In Training for Iraq, Learning to Work as a Team
29 Dec. New York Times - In Training for Iraq, Learning to Work as a Team.
Quote:
...none of that matters to the men of the 654th Military Police Company, a newly formed unit of the Virginia Army National Guard. Their reality is that American soldiers are still needed to patrol the streets of Iraq, and within a few weeks this patchwork company will be doing just that...
For two months, the group of 157 veterans and rookies has lived on Tiger Base, a 30-acre re-creation of Iraq at Fort Dix, one of two bases in the United States that offers an immersion course for new security forces, said Lt. Col. Norberto Cintron, who is in charge of the training.
They awaken before 5 a.m. and hear Muslim prayer calls five times a day. They eat flavorless food, use portable toilets and sleep on cots, 12 to a tent. In military exercises, simulated grenades and improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.'s, explode, and soldiers like Specialist Kavanaugh dramatize severe or fatal wounds...
Although the gym often goes unused, soldiers work out during drills more mental than physical. The training for the Guard has evolved. Units deployed early in the war sometimes received a week or two of training. Now, the training for security forces at specialized sites like Fort Dix lasts at least two months and includes more complex simulations...
