bobdina
08-31-2009, 02:50 PM
FORT POLK, La. — It is a quiet day in the town of Sadiq, at least until shortly after noon. By then, The Box is hot and the game is on. It’s called OpFor (opposing forces) training, and it is a final exam in a fighting unit’s preparation for action.
The Box is the multi-acre portion of Fort Polk, which hosts the Joint Readiness Training Center, used for staging live exercises that test military forces as they prepare to deploy to hostile foreign assignments.
Road signs, in both English and Arabic, point the way to realistically created towns like Suliyah, Sadiq, Mosalah, Takira, Kaji and Barakah.
Piles of broken concrete, found at irregular intervals along the road, provide perfect scenarios for IEDs — improvised explosive devices. Mangled remains of automobiles provide reminders of an IED’s capability.
A tank rolls by with an Iraqi flag emblem on its side.
At a marketplace beside the road, civilian role players stroll about in native garb as if it was another day at a town in Iraq.
First Sgt. David Crosson, a trainer mentor on this day, is stationed just outside of town. A vehicle approaches, and a handful of insurgents inside tells him, “We just killed the Sunni tribal leader.”
Crosson turns to visitors and says, “We’ve already started the sectarian violence.”
Crosson is a member of the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and one of the Headhunters specialists whose job is to push other regiments to the limit as they prepare to enter hostile foreign lands.
The 509th mission this week is to make life hard for the 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
“We bring every available asset the military has to bear,” said Capt. Guy Girouard, leader of the Headhunters. He is dressed in black with a native scarf around his shoulders. “We’re able to replicate every known threat group.
“Our soldiers understand that we have to fight as hard as we can. We’re saving lives at the end of the day because we’re preparing them for anything they’ll see over there. We’re the most feared unit in the Army, in the world.
“In one day, they’re going to have their worst day ever. We pride ourselves on that. We make it as competitive as we possibly can.”
“The 509th is awesome. They’re incredible,” said John Beckwith, public affairs specialist who has been at Fort Polk since 2000 and has seen the Headhunters at work. “This is literally what you would see in country. It’s the closest you can get without getting shot at.”
Headhunters routinely grow beards and grow their hair long to blend in to the village setting as well as they disappear into the landscape.
By the time Crosson spoke to the insurgents about the Sunni leader, Girouard and his compatriots were making their way through the Fort Polk woods toward Sadiq. They had to scramble to avoid detection by OH-58 Kiowah helicopters called in to reveal their positions.
“We got 200 meters into the woodline, and vroom, here came the Kiowahs,” said Girouard as he emerged from the trees.
The 10th Mountain’s mission was to regain control of Sadiq, a town controlled by Girouard’s mock rebel forces. Girouard and his comrades aimed to halt them by whatever means necessary.
The Headhunters typically are outnumbered 10-1 for these exercises, paralleling what forces see in Iraq. But knowledge and tactics make up for much of that.
Girouard’s group slid silently into position around Sadiq, setting up sniper positions and eyes in the woods as the New York brigade prepared to enter the town. They were slow to mobilize on this, the first day of the training.
An IED exploded in Sadiq at 1:45, followed by 10 minutes of pops and booms in the distance. More explosions and weapons were heard at 2:15.
Then, at 2:20, fuel trucks and armored vehicles rumbled into view on the outskirts of town. By then, Girouard and his comrades had faded into the brush, but not before calling in a mortar attack on the convoy.
The mock mortar exploded in front of a personnel carrier, “killing” its contents. A vehicle IED took out a fuel truck as plumes of dark grey smoke spiraled skyward. Within moments, the column was pinned down, and soon Headhunters in the woods neutralized personnel.
“It was a soft target — maintenance, fueler, medics — a target of opportunity,” Crosson said. “We created chaos. We didn’t want to let the IA [Iraqi army] go smoothly into town.”
Soon other Army personnel playing IA roles gave chase as the Headhunters scattered.
It was the first big day in a long week for the New York-based group, but a day that could save lives in Iraq.
“It’s hard to replicate a true OpFor in training,” Girouard said. “That really is the difference. Against good units, we’re relentless. They won’t get the upper hand until we allow it. After the third or fourth day, they’ll start to shape the battle.
“At the halfway point, we’ll let the unit fight its way out. We’re here when they mess up. No one’s perfect.”
Girouard, who has been known to slap insulting stickers on trainees’ trucks just to let them know he can without getting caught, relishes the challenge.
“We can live in the woods and fight from the woods for days on end,” he said. “It’s a huge responsibility for these guys.”
The bottom line is preparedness.
“We do case studies of all threats — current, past and future — for every American unit,” Girouard said. “These force-on-force exercises, that’s that unit’s test for every possible scenario.
“If they can excel under a huge amount of stress, we know they’ll be successful wherever they’re going.”
The Box is the multi-acre portion of Fort Polk, which hosts the Joint Readiness Training Center, used for staging live exercises that test military forces as they prepare to deploy to hostile foreign assignments.
Road signs, in both English and Arabic, point the way to realistically created towns like Suliyah, Sadiq, Mosalah, Takira, Kaji and Barakah.
Piles of broken concrete, found at irregular intervals along the road, provide perfect scenarios for IEDs — improvised explosive devices. Mangled remains of automobiles provide reminders of an IED’s capability.
A tank rolls by with an Iraqi flag emblem on its side.
At a marketplace beside the road, civilian role players stroll about in native garb as if it was another day at a town in Iraq.
First Sgt. David Crosson, a trainer mentor on this day, is stationed just outside of town. A vehicle approaches, and a handful of insurgents inside tells him, “We just killed the Sunni tribal leader.”
Crosson turns to visitors and says, “We’ve already started the sectarian violence.”
Crosson is a member of the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and one of the Headhunters specialists whose job is to push other regiments to the limit as they prepare to enter hostile foreign lands.
The 509th mission this week is to make life hard for the 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
“We bring every available asset the military has to bear,” said Capt. Guy Girouard, leader of the Headhunters. He is dressed in black with a native scarf around his shoulders. “We’re able to replicate every known threat group.
“Our soldiers understand that we have to fight as hard as we can. We’re saving lives at the end of the day because we’re preparing them for anything they’ll see over there. We’re the most feared unit in the Army, in the world.
“In one day, they’re going to have their worst day ever. We pride ourselves on that. We make it as competitive as we possibly can.”
“The 509th is awesome. They’re incredible,” said John Beckwith, public affairs specialist who has been at Fort Polk since 2000 and has seen the Headhunters at work. “This is literally what you would see in country. It’s the closest you can get without getting shot at.”
Headhunters routinely grow beards and grow their hair long to blend in to the village setting as well as they disappear into the landscape.
By the time Crosson spoke to the insurgents about the Sunni leader, Girouard and his compatriots were making their way through the Fort Polk woods toward Sadiq. They had to scramble to avoid detection by OH-58 Kiowah helicopters called in to reveal their positions.
“We got 200 meters into the woodline, and vroom, here came the Kiowahs,” said Girouard as he emerged from the trees.
The 10th Mountain’s mission was to regain control of Sadiq, a town controlled by Girouard’s mock rebel forces. Girouard and his comrades aimed to halt them by whatever means necessary.
The Headhunters typically are outnumbered 10-1 for these exercises, paralleling what forces see in Iraq. But knowledge and tactics make up for much of that.
Girouard’s group slid silently into position around Sadiq, setting up sniper positions and eyes in the woods as the New York brigade prepared to enter the town. They were slow to mobilize on this, the first day of the training.
An IED exploded in Sadiq at 1:45, followed by 10 minutes of pops and booms in the distance. More explosions and weapons were heard at 2:15.
Then, at 2:20, fuel trucks and armored vehicles rumbled into view on the outskirts of town. By then, Girouard and his comrades had faded into the brush, but not before calling in a mortar attack on the convoy.
The mock mortar exploded in front of a personnel carrier, “killing” its contents. A vehicle IED took out a fuel truck as plumes of dark grey smoke spiraled skyward. Within moments, the column was pinned down, and soon Headhunters in the woods neutralized personnel.
“It was a soft target — maintenance, fueler, medics — a target of opportunity,” Crosson said. “We created chaos. We didn’t want to let the IA [Iraqi army] go smoothly into town.”
Soon other Army personnel playing IA roles gave chase as the Headhunters scattered.
It was the first big day in a long week for the New York-based group, but a day that could save lives in Iraq.
“It’s hard to replicate a true OpFor in training,” Girouard said. “That really is the difference. Against good units, we’re relentless. They won’t get the upper hand until we allow it. After the third or fourth day, they’ll start to shape the battle.
“At the halfway point, we’ll let the unit fight its way out. We’re here when they mess up. No one’s perfect.”
Girouard, who has been known to slap insulting stickers on trainees’ trucks just to let them know he can without getting caught, relishes the challenge.
“We can live in the woods and fight from the woods for days on end,” he said. “It’s a huge responsibility for these guys.”
The bottom line is preparedness.
“We do case studies of all threats — current, past and future — for every American unit,” Girouard said. “These force-on-force exercises, that’s that unit’s test for every possible scenario.
“If they can excel under a huge amount of stress, we know they’ll be successful wherever they’re going.”