Brigade meets first roadside bomb

AT THE STRYKER BRIGADE BASE CAMP, Iraq - A group of Fort Lewis soldiers survived a roadside bombing Sunday a little shaken but otherwise unharmed.

The explosion sent debris flying into the windshield of Spc. Jordan Salazar's Humvee, peppering the glass with dozens of little dings.

"All of a sudden it seemed like we were just covered in dirt," said Salazar, with the 864th Engineer Battalion from Fort Lewis.

The battalion has been in Iraq since April with the 555th Engineer Group, operating mostly throughout northern Iraq.

Salazar's convoy was on its way to ranges at the Stryker brigade's sprawling base camp.

He was driving the last vehicle in a convoy of about a dozen trucks and Humvees, with another soldier in the passenger seat and a half dozen more in the back.

A heavy tow truck driving in front of Salazar had just passed over the spot that blew up about 20 meters in front of him, Salazar said.

The explosion occurred about 8:45 a.m. just outside of Duluiyah, a town near the Tigris River between Baghdad and Tikrit.

Such roadside bombs - in Army parlance, they call them improvised explosive devices, or IEDs - are a constant threat for U.S. troops traveling the roads in Iraq.

Two Stryker brigade soldiers suffered non-life-threatening injuries Friday when a 40mm grenade partially detonated on top of their Stryker while they were changing out weapons, officials said.

One of the soldiers suffered injuries to his legs and buttocks and was evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for surgery, the brigade spokesman, Lt. Col. Joseph Piek said.

The other soldier was treated at a hospital in Kuwait and was expected to return to duty soon, he said.

The soldiers are from the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, one of the Stryker brigade's three infantry battalions.

The accident took place at Navistar, the U.S. military's convoy support base just south of the Iraq-Kuwait border. The soldiers were on the first stop of a three-day convoy to the brigade's new base camp in northern Iraq.

Piek said it's fortunate the grenade, which is the ammunition fired from a Stryker's Mk-19 grenade launcher, didn't completely detonate.

"These things will do some damage if the whole thing goes off," Piek said. "He's lucky."

And Pvt. Shaun Ritter is nursing a sore right arm after the heavy truck he was riding in Saturday toppled over north of Baghdad. His buddy Spc. James Norris, watching from another vehicle, said the driver of Ritter's truck lost control after swerving to avoid hitting an Iraqi motorist cutting into and out of the Army convoy.

Ritter and Norris, from the 21st Cargo Transportation Company from Fort Lewis, are in Iraq with the Stryker brigade.

"I can't bend it all the way out," said Ritter, 20, who was wearing a sling Sunday, but said he figured he'd be OK soon. "They told me I was lucky I didn't break it."

Stryker brigade troops learn how to survive ambushes

Kuwait live-fire course teaches critical skills to support soldiers

MATTHEW COX GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait -- The support soldiers of the Stryker brigade here have a few tricks in store for Iraqi guerrilla forces that might be looking for soft targets to ambush.

Elements of 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, began moving into Iraq this week in the first of several large convoys -- a form of transportation that continues to be a target for insurgents operating in Iraq.

So, the brigade's cooks, mechanics and other support soldiers recently went through intensive convoy live-fire training. During the four-day course, soldiers learned critical skills such as how to engage targets from moving vehicles and how to transform a group of vehicles into a defensive perimeter.

It's part of a new Army focus to ensure combat service and support soldiers are able to survive. The Army's senior leadership recognized the need for this training after 11 soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company were killed March 23 when Iraqi forces ambushed the unit's convoy as the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) advanced toward Baghdad. Six others were captured.

Since then, combat training centers such as the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., and the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., have adapted training programs to incorporate lessons learned in Iraq.

"I think since folks have been in Iraq, they don't realize there has been a pretty aggressive training process going on back in the States," said Stryker brigade commander Col. Michael Rounds. "The question will be, when we roll up there, is the strategy that we used to get ready to come here, and is the type of structure that they have at NTC and JRTC, the right training process to push people into this type of fight? We'll see. I think so."

The brigade of about 5,000 Stryker soldiers and support troops, based out of Fort Lewis, includes 309 of the wheeled Stryker vehicles, including infantry carriers, anti-tank vehicles, command vehicles and other variants.

It's been just over two weeks since the Stryker brigade arrived in theater. During the time they were in Kuwait preparing to roll into Iraq, soldiers kept busy making preparations for combat. They loaded Stryker vehicles with ammunition, food and water, and fitted them with slat armor, an add-on measure to help protect them from rocket-propelled grenade attacks.

And, of course, they trained.

Outside Camp Udairi in the Kuwaiti desert, the Army has set up a training course, complete with a nine-kilometer live-fire range designed to show soldiers some of the combat situations they might encounter in Iraq.

Desert classroom

Support soldiers first learned to shoot in close-quarter situations. They learned how to correctly fire from inside a moving vehicle both during the day and at night.

They practiced changing magazines and conducted immediate-action drills for clearing their weapons.

They also went through classes on how to arrange their vehicles in a defensive perimeter, how to call in a medevac helicopter and how to set up a landing zone for it.

Rounds said he was pleased to see soldiers had a chance to get comfortable with their personal weapons by firing hundreds of rounds -- something the soldiers from the 507th never had a chance to do.

"They know how to maintain it, they know to work immediate-action drills if they have any problems with it, and they know how to get lead down-range," he said "We have no intent of repeating some of the things we have seen in the past."

Pvt. Laura Young, a cook with 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, said it was the first time she really had a chance to work with her M16 since basic training. "It's been six months since I fired a weapon that much," said the 20-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas, who has served one year in the Army. "I feel more confident. I think it's good for us."

Mock ambush

The training also put soldiers into convoys and ran them through the nine-kilometer course that included a handful of mock Iraqi ambush positions along the side of the road. Soldiers fired rounds at silhouette targets hidden behind shot-up cars while riding in vehicles at 20 mph.

As soon as soldiers saw the enemy positions, they flicked on their turn signals in the direction of the enemy to alert vehicles behind them.

Capt. Matt Dabkowski said the training is crucial because it gives soldiers a set of basic skills they can draw on in a life-or-death situation.

"The most important thing that came out of the convoy live-fire is it increased soldier confidence amongst the support soldiers," said Dabkowski, of Pittsburgh.

"It's almost like a playbook. It's a set of battle drills that any convoy could use to react to an attack. ... There is always the chance that we are going to run into the enemy."

This report was prepared by a journalist attached to an active military unit, and may be subject to restrictions on its content.

Comments received so far from SBCT TSG (ChABN) members:

GOD Bless our Freedom Fighters, ..always.

Hopefuly improved TTPs will hael make up for the glaring inadequacies of the Stryuker. From what I heard about the big firefight recently, we've figured out the Fedayhin play book and have better answers to what they want to do to us.

From the article: The training also put soldiers into convoys and ran them through the nine-kilometer course that included a handful of mock Iraqi ambush positions along the side of the road. Soldiers fired rounds at silhouette targets hidden behind shot-up cars while riding in vehicles at 20 mph. My unit didn't dilly dally around ambushes at that speed. Towing howitzers and all, we'd fly past if we could. The Humvee would become a porcupine of weapons pointing outward with us hunkered down behind the sandbags in back and we'd fire at anything that looked unfriendly and moved. Egads.. 20mph past an ambush position..

The thing I picked up out of the story is the focus on (para.) "getting the cooks and mechanics into counter-ambush training". I wonder if this was even anywhere a priority prior to the Private Lynch situation.

Thanks, Man! I like this part: **"I think since folks have been in Iraq, they don't realize there has been a pretty aggressive training process going on back in the States," said Stryker brigade commander Col. Michael Rounds. "The question will be, when we roll up there, is the strategy that we used to get ready to come here, and is the type of structure that they have at NTC and JRTC, the right training process to push people into this type of fight? We'll see. I think so." ** I can personally attest to it. I was there in June of this year, running with the OPFOR. We ran those poor guys into the dirt.

This is GREAT!!!!!! Think 8th Trans Group histories might have been read by the command? I think the Stryker guys already know the strengths and weaknesses of their mounts and have already GI scienced it and their support units into something to be reckoned with. i think the Shinsecki Wheeled tank crowd won't win this one, I do think the Stryker is gonna be used as wha tit is designed to be. Thanks for the heads up

Thanks. The 501st was training with these guys at Irwin and Knox.

("Support soldiers first learned to shoot in close-quarter situations. They learned how to correctly fire from inside a moving vehicle ... practiced changing magazines ... clearing their weapons ... arrange their vehicles in a defensive perimeter, how to call in a medevac helicopter and how to set up a landing zone for it. ...") Since "every soldier's a rifleman" this all sounds like a good idea. I'm surprised, however, that this is "special" training, and not stuff taught to EVERY soldier. I mean, what the heck, if it just takes four days, WHY NOT teach everyone?

That's the kind of training that should be a part of all soldiers training and for CSS soldiers in particular. I conducted as much of it as I could when I was in a position to push it during ftx's, but it was never taken as seriously as I thought it should be. I sent my daughter the materials from those web-sites you linked in the previous thread. She says that when they get to Iraq, their first job is going to be armoring their vehicles against ambush. Most of it will be improvised with sand-bags and other materials, but rumors are that they may get a couple of the truly armored HUMVEE's for protection. They ought to pull some of those old 2-1/2 ton trucks out of the bone-yards and convert them into convoy-escort gun trucks.

This kind of training should be standard. To a degree, the training is standard as part of the program of instruction from the different schools. Problem is that, at least in the Armor School, the program of instruction does not mean much. Ous school, for Armor Officer Basic course is run by a Squadron. To make command slots for Captains, there are 4 training companies in the Squadron. Each Captain has his own view point on training and as a result, instead of standardized training, you have 4 different Armor Officer Basic Courses. The training is a fraud. I suspect that the same thing happens down the chain with the junior enlisted and basic entry training. The Stryker concept is broken but thank God someone is building the basic combat skills of each member of the organization. This should have been done in Basic Training.

Thanks for the news piece, there are a lot of poeple on FR that wish only to carp on others and our politians. I only want to see as many of our boys and girls come home as possible. Thanks again.

It's about time they started concentrating on making sure folks are a "rifleman" first and support second again.

As a mechanic in Vietnam I drove many a convoy. In fact I would venture to say I had a riskier time than the field artillery crewmen we supported, as they stayed at the fire base for the most part. To this day I do not drive through mudholes if I can avoid them, I do not hit man made objects in the road like coke cans. It is just something we learned for survival and still do. We learned to barrel our way through obstacles and if anyone gets the roads. Sin-loy!

Isn’t that amazing? The Army is teaching what was taught nearly 40 years ago!

WHY IN HELL HAVEN'T WE BEEN DOING THIS FOR, LIKE, EVER!!! I guess it's like anything else, takes some kids getting killed to get the message out. I'm just glad to hear the "turnaround" time has gotten a little better.

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