Fort Benning's Kelley Hill Soldiers prepare to rotate to Iraq
Operation Iraqi Freedom Rotation 3 will be different, says commander

Story and photo by Bridgett Siter/The Bayonet

FORT BENNING, Ga. (TRADOC News Service, Oct. 8, 2004) – The Kelley Hill troops slated to return to Iraq early next year spent 10 days in the field making sure they’re ready.

“In 90 days, plus or minus, you’ll be on the ground doing this for real,” said Lt. Col. Roger Cloutier to his Soldiers. “This is our last collective training opportunity.”

The commander of 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, met with Soldiers fresh off the “battlefield,” where they encountered enemy insurgents in a mock Iraqi village. He urged them to prepare themselves for a deployment much different than when 3rd Brigade led the assault on Baghdad that launched Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“Every morning when you look at yourself in the mirror, I want you to ask yourself, ‘Have I done everything I could do to make sure I’m ready? Have I done everything I can do to make sure my Soldiers are ready?’” Cloutier said. “Because OIF-3 is going to be much different than what you remember. One minute you’re shooting, and the next minute you’re passing out (meals-ready-to-eat) and helping a pregnant woman give birth.”

Cloutier was referring to one of several problems Soldiers encountered as they rotated through various battlefield scenarios. Each platoon was forced to establish a hasty traffic-control point just outside the town of “Balad,” where insurgents had fled after detonating a car bomb at an Iraqi National Guard recruiting station.

An angry crowd met the Soldiers at the control point. They were temporarily placated with MREs, and the platoon medic earned the crowd’s approval for a short time when he helped deliver an Iraqi baby.

That scenario, like all the others, replicated situations U.S. forces have encountered in Iraq since the liberation mission became a rebuilding mission, said 1st Lt. David Suttles, the battalion’s public-affairs officer. Suttles said Soldiers and civilians roleplayed Iraqi merchants, insurgents, informants and American reporters.

“The whole thing is designed to prepare the Soldiers for any number of things they’re going to see over there,” Suttles said. “Basically, they have to figure it out. They have to figure out the best way to handle a mob, the best way to clear a building under fire, who’s friend and who’s foe. … The roleplayers make it more realistic, and the more realistic the better.”

The 3rd Infantry Division commander visited Fort Benning Oct. 5 to observe some of the training exercise. He reiterated Cloutier’s warning: operations in Iraq will be very different than what they were a year ago.

Nearly half of the Soldiers who’ll deploy with the battalion have already served in Iraq.

“Most of you were there for the initial invasion,” Maj. Gen. William Webster said. “It’s a very different place now. It’s a different war. Our mission now is to stop those who want to stop the forward progress of the great nation of Iraq.”

And to prepare for that mission, Webster said, Soldiers should take advantage of training opportunities like this one.

“This is your chance to fine tune – to take it up a notch,” he said. “We must make sure everything is on an even keel, and we’ve done everything we can to prepare.

“We have to make our training as tough as possible and as realistic as possible,” Webster said.

A Kelley Hill Soldier erects a barricade Oct. 5 during a livefire exercise.

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