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Army gets ready to farm out Stryker war-game exercise

Nov-26-2005 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

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By Alex Fryer, Seattle Times

The Army is set to employ the services of a new ally in its efforts to train troops headed to Iraq.

Although civilians, these friends of the military are certain not to spill the beans about their mission, unless, of course, you happen to be a sheep whisperer.

Next month, a group of Fort Lewis-based soldiers will arrive at the Ewe-topia farm in Roy, Pierce County, to conduct what they call Search and Sensitive Site Exploitation. In police jargon, it's like a crime-scene investigation, an Army captain explained to Linda Leeman, co-owner of Ewe-topia Herddog Training, a 10-acre business that teaches dogs to corral sheep and ducks, among other tricks.

A spokesman for Fort Lewis said it was unusual for the Army to go off-base for war-game exercises. After all, Fort Lewis recently completed Leschi Town, an $18.5 million urban-combat center with more than 52 structures, including a five-story office building and an outlying farm.

But Ewe-topia has something Leschi Town doesn't: more than 70 live sheep.

For soldiers who have never been around farm animals, the Dec. 1 training exercise offers a chance to improve their husbandry skills, the Army told Leeman.

"With the new leaders we now have in the company and the fact that we will imminently return to Iraq, it is essential that we conduct this training in an environment [that] accurately reflects the complexity of the terrain in Iraq," Capt. Theodore Kleisner wrote in a letter to Leeman.

Kleisner is company commander with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, which is scheduled to return to Iraq next year. It served a yearlong deployment from October 2003 to November 2004. [...]


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