COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—A group of Fort Carson soldiers spent last week fighting a mock war in the California desert to get ready for fighting in Iraq this fall.
The 3,800-soldier 2nd Brigade Combat team, 4th Infantry Division, found itself locked in realistic battle with insurgent groups that included Iraqi-born role players who work at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif.
For the troops, it’s a graduation exercise that proves their readiness for war service.
“They will do everything from a cordon and search to area patrols,” Col. Butch Kievenaar said in a telephone interview.
Originally designed to get troops ready for tank battles in World War III, the training center in the Mojave Desert has radically changed its regimen in recent years to reflect the counterinsurgency fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A prime example of the change is the threats troops face at Fort Irwin. Five years ago, troops were in tank battles. Now they search for roadside bombs. And in another touch of realism, for commanders to win, they have to track down who is building the bombs and providing the raw materials for the explosives.
“We have to get after the network,” Kievenaar said.
At the same time, the commanders have to meet and work with simulated Iraqi leaders to rebuild the mock communities they patrol in the exercise.
If the leaders, at all levels, don’t work well with their Iraqi counterparts, the mock war would go badly for the Fort Carson troops.
“My soldiers are starting to get comfortable in that uncertain environment,” said Kievenaar.
The 2nd Brigade is heading for its first trip back to Iraq since it was reorganized at Fort Carson in 2006. The unit was built largely from Iraq veterans from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which left Fort Carson after its last tour in Iraq to make room for the incoming troops of the 4th Infantry Division.
The unit also has plenty of green troops, so Kievenaar is happy with the leavening of veterans.
“They can explain to the younger soldiers why we do what we do,” he said.
The brigade could head to Iraq as soon as August under Pentagon deployment plans.
The soldiers are working to be ready for the intense fighting seen in Baghdad in recent weeks as a Shiite uprising shattered months of relative calm.
“That’s exactly what this is all about out here,” Kievenaar said.
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Information from: The Gazette,
