Commander says Fort Hood training 'of very little value' (TEXAS)

The Associated Press ^ | May. 06, 2005 | The Associated Press

[Dubya]

A commander with the Iowa Army National Guard says training problems at a Texas Army base left his unit ill-prepared for duty in Iraq, according to a copyrighted story in The Des Moines Register.

Capt. Aaron Baugher of Ankeny, Iowa, was the commander of the first Iowa infantry division trained at Fort Hood. In a report obtained by the Register, he said the 2004 training "was of very little value and poorly instructed" by soldiers who typically had never served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Baugher's unit of 58 soldiers, the 194th Long-Range Surveillance Detachment of Johnston, returned to Iowa in late February after nearly a year in Iraq.

"Having been in Iraq ... conducting combat operations on a wide spectrum, we can confidently say we did not learn a thing at Fort Hood," Baugher wrote.

Col. Luke Green, chief of staff of the Fifth U.S. Army, said Baugher's complaint emphasizes the short training schedule part-time and reserve units have to become combat-ready.

"This is like getting your football team on the first of August and you have a game on the first of September, and you are working ... hard to get people ready, except in this situation people can die," Green said.

About 40 percent of all U.S. forces in Iraq are Guard or Reserve members.

Baugher's report said that in some situations, veteran Iowa soldiers had to correct instructors at Fort Hood.

No soldiers in Baugher's unit were killed, but one was seriously injured when he was shot by a sniper.

Col. Al Dochnal, a regular Army officer who commanded the brigade that trained the Iowa unit, disagreed with Baugher and said the Iowa soldiers received excellent training.

Brig. Gen. Mark Zirkelbach, deputy adjutant general of the Iowa Army National Guard, said he traveled to Fort Hood last year to personally address Baugher's complaints. He said he met with the commander of a garrison support unit and was told that corrective actions were being taken.

Zirkelbach said his primary concern was to ensure that 700 soldiers from the Iowa National Guard Task Force 168, which arrived soon after Baugher's unit, didn't have the same problems. The result, he said, was that the Task Force 168 soldiers had a better experience than the 194th infantry detachment.

"We owe it to our soldiers to give them the best chance of survival that we can. That was really the message that we took to Fort Hood," Zirkelbach said.

Baugher's report also detailed problems in his unit getting the equipment it needed before it was deployed.

[Meldrim]

I answered your question. I support precisely the same type of conscription we had through 1973. We have more than enough day care centers and illegitimate (over half of the births to enlisted women) to support already.

Our allies with the two most formidable military establishments, Korea and Israel, do not draft women (Israel has so many exemptions for females it is essentially voluntary) and do quite well.

Jessica Lynch and Kara Hultgreen are not my idea of a success. We need more of the ilk of Patrick Miller.