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By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON - After trying to quell stories about his Vietnam-era military record, President Bush (news - web sites) is seeking to move beyond it by meeting with National Guard members in Louisiana. Bush was spending Tuesday at Fort Polk, La., giving a speech to thank troops there for their service and sacrifice, White House aides said. Two soldiers killed by a roadside bomb while on mounted patrol in Iraq (news - web sites) last week were assigned to Fort Polk. In the address, Bush also was reminding troops about the stakes in the war on...

Bush to Meet With National Guard Members By SCOTT LINDLAW WASHINGTON - After trying to quell stories about his Vietnam-era military record, President Bush is seeking to move beyond it by meeting with National Guard members in Louisiana. Bush was spending Tuesday at Fort Polk, La., giving a speech to thank troops there for their service and sacrifice, White House aides said. Two soldiers killed by a roadside bomb while on mounted patrol in Iraq last week were assigned to Fort Polk. In the address, Bush also was reminding troops about the stakes in the war on terrorism and in...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush plans a visit next week to Fort Polk, home to a regiment due to return soon from a year of service in Iraq. Bush will speak to military personnel at the base on Tuesday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Friday. The 4,000-strong 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, in Iraq since last March, is due to return sometime in March or April. It is to be replaced by a brigade from the 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas, as part of a larger troop rotation announced earlier by the Pentagon. The 2nd Armored, the oldest...

FORT POLK, La. (AP) - Men in Arab headdress detonate a homemade bomb along a roadway used by U.S. convoys. A suicide truck bomb rips through a troop encampment, killing dozens. An insult triggers fighting between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs. These events, staged at Fort Polk to replicate the dangers facing U.S. forces in Iraq, made clear to the 4,800 National Guardsmen training at this remote Army base that preparing for a postwar tour of duty is unlike anything they have done before. "We got a very big wake-up jolt" when the training kicked off in mid-January, said Brig. Gen....

Iraqi native helps train Soldiers who will rebuild her nation By Spc. Ryan WoodJanuary 23, 2004 FORT POLK, La. (Army News Service, Jan. 23, 2004) -- A native-born Iraqi, who began her career as an elementary school teacher in Baghdad, now works as a translator and cultural specialist for the U.S. Army at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk. Daily, Noora Alshahlan translates news broadcasts into Arabic for broadcast into “the box,” a training area established to replicate the situation in Iraq. Soldiers who are preparing for deployment to the Middle East train in the “box” and...

FORT POLK, La. - The Army's newest combat unit, built around an agile wheeled vehicle instead of a bulky battle tank, is about to be declared ready for real-world missions, Army officials said Tuesday. Known as a Stryker brigade combat team, the force of 3,500 soldiers will be certified as ready for service by the end of this week, Gen. Larry Ellis, commander of Army Forces Command, said. Eventually there are to be at least four, and possibly as many as six, Stryker brigades. The new force is the brainchild of Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff. He...