Newsday (New York) March 27, 2003
Preparing for Battle
Thousands from 4th Division deployed to Gulf
By Dionne Searcey
Fort Hood, Texas - Hundreds of soldiers marched across the grass, the pants' legs of their desert camouflage uniforms quietly swooshing until they came to a stop. An Army band played "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and small cannons fired several rounds, leaving puffy clouds to drift eastward.
"Our soldiers roar for freedom. We're fit for any test," the audience sang at a bon voyage ceremony for the 12,500 soldiers who are about to fly to the Kuwait desert. "The mighty 4th Division, America's best."
As the soldiers prepare to join the battle in Iraq, all eyes are on this heavily mechanized division with its computerized M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. The military has spent millions to outfit its machinery with the most high-tech battle-positioning gear available. Its soldiers can tell in an instant the location of every allied and enemy vehicle. This war will mark the first time the equipment, installed in 1995 to cut down on friendly-fire incidents, has been tested in combat.
"That's where the armed forces are going - we're going digitized," said Maj. Amy Hannah, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Army. "And the 4th Infantry Division is the most prolific of all of them with the high-tech gear it has."
Commanders know this is a chance for the division, which hasn't been to battle since Vietnam, to make a name for itself. They hope its logo of four ivy leaves will become as notorious as the screaming eagles of the 101st Airborne or the yellow blanket of the 1st Cavalry.
So far, the division is off to a sputtering start. It was supposed to lead the military operation, punching through the Turkish border with Iraq to open a northern front for the war. But the Turkish government balked, leaving the division's 14,000 pieces of equipment on ships in the Mediterranean and troops waiting in Texas.
"If this division had been available from day one of the war, it would have been a good test case," said Patrick Garrett, a senior fellow with GlobalSecurity.org, a military research organization. "Now there's still sort of a question mark as to what the 4th ID is going to be able to do."
Once there, soldiers will check for glitches in the equipment, which has been exposed to salty sea air for two months. It could take a week to prep the vehicles for war. Still, military experts say the division's role could be pivotal as its three maneuver brigades, a combat aviation brigade, artillery and support command might move into Baghdad or provide relief.
"Every soldier in this task force is highly trained, motivated and equipped to prepare for any situation," said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the division commander.
This is a division that likes to call itself the Army's most lethal. It has sent troops to train in Kuwait and to guard suspected Taliban members in Cuba. But few have fought in combat. Left behind during the Gulf War, some soldiers started calling it the go-nowhere division.
Even its fierce battles in Vietnam received little attention. The division's infantry soldiers were often positioned near the hills of Cambodia while the media focused on Saigon, said Bob Babcock, the division's former official historian and author of "War Stories: Utah Beach to Pleiku."
During World War II, a political spat with France kept the division from earning the country's famed Croix de Guerre, or War Cross, for bravery in combat although its soldiers helped liberate that country. In World War I, the division entered the battlefield late but suffered 10,000 losses.
"The 4th Division has done a hell of a job between World War I, World War II and Vietnam. It has a damn good record," Babcock said. "But it's never gotten much publicity."
Officers like 1st Lt. Charles Peters, in charge of a Bravo Company platoon, want to change that. "It's our chance to show the world what we're made of," said Peters, 23, of St. Cloud, Minn. Still, he will stay focused on his mission. "I'm not worried about putting us on the map," he said, "but helping the war effort."
GRAPHIC: Photo - 1) Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division display their colors during a ceremony in Fort Hood, Texas, yesterday. The 12,500 members of the division are part of Task Force Ironhorse scheduled to begin deploying to the Persian Gulf. Officials said an advance group, believed to be 400 to 500 troops, shipped out yesterday. 2) AP Photo - At left, Maj. Mark Raschke, spends the last few minutes with his wife, Karen, and daughter, Emma, 7 months. 3) Photo - Below, the 4th Division's logo of four ivy leaves. 4) AP Photo - Specialist Acacia Williams holds daughter Hailee, 6, during yesterday's ceremony.
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