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Army's `digitized division' wages first combat

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Army News Service, April 17, 2003) -- Elements of the 4th Infantry Division battled Iraqi paramilitary fighters yesterday at al Taji airfield, north of Baghdad, in the division's first combat since it became the Army's "experimental force" in 1995.

Now known as the "digitized division" because of its tactical Internet and high-tech systems in each armored vehicle, the 4th ID crossed into Iraq Sunday from Kuwait. After 40 hours rolling north, the division passed through Baghdad Tuesday night and its leading elements stopped near al Taji airfield.

Wednesday morning soldiers of the division's 1st Brigade spotted paramilitary troops loading ammunition into a civilian vehicle on the air base. In a firefight that ensued, 4th ID soldiers killed and wounded a number of Iraqis and captured more than 100 enemy fighters, according to a U.S. Central Command report.

"The enemy force also had unmanned artillery pieces, armored personnel carriers and loaded multiple rocket launcher systems, a surface-to-air-missile warehouse and some computers," said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, CENTCOM deputy chief of operations at a news conference this morning in Qatar. "Coalition experts are examining the site and materials."

The 4th ID soldiers also destroyed some T-72 tanks at the airfield, Brooks said.

The 4th ID from Fort Hood, Texas, deployed to the CENTCOM theater earlier this month. It's M1 tanks and advanced Bradleys were reportedly in ships off the coast of Turkey for about a month, but in the end the equipment was offloaded in Kuwait.

That equipment included new digitized systems such as the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below. The FBCB2 is designed to facilitate communications between multi-vehicle platforms, officials said. They said it allows a soldier to know where he is, where his buddy is, and know where the enemy is.

When the 4th ID became the Army's Experimental Force in 1995, its 1st Brigade became Task Force XXI, and was outfitted with digital communications systems, new equipment and new weapons systems.

In March 1997, after training on the new equipment and new tactics, the 1st Brigade was tested in an advanced warfighting experiment at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif. It's success against NTC's world-class Opposing Force was largely attributed to increased situational awareness made possible by digital communications.

In the largest rotation ever at NTC, The 4th Infantry Division demonstrated its most recent digitized systems beginning March 31 to April 14, 2001. The Division Capstone Exercise at NTC was the Army's first look at the 4th ID's elite mechanized and aviation war-fighting capability, including its FBCB2, under realistic battlefield conditions, officials said.

Battles during the DCX demonstrated that Army Battle Command Systems -- commonly referred to as digital information systems or ABCS -- were able to empower soldiers to "move more quickly over the extended battlespace," said Brig. Gen. James D. Thurman, who then commanded NTC.

Now the division is employing those digital information systems in an actual combat zone.

(Editor's note: A report from Jim Garamone of the American Forces Press Service contributed to the first portion of this article.)