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Wis. soldiers prepare for Iraq deployment

CAMP MCGREGOR, N.M. (AP) — Something called muscle memory is seen as the best defense for 3,200 Wisconsin National Guard soldiers who by May 1 will travel the last leg of their journey from places such as Boscobel and Baraboo to the dusty, unpredictable streets of Baghdad.

The 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team has been in the New Mexico desert for weeks practicing for some of war's worst-case scenarios. How to choke an enemy unconscious. How to pair with another soldier advancing into insurgent gunfire. How to sort innocent villagers from armed attackers. And how to quell riots in detention camps holding thousands of Iraqis.

The training is critical to their mission, and to their safe return eight months from now. Their duties will range from running detention camps to convoy security to administration. Even those with desk jobs are being trained on how to fight.

"We feel this is a very necessary skill," said Spc. Evan Simms, an instructor who teaches what he calls Grecian jujitsu on a blue foam mat that stretches from end to end of a beige tent the size of a small house. "Someone comes out of an alley or slips out of his flex cuffs, this comes in handy."

In two four-hour sessions, soldiers learn basic wrestling and self-defense moves.

"They practice this for a few hours, and come out of it a better fighter," Simms said. The goal is for the soldier to react automatically to an attack.

Same on Camp McGregor's firing ranges, said Maj. Joe Curtis, an Army officer who wears body armor and a helmet as he trains Wisconsin citizen-soldiers using live ammunition to zigzag through a craggy flat dotted with junk cars, concrete walls and wooden fences.

Wisconsin National Guard Pvt. Amanda Culley, 19, of Luxemburg, and 1st Sgt. Tom Jakubovksy of Green Bay, tag-teamed their way across the course, shouting back and forth, and taking turns laying down cover fire while the other sprinted ahead.

"It does get your heart pumping," Culley said, her shoulders heaving after double-timing it off the course. "You don't realize it until you're done. I felt very motivated."

The sergeant, a 23-year veteran, deployed to Iraq once previously, in 2005. Now he’s the senior noncommissioned officer in his company, leading and looking out for younger soldiers. "I've been in their shoes," he said.

The firearms combat drill starts out with soldiers standing in rows on an adjacent range, until they can reliably squeeze two rounds into plastic targets popping up at intervals. A sensor drops the target when it's been plugged twice.

"Instant feedback," said Curtis, the instructor.

"We have them putting rounds into the target over and over and over," Curtis said. "So muscle memory is involved.

"Fire two rounds, look and discriminate, reload and do it again." Seventy percent accuracy is required out of 120 M4 carbine rounds, 20 9-mm handgun rounds and 100 machine gun rounds.

At another site, a platoon makes its way through a mocked-up Iraqi village, complete with actors playing civilians, some peaceful, some belligerent and some armed and hostile.

Several speak Arabic languages. Rusted 55-gallon drums, piles of concrete, a broken-down Huey helicopter and grafitti-sprayed walls contribute to the authenticity.

"Wisconsin groups, they're doing well," said Lt. Col. Christopher McElveen, commander of the site. "This is day three of urban operations. They're getting the basics down, learning how to (search and) clear a building."

Aside from the actors, the trainers are National Guard or regular military personnel from around the country who are stationed at the camp. A few contractors handle training in skills such as Humvee maintenance and driving.

At the driving course, soldiers are taught how to escape an overturned vehicle, secure the area around them and call in a report. Trainers use a machine that spins and jolts military vehicles full of soldiers to simulate crashes.

Less than a mile away stands a mock detention center, a series of low buildings, arranged in fours and surrounded by fences, concertina wire and watch towers.

"We started a few years ago with nothing but some razor wire on the ground to show where the fence lines were, said one training leader, Maj. John Kofonow.

"We put them through all the steps," Kofonow said. "The routine and mundane of running a compound, a fugitive internment facility, all the way to the exciting stuff like a border attack or a riot."

Most of the Wisconsin National Guard soldiers training in New Mexico are undergoing two or more weeks of "detainee ops."

They practice with actors paid to play prisoners. Among the weapons and equipment they use are paintball guns, shotguns, Tazers, batons, pepper spray and several types of restraints, helmets and riot shields. Soldiers stand in for the actors for some of the rougher training, Kofonow said.

They are trained to work in formations to quell disturbances and forcibly extract prisoners from small buildings used for solitary confinement.

Soldiers at one point are pepper-sprayed in the face, then forced to fight their way through obstacles to subdue an opponent.

"This is to show them the worst-case scenarios," said Staff Sgt. Guy Taylor.