Answering the call: Multimedia coverage of the 32nd "Red Arrow" Brigade

Troops practice life-or-death scenarios

By BETH BURGER, Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

CAMP SHELBY, Miss. — A crowd of soldiers surrounded Staff Sgt. Wayne Munro as he drew points of entry into a building mapped out in the sand.

Their mission: Locate a suspect in a civilian village and find a weapons cache.

The exercise on an October day was one of many that soldiers from the Wisconsin-based 1st Battalion, 120th Field Artillery Regiment had to complete in preparation for their Kuwaiti mission. The soldiers will work as a security force staffing checkpoints and towers, said Lt. Col. Gary Skon, battalion commander.

"Always maintain a 360-degree swivel of your head because in the blink of an eye an insurgent could pop through a window or set an IED off," said Munro, 35, of Wisconsin Rapids, using the standard military shorthand for improvised explosive device. "Don't think anything is not there, because it is."

Soldiers spoke of their plans and how to maneuver into the village, making sure everyone knew the mission.

"If I go down or if one of the team members goes down, then we'll be on the same page," Munro said as he went over and showed the soldiers where his papers were. "So if anything happens, grab my sh-- and we'll be good to go."

After a break for MREs, or meals ready to eat, Munro yelled, "Lock and load. Get to road."

Soldiers gave a thumbs-up sign and a wave of their arms, and nine members of the Wisconsin Rapids-based unit moved through a forested area at the range in Camp Shelby.

An interpreter hired by the camp was cradled between the line of soldiers as they moved.

Pfc. Craig Schmid, 19, of Wisconsin Rapids went through the exercise with a different unit. His responsibility was to guard the interpreter.

"I was detained," said Schmid, who was left alone with the interpreter. "I should have called for extra support."

A villager put a knife to Schmid's throat in the exercise and said he would have become a prisoner of war.

"Make sure you always have a battle buddy," said Schmid, who learned a lesson. "If there's a situation you can't handle, make sure you have extra support."

In a crouching stance, they carried their M-16 rifles slowly, walking heel to toe over the ground littered with blank shells and sand.

Trees, snapped in half, lined both sides of the soldiers as they made their way to the village.

Every few seconds a clamped-fist motion traveled down the line as soldiers froze and took position, anticipating any action.

That hesitation paid off.

Later in the exercise, the squad anticipated an IED and retreated before it exploded, filling the air with gun powder and creating a boom that echoed over the area.

As the troops approached the "village," which consisted of a few shacks and a junk car in a wooded area, a group of people sat around a pallet in traditional Middle Eastern dress.

Each soldier who completed the exercise learned to be more aware of surroundings and read sand maps. Most did not realize they had entered the village because of the simple practice settings.

In exercises like this one, troops must negotiate with the sheik to ask permission to search for a suspect.

The sheik granted permission, but two snipers emerged in the woods, dividing the squad.

Training officers were on site with clipboards to monitor what happened. The sheik Munro encountered was uncompromising. Villagers grew aggressive and soldiers had a difficult time making them keep their distance. Soldiers went from shouting to shoving and locking the chambers of their weapons to show they meant business.

Trainers stopped the exercise and assigned casualties to two soldiers, one of whom they said would die soon and the other a medic who treated himself.

"It's always hard when you see guys down, even if it's an exercise," said Sgt. Shawn Wells, 28 of Austin, Texas, who was the pointman leading the squad in the exercise. "These IEDs, that's what's killing everyone right now. That's the enemy's bread and butter."

The snipers were taken out, but the weapons cache was left as the soldiers moved through the exercise.

"How are you gonna feel when the next squad comes to town and gets slaughtered because you didn't actually do the mission?" said Sgt. 1st Class LaQuentin Jones of Fort Stewart, Ga., the training officer on site.

Instructors emphasized it was the team that had to take the responsibility for the mixed results of the mission, but all soldiers felt responsible.

An instructor who saw that Munro was bothered told him and the soldiers, "I can see you're a man of pride and won't let that happen again."

The soldiers went back in formation, reflecting on the exercise.