or firing live mounted weapons on the top of humvees in one of the gun ranges at Fort Knox, but the simulator gives the troops an opportunity to work out any kinks in communication or procedure.

Two computer monitors, a headset, computerized steering wheel and gun turret are all that’s needed to operate one of the virtual humvees.

Instructors who provide human intelligence to insurgents in the virtual world provide the real-world situations.

“They can learn from what they’ll actually see,” said Sgt. Bennie Goble, a Fort Knox instructor who lives in Corydon. “That’s a tremendous thing for them to learn it here before they hear the first crack of a live bullet being fired at them.”

A separate program — similar to many of the popular first person video games — simulates what happens when the soldiers have to dismount from their vehicles to fight.

“You can do everything but kick in doors,” Goble said.

And of course, fire live ammo.



Ready, aim, fire

To accelerate training of troops and the transition from infantry to cavalry, the pilot program is utilizing instructors within the units being mobilized.

Charles Beauchamp, of Greenwood, is one of the instructors helping other soldiers familiarize themselves with mounted weapons systems — 50-caliber and MK-19 machine guns among them — they will have to master before heading to Iraq.

“The experience here is so much better than sitting in a classroom looking at a PowerPoint,” said Beauchamp, who served in Afghanistan with the Madison unit.

In addition, Beauchamp said working with soldiers he will be serving with in Iraq benefits the group as a whole. Traditionally, soldiers in need of specific training would be sent off to a school, but the accelerated time frame eliminated that possibility.

Only time will tell if the pilot program catches on with other National Guard units.

In the mean time, members of the 151st are doing what they can to ready themselves for the pending tour.

Sgt. Scott Ham, a New Albany resident who is a member of the unit based at Connersville, was upbeat about the training he is doing for his third tour of duty.

As a group of soldiers went through the urban assault course, Ham followed close behind with a digital camera and a big smile on his face.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Ham said. “Look at them. They’re doing a great job.”

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