In the box, part II: Under the enemy’s keffiyeh

Soldiers from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, a Fort Irwin-based Operations group, and Iraqi-Americans replicate the Iraqi environment in towns scattered across the desert at the post. They have created a provincial government, a police force and insurgents who try to blow it all up.

During a rotation in mid-October, the 11th ACR got a chance to train against themselves. Desert Dispatch City Editor Aaron Aupperlee embedded with Echo Troop from the 1st Squadron of the 11th ACR to see the training first-hand.

This is the second of three reports.

FORT IRWIN — They are farmers, bankers, barbers and sometimes, insurgents.

For three weeks every month, the soldiers of Echo Troop do not wear the standard military-issue Army combat uniform, a matching set of camouflage pants and jacket. They do not wear their rank on their chest or their unit on their sleeve. They do not carry an M-16.

Instead, they wear jeans, T-shirts and tennis shoes, and they carry an AK-47. Some don keffiyehs, patterned head wraps, or kurtas, long loose-fitting shirts. They look, in part, like Iraqi-Americans populating the model towns scattered throughout the Fort Irwin’s desert. When a rotation of troops from another post in the United States comes to Fort Irwin for training, the soldiers of Echo Troop, and other troops in the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, take to the desert and assume the roles of Iraqi civilians, terrorists and insurgents.

“We get in their way, beg them for stuff,” Spc. Michael Roley said. “You see what you see when you get there. Kids asking you for chocolate and money.”

Roley’s nagging of American troops is part of his mission as a U.S. soldier. The men and women of the 11th ACR have a dual mission unique to regiments across the Army. For about one week a month, the soldiers train like regular Army soldiers. They study battlefield strategies. They work on weapons training at Fort Irwin’s live fire range. They perform maintenance and become familiar with their military vehicles. And then for the remaining three weeks, the soldiers act like Iraqis. They populate the model Iraqi towns in the desert. They set improvised explosive devices. They cook Arabic food and even speak some of the language.

In mid-October, the soldiers of Echo Troop found themselves in a complete role reversal. Instead of playing the Iraqis and creating havoc for American troops, they were the soldiers and other soldiers from the 1st Squadron of the 11 ACR played the Iraqis. Sgt. Joseph Pierstorff said the troop had little time to make the adjustment.

“It was a rude awakening for everybody,” he said. “One week I have to play the enemy and use their tactics. The next week, I have to fight them.”

Some say the dual mission makes them better soldiers. Others worry the constant switching of roles, from soldier to farmer to insurgent to soldier, creates a strained and mediocre force. Sgt. Thomas Marrs said he’s seen the constant switching confuse some of the younger soldiers in Echo Troop and leave them with minimal war-fighting training.

“It’s very difficult for us to do the dual mission,” he said. “A lot of the skills are going to go away ... there are a lot of basic skills that are not being taught.”

Marrs would like for the 11th ACR to solely focus on the training side of the mission and take a reprieve from preparing for a possible deployment to Iraq. Other soldiers agree, saying they could provide a even more realistic environment if they were able to devote 100 percent of their time to the training aspect. They said Just as they begin to feel comfortable in with their roles as Iraqis, they head back to the garrison and become Army soldiers again.

Col. Mark Calvert, commander of the regiment, said managing the dual mission is a balancing act. He said the regiment’s leadership is working on ways to allocate time for the soldiers to focus on war-fighting training aside from Fort Irwin’s training mission and taking steps to smooth out the transition from carrying an AK to an M-16. To give the soldiers much needed time off, Brig. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard recently canceled all training on weekends unless it is in direct support of the rotation at Fort Irwin, underscoring the importance of the training conducted in the desert.

“One thing we can’t do is compromise the training we provide to units rotating here,” Calvert said.

And when a unit does receive orders to deploy, Calvert said training up for the actual fight in Iraq becomes the top priority. Soldiers from the 58th Engineering Company received orders to redeploy to Iraq in December 2006 and began training for the mission extensively in February, Calvert said. The unit completed three rotations attached to brigades training at Fort Irwin, ending their last rotation early because they finished all their training objectives early, a rare feat.

At a farewell ceremony held for the engineers on Monday, Calvert and other commanders lauded them as the best trained engineers in the military. Soldiers bound for Iraq agreed. Staff Sgt. Jason Ramirez-Linden, a squad leader in the unit, said he felt comfortable with his training and the training his soldiers received.

“It is about as good as you can get for 11 months,” he said.

Mindful of the strain it puts on his soldiers, Calvert believes the dual mission makes soldiers with the 11th ACR better fighters. He said the rigors of playing the roles of Iraqis and insurgents constantly immerses the soldiers in the fight, even though they sit next to mosques in the High Desert and not Iraq.

“They have a different insight here than if they were with a different brigade,” he said. “They study and understand the enemy ... and anytime you understand the enemy, you are much more effective in defeating that enemy.”

Marrs, Pierstorff, Roley and many other soldiers from Echo Troop agree with their commander. Despite grumbling about the difficulty of the dual mission, they think it makes them superior soldiers. Pierstorff said the difficulties of the dual mission at Fort Irwin translated to success during their last deployment in Iraq.

“I think we’re twice the soldier,” he said. “I think when we deployed, we were one step ahead of them, and that’s why we were so successful.”

Pierstorff said playing an Iraqi helps him understand how Iraqis live and react to combat situations. While he patrolled the desert of Iraq, he kept asking himself, “If this was Fort Irwin, where would I put an IED?”

Marrs said being on the Iraqi side of the training gives the soldiers a chance to see mistakes and failures of the visiting brigades and learn from them.

“When you’re behind the sights, ready to take them out, it’s so easy to see their mistakes, and there are a lot of them out there,” he said.

The soldiers even found a few holes in the way the training is conducted. One soldier remembered receiving the role assignment of a farmer whose son was recently killed in a suicide bomb attack. The farmer, according to the scenario developed, was still supportive of the American presence in Iraq despite his loss. The soldier questioned why a father would continue to support something that might have contributed to his son’s death. The soldier said if it was him, he would have carried out a reprisal attack on the Americans. He played the prescribed role for him.

Other soldiers have found ways to beat the training. Knowing that their laser gear will only sound a kill if they are hit in certain spots, some soldiers admit to developing a hero complex and charging into fire-fights with the enemy, knowing they would be wounded in real life. Others, instead of looking for IEDs along a road, look for observer controllers, people who watch the training and evaluate the soldiers afterward, staked out and waiting for the explosion. Roley said no matter how realistic they make the training at Fort Irwin, it will not be real enough.

“It’s good to do OPFOR (opposing force) for every once and awhile,” he said. “It’s helpful. We know what to look for, but out there you’re not going to have an OC (observer controller) sitting by an IED waiting for it to blow up.”

Contact the writer:

(760) 256-4121 or aaron_aupperlee@link.freedom.com

Hurry up and wait

A small cheer arose in the chow hall when Chaplain Lt. Col. Doug Peterson announced that the Patriots had won. An even larger groan erupted when he said, with a small smirk on his face, the Oakland Raiders had lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 12-10.

With no television, Internet or cell phones, the soldiers of the 11th Armored Calvary Regiment rely on the chaplain’s weekly recap of NFL scores. After Peterson finishes the litany of who played whom, who won and by what score, the chow hall fills with chatter about the day’s matches. As the soldiers leave, the sports banter follows them and continues inside the tents, giving them something to occupy the down time between missions.

When soldiers with Echo Troop were not patrolling the mountains surrounding their base for potential threats, they spent a lot time sitting in their tent. Many said the military subscribes to a familiar saying, “Hurry up and wait.” On edge about possible mortar attacks on their base or the possibility of an impromptu to mission, Echo Troop is never really off the clock.

To the fill the dead time in the tent, soldiers take to familiar time killing activities. They read magazines, repair their gear, step out from smoke breaks, concoct interesting MRE combinations and play cards. Pvt. Terry Brown is known for hosting intense games of spades. Second Lt. Anthony Caristi, an Indian native, has taught some in the troop the Midwest cult-classic, Euchre.

When the 11th ACR deployed to Iraq in 2005, some soldiers remember playing video games during their down time, a popular one being the latest installment of “Halo.” They said the game, in which players communicate with others to take down an evil alien race, kept them up on their warfighting skills. At Fort Irwin, with no “Halo” to play, many of the soldiers held nightly wrestling matches, mimicking the emerging sport of mixed martial arts. Some sleep; others complain about being bored.

But despite grumblings about the down-time, many prefer it as a break from going out on patrols. After one overnight patrol, Pfc. Mark Pollack said he was happy the unit was not blown up by an IED and looked forward to getting back to the tent.

“This is the best part of the day,” he said. “Mission over, back to the tent to eat some chow, play a few hands of cards and rack out.”