"Tank, sir," says the dead man. Soon the soldier is up and stretching his legs, a veteran not of war but of a loud, smoky, violent simulation. As the nation readies itself for a possible invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military must prepare for a particularly dangerous type of combat—urban warfare. Unlike the Gulf War and the battle against the Taliban, both largely waged in deserts, a war in Iraq could involve door-to-door fighting in Baghdad and other densely populated areas, where snipers, booby traps and the presence of civilians drastically increase the likelihood of heavy casualties. "There is a little more concern because the Iraqis are a little better equipped" than the Taliban, allows Lt. Col. Lee Fetterman, 40. "But our soldiers are confident and competent."
One reason is the uniquely grueling training they receive at Louisiana's Fort Polk in an 82,000-acre facility known as the Box. "This training is probably the toughest there is out there," says Capt. Clint Cox, 31, who led one of the Airborne's companies through the assault on a mock village. "We bring it as close to absolute chaos as possible." Conditions are so hazardous that two soldiers died during war games in mid-November, when an M1 Abrams tank accidentally ran them over.
For this exercise, 336 members of the elite 101st Airborne—likely to be among the first soldiers deployed in Iraq—are helicoptered to positions two miles from a 29-building village complex in the Box. Their mission: to reclaim the town from rebels, played by troops from the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Deprived of regular sleep for days and lugging 35 lbs. of gear, the soldiers march through dense woods for hours before reaching the village. "It really gets you used to the stress" of war, says Staff Sgt. David Combes, 38, who spent six months in Afghanistan earlier this year. "But they say, 'The more you bleed in training, the less you bleed in combat.' "
Each soldier carries an M-4 rifle loaded with blanks and equipped with a laser; sensors on their bodies register hits and kills. It may sound like a high-tech form of laser tag, but the exercise is dead serious. One after another, squads of soldiers dodge simulated land mines and heavy sniper fire on their way into the village. In almost every case, the troops who regularly play the rebels are so experienced at wreaking havoc they are able to wipe out more than half the invaders. Wounded while hiding behind a tank, Lt. Jaron Wharton, 24, is killed as he tries to reach a triage station. "You go through a bunch of different reactions," he says. "At first, you're upset that you can't fight anymore. Then you realize, 'What if I did get shot? What if that was real?' "
Danger lurks everywhere. Capt. Cox and his men clear a townhouse of snipers and prepare to occupy a school when enemy fire rains down from a roof and nearby woods. Cox returns fire, but soon the clouds of smoke that conceal him dissipate, making him a sitting duck. "It was only a matter of minutes," says Cox, the father of a young son (his pregnant wife, Alison, runs a support group for soldiers' wives). "My demise came from the woods." Sgt. Ronnie Silverhorn, 28, a father of two, is hiding behind a bus when he hears his sensor go off. "I saw a soldier in a window shooting at us," says Silverhorn, who after being shot has to watch his men get picked off one by one. Emotions can run high: At one point, Brig. Gen. Benjamin Freakley breaks up a heated argument between a soldier and a rebel over who, exactly, killed whom.
After 12 hours the exercise ends. The 101st Airborne has captured half the village but has suffered heavy casualties. In fact, "we don't allow them to win," admits Capt. Cox, who says the deck is stacked against the invaders to give them the most seasoning possible. Sgt. David Combes, assigned to monitor the assault over the radio, saw more than half his unit killed. Still, "the whole idea of the training is not the outcome but what you can learn from it," he says. "You want to do your best out there, because you might wind up being the only thing between your buddy and the enemy."
Alex Tresniowski
Michael Haederle at Ft. Polk
- Contributors:
- Michael Haederle.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
