The Real Training Begins for the 737th

[darrels joy]

Published on Sunday, February 22, 2004

The Real Training Begins for the 737th
By BRIAN FITZGERALD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

CAMP DOHA, Kuwait ? After yet another change of assigned duties, the 737th Transportation Company finally got down to work in its second week in Kuwait, taking part in live-fire training as it prepares to take over the jobs of five National Guard units about to rotate back to the United States.

One duty will be to man Humvee "gunships" that will escort private-contract truckers who haul military equipment and supplies between bases and ports in Kuwait. Though the war is being fought in Iraq, the military says the threat of attacks in Kuwait exists.

The other mission is guarding stockpiles of supplies and equipment destined for Iraq or scheduled for return to the United States.

The Yakima-based Army Reserve company's original mission, to drive 7,500-gallon fuel tankers and truckloads of cargo into Iraq, was changed before the unit departed Fort Lewis on Feb. 7.

Because the 737th is filled primarily with truck drivers and mechanics, its soldiers are going through two weeks of training to qualify them for the new missions. This past week, they had weapons training at the Udairi Training Range, located 45 miles northwest of Kuwait City.

Here, in a huge and sprawling desert landscape, where American and coalition forces fought their way into Iraq during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the ground is littered with the shell casings from M-16s and larger weapons used during shooting practice.

"You're the closest you can be to combat without getting shot at," the instructor, "Mr. Kennedy," told the assembled 737th soldiers. Kennedy, who is employed by private contractor Military Professional Resources Inc., and his team of instructors used pseudonyms. He said he would not allow photographs to be taken the first day at the range because the "American people don't want to see their tax money being spent on training soldiers to kill."

Soldiers fired at torso-shaped silhouettes at ranges of 50 to 250 yards. Instead of lying in a prone firing position, soldiers were taught to turn quickly, raise their M-16s to eye level and shoot at paper targets as they crouched or advanced.

The soldiers also practiced guarding entrances to military facilities, a job they began Saturday at the Theater Distribution Center. The center, located two miles from the 737th's home at Camp Doha, distributes everything from clothing and machinery lubricants to concertina wire and spare parts for military vehicles in Iraq and Kuwait.

Guard duty training at the range included firing from a tower and behind concrete barriers at pop-up targets that simulated a vehicle driving toward them.

The soldiers wrapped up after dark by shooting bright-red tracer bullets.

The live-fire training "was awesome. It's a lot more like a real-life thing," said Sgt. Cory Vanluven of Yakima.

Sgt. Rick McMillan of Parker agreed.

"It's different, to stand and shoot," he said. "That's what you'd actually be doing if you're in combat. You'll be moving and firing."

During the 12-day training period on the Humvees, which ends March 1, soldiers will accompany troops from outgoing units.

Staff Sgt. Myles Schoolcraft, a squad leader with the second platoon, says convoy protection is dangerous even though Kuwait is generally considered safe.

"We stress to our guys, 'You have to stay awake,'" Schoolcraft said. "(Terrorism) is here. Even though it's a green country, it's here."

There have been few attacks reported in Kuwait since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March. According to Maj. John Wagner, a public affairs officer with the Coalition Forces Land Component Command, military contractors were attacked near Doha shortly after the war began. On the night Saddam Hussein was captured, Dec. 13, military dump trucks were hit with gunfire.

In Kuwait, the soldiers need to worry more about the driving habits of the locals. Schoolcraft, a Yakima resident, compares driving the local highways to being in rush hour traffic in Seattle.

"It catches people off guard when you're going 60 mph and a car passes you at 130," he says. "It really gets you kind of nervous."

http://www.heraldrepublic.com/premiu...032383012.news

BRIAN FITZGERALD/Yakima Herald-Republic
Troops follow the setting sun on their way to the Udairi Training Range, about 45 miles northwest of Kuwait City.

[darrels joy]

BRIAN FITZGERALD/Yakima Herald-Republic
A soldier from the Yakima-based 737th Transportation Company fires tracer bullets Friday during a nighttime live-fire exercise at the Udairi Training Range, 15 miles south of the Iraq border in Kuwait. This kind of practical, but dangerous, training is difficult in the United States because of safety concerns.

[darrels joy]

Keith,
Looks like there's more than one woman there from Elensburg.

BRIAN FITZGERALD/Yakima Herald-Republic
Army reservists in the 737th line up in a ready stance during a demonstration of earlier training at the Udairi Training Range. From left are Spc. LeAnna Waldbauer of Ellensburg, Sgt. T.J. Rabe of Nampa, Idaho, Spc. Chris Phipps of Richland and Sgt. Dennis Lamberton, a former Yakima resident now living in McMinnville, Ore.