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By William Cole
SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, EAST RANGE — For the first time, 19-ton Stryker armored vehicles this week roamed the back woods of this approximately 4,500-acre training area.
The Army is taking it slow. As in a few miles per hour.
In knee-high weeds yesterday, about a dozen close-spaced traffic cones traced a serpentine route that Stryker drivers had to negotiate. Soldiers on foot front and rear guided the eight-wheeled vehicles with airplane-style arm gestures.
For extra measure, the vehicles had big signs hung on the front that said "Student Driver."
The Strykers can hit 70 mph on the highway and have been battle-tested in Mosul in northern Iraq, but at Schofield, soldiers are still kicking the tires and getting a feel for how they handle.
"You definitely don't slam down on the gas. You feel the power of it," said Pvt. Wendel Brueckner, who at the age of 18 is an assistant driver in a vehicle that cost about $1.5 million.
"I drove a (Ford) F-250. It kind of drives the same way," said the New Hampshire man, who joined the Army in September and arrived in Hawai'i in January.
About 60 of the 328 expected Stryker vehicles are on the island, including nine spares. The 2nd Brigade at Schofield has begun the operational phase of its $1.5 billion transformation into one of seven Stryker brigades worldwide.
Ron Borne, the 25th Infantry Division's "transformation" director, said the driver training will be followed by open road and night practice on the East Range. Weapons systems will be fired beginning next month at Schofield.
The East Range has 14.5 miles of trails dedicated to Stryker training, and the speed limit for the course the vehicles were on yesterday was 15 mph. The unit is expected to be operational in the fall of 2007.[...]