Posted on 10/17/2002 6:59:49 AM PDT by xzins
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Illesheim-based Apache helicopter unit arrives in Kuwait
By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes European edition, Wednesday, October 16, 2002
More forces from Europe are on their way to the Middle East as the United States continues to marshal combat units for a possible war with Iraq.
The 6th Aviation Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment — part of the Illesheim, Germany-based V Corps — arrived in Kuwait on Tuesday, according to Capt. Darrell Wright, an Army spokesman for U.S. forces in the region.
The tank-killing AH-64 Apache unit is among a growing number of forces being dispatched to the Persian Gulf in recent weeks, including an additional aircraft carrier, an amphibious ready group and top-level Army and Marine field headquarters.
About 450 soldiers from the 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry are deploying from Germany as an aviation task force, said Maj. Dean Thurmond, a V Corps spokesman.
Thurmond said the unit was deploying “in support of Operation Enduring Freedom” — the Pentagon’s counterterrorism campaign — but would not elaborate.
“The task force will include aviation maintenance and medical support units form Illesheim and other locations in Germany,” Thurmond said.
Lt. Col. Scott B. Thompson, a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War and commander of the 2nd Squadron, will lead the task force. The senior enlisted soldier is the 2nd Squadron’s Command Sgt. Maj. Rollie Parducho.
Following the aviation task force will be some 300 planners and intelligence experts from the Heidelberg, Germany-based V Corps. They are expected to arrive in Kuwait within the next few weeks, officials said.
The Corps headquarters and Apache squadron will join some 6,000 soldiers already positioned in Kuwait along Iraq’s southern border.
Among the units there are:
¶ 2nd Brigade Combat Team, part of the 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Stewart, Ga. ¶ 7th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Aviation Task Force, including AH-64 Apaches and UH-60L transport helicopters from Reserve units in Texas. ¶ 513th Military Intelligence Brigade from Fort Gordon, Ga., as well as communications and other support units. ¶ I Marine Expeditionary Force, from Camp Pendleton, Calif., and elements from the CENTCOM headquarters from MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., also are preparing to deploy to the region.
Squads of elite paratroops with Company Echo, 51st Infantry Regiment — V Corps’ stealthy, long-range-surveillance “eyes and ears” from Darmstadt, Germany — have been given the nod to deploy to Kuwait in recent weeks as well, a V Corps official said.
“Small teams have been rotating into the CENTCOM area of responsibility over the past few weeks,” confirmed V Corps spokeswoman Hilde Patton.
For the past three years, V Corps has focused on whittling down its heavy, Cold War-era command post into a modular, quickly deployable combat nerve center while refining and expanding its ability to hit deep inside the enemy heartland.
V Corps now is wrapping up its third-annual Victory Strike war games in Poland. The maneuvers rehearsed the Corps’ ability to conduct what strategists call “deep-strike operations” sending Apache helicopters far behind enemy lines to attack hard-to-find mobile air defense targets.
Company Echo, 51st Infantry Regiment paratroops also were among those participating in Victory Strike in Poland, along with the 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry’s parent command — the 11th Aviation Regiment — as well as rocket- and missile-shooting artillery crews from 1st Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment from Babenhausen, Germany.
Although the 2nd Squadron 6th Cavalry did not participate in the live-fire exercises, its sister unit — 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment — the Army’s newest AH-64D Longbow unit — was the star of the show.
Equipped with advanced targeting and avionics gear, the Longbow version of the Apache is a low-flying, fast-shooting, radar-guided-missile pad, with pilots able to engage more targets at once and at longer ranges than older model Apaches.
“The Longbow is perfectly suited for the desert fight,” said one Army officer in Europe. “I’d be very surprised if they weren’t the next unit to deploy.”
Meanwhile, a 2,200-strong contingent of Marines — part of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejuene, N.C. — was finishing preparations for its withdrawal from peacekeeping duties in Kosovo.
The MEU soon will move from U.S. European Command to Central Command for duty in the Middle East as it passes through the Suez Canal toward the end of the month.
Also on its way to the region is the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, joining the USS George Washington carrier group also nearing the end of its deployment.
Bush is saying "we need a solid resolution" to the UN, but he's saying "war" to the Pentagon. Something tells me that GW despises the UN. (And that's a very good thing. Our security as a nation is based in the US Constitution -- NOT in the UN charter.)
Suicide by Apache.
How many months did we listen to the 'Rats say, "Once those Apaches get there, your a$$ is gra$$!"
Did they ever fly a combat role is Kosovo?
They aren't made to just sit on the ground. They need to fly and familiarize. Politics prevented that in Kosovo. It won't prevent that in Kuwait. (Also, remember the sorry stories about building their basing area in Kosovo.)
But their combat power on a battlefield is awesome. A battalion is about the equivalent of a tank division.
Do you fly or crew these things?
Why don't tell them to protect their own sorry socialist asses?
Forward staging saves enormous amounts of time, lives, and logistical obstacles/planning IF war comes to that location or to locations nearby. That's why the initial deployments to both Bosnia and Kosovo came out of Germany. They went BY HIGHWAY AND BY TRAIN.
When these units go to the MidEast, they should return to Hungary instead of to Germany, IMHO. Cuts costs and gets them closer to the TRUE areas of concern.
So IYHO would you say that there is a posibility of some of these brave souls that have been shooting at our troops training in Kuwait, firing weapons at these helicopters thereby commiting suicide by Apache?
No, they should deploy on the sounthern boader of the U.S.
They should be protecting our boarders not those of some Euroweenie.
In other news, The Iraqi government has fowarded a request for emergency shipments of underwear to the UN.
I agree that we should protect our southern border, but I don't agree that it should be with this type of troops.
The Dept of Defense should be given full control of the Coast Guard and a new, largely expanded BORDER GUARD. They should be trained specifically for border duties.
But I want indisputable EXPERTS in tanks, artillery, aviation, etc. To become the best experts in the world at that kind of intense warfare they need to practice and focus on that kind of warfare...full time. If you lose on the intense battlefield just ONCE, then you lose your nation.
I'd fill the Border Guard with drafted young people who provide national service for minimal monthly salaries, but for GI Bill level educational benefits. I'd require 1.5 years out of EVERY young person who doesn't JOIN the Army, Navy, AF, Marines. Since these would be primarily non-combat police, you should have no problem with conscientious objectors, etc.
Also, I'd stay in Europe for MY REASONS....not to guard them. That's cause I'd rather be halfway there than have to fight to get there if I ever had another war in that region.
Um, am I the only one who notices how dumb this is as a tactic? About the only thing that actually is vunerable to Iraqi mobile air defenses is a low flying chopper in their own backyard. Yes, you need some set of eyeballs to see the things, but then the thing to send is something mobile AD can't hit in reply - like an MLRS salvo, or HARMs or Mavericks from high altitude, or whatever. Assymmetric engagements. Use the Apaches against things like tanks that can't shoot back at them effectively. Why are they training for a head-on engagement instead?
In that case, 50 feet off the deck at night under nvgs and flir, they could be unassailable.
No way I'd do it in daylight, though. You are absolutely correct on that count.
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