Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Re: A Fortnight Less At The Fort   [John Hood]

Lots of correspondents today are defending the policy, reported in the Army Times piece I linked earlier, of sending brigades to Iraq without the two-week training in the Mojave Desert previously provided. Some argue that since many of the Iraq-bound troops are veterans of the conflict, the training is less relevant. Others argue that the desert training itself is not particularly relevant to the urban mission these troops are about to undertake. Here’s just one dismissive missive:

The National Training Center at Ft. Irwin is intended to train units  at the battalion level to fight high-intensity armored-mechanized war. It really isn't very relevant to what they will be doing in Iraq. On the other hand, JRTC at Ft. Stewart is the Army's premier low-intensity combat training center; it's been specializing in Iraqi counter-insurgency tactics for a couple of years now.  Your friend at  NTC is probably more concerned that the budget for Irwin is flat, and that for Stewart is going up.  Teaching the troops to keep their rifles clean and free of dust is something the First Sergeant can do back at barracks.  Besides, the dust and sand at Irwin isn't at all like that in Iraq.

I would also recommend the initial post and comments from the Blackfive milblog for more information.

02/27 01:19 PMShare