Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville) March 2, 2004
Support troops hone combat skills
New manuals include how to react to ambush
By Noelle Phillips
FORT STEWART -- It didn't take long for Iraqi fighters to figure out their rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles were no match for American tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.
So they took aim at the more vulnerable Humvees and cargo trucks.
"Iraqis don't care if you're a medic, a cook or an infantryman," said Lt. Col. Bobby Towery, commander of the 3rd Forward Support Battalion at Fort Stewart. "They learned attacking a Bradley wasn't smart and to go after the soft-skinned vehicles that we drive."
The change made targets out of the soldiers who weren't on the traditional front lines.
"I think the artificial distinction between the front and the rear has been erased," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Web site that tracks defense issues.
The Army has learned that lesson from Iraq.
Now, it is changing training for support troops and has even re-written manuals on convoys to include instruction on how to react to ambushes.
The attack on Jessica Lynch's unit -- the 507th Maintenance Company -- hammered home this vulnerability last March. It was attacked in Nasiriyah after taking a wrong turn during the drive to Baghdad.
The 507th traveled with the Forward Support Battalion based at Fort Stewart during the early days of the war, and two of the 11 killed in the attack belonged to the support battalion.
Back from Iraq, the support battalion is sharpening its combat skills and learning to defend its supply convoys.
Its members are spending more time on rifle ranges, and, for the first time, learning to shoot on the move from zip-up, plastic Humvee windows and from the backs of cargo trucks.
"This is the first time in my 16 years we've done a live-fire exercise of this type," said 1st Lt. David Caruso, a medical platoon leader who also served as an enlisted man. "You may be a marksman in the foxhole, but when it comes to firing in a moving vehicle, you're not as good."
Last week, Caruso and about 200 other soldiers spent three days in the Fort Stewart woods learning how to defend themselves against attacks along supply routes.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, they were the soldiers who had supplied the ammunition, food, water and equipment parts. They were never more than a few miles from the front.
On Wednesday, Towery joined a convoy of medics on a training run intended to get everyone ready, from the commander to the newest private.
Their training mission: pick up brigade supplies and return to home base -- safely. Along the way, find the broken down trailer and check it for left-behind equipment.
The first attack came as the "enemy" launched a flare overhead.
Soldiers scrambled for cover and knelt or lay on the ground to fire at pop-up targets of people and trucks, hammering away until a sergeant called a cease-fire.
Commanders want that constant fire to either kill the enemy or at least force him to stay down.
"Either way is fine with us," Towery said. "We'd rather kill him, but as long as he's not firing at us, that's good. We want soldiers to feel what it's like to be in a close fight."
When attacked while in a moving convoy, commanders no longer want soldiers to stop. A moving target is harder to hit, so soldiers must escape the danger zone fast.
The lessons got the attention of Pvt. Sarah Ann Hickman, who served in Baghdad last summer.
"I'll joke around with everybody and laugh and have a good time to keep my morale up," she said, "but when it comes time to be a soldier, I take it real seriously."
© Copyright 2004, The Florida Times-Union
