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No question about right of way

Dec- 2-2006 » Filed Under: 4/2 SBCT

MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

Puget Sound-area highways will give Army drivers a feel for motoring in Iraq – minus the roadside bombs – in a major exercise that starts Monday.

Long military convoys will ply the local highways from Tukwila to Centralia and perhaps beyond in what Fort Lewis officials say is the post’s biggest training event in recent memory.

Dubbed “Cascadian Commitment,” the seven-day operation will test the 4,000 or so soldiers of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division as they prepare for deployment to Iraq next summer.

The whole brigade will be out on maneuver, with numerous convoys of 10 to 20 Strykers, Humvees, trucks and other vehicles ranging up and down Interstate 5, and out into eastern Pierce and Thurston counties on Highway 507.

Some smaller convoys might be ordered to drive over Snoqualmie Pass to the Yakima Training Center or to Camp Rilea on the Oregon Coast, officials said.

Most of the Puget Sound-area convoys will take place Monday and Tuesday, said Capt. Mike Garcia, the brigade’s spokesman.

“What we wanted to do was give units the opportunity to travel long distances to simulate how they’ll come into an urban environment, deal with civilian traffic and come into an area and set up a forward operating base,” Garcia said.

Stryker units in Iraq commonly drive dozens of miles to and from missions each day – sometimes in remote areas, at other times in tight city conditions.

Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Piek said post officials coordinated the exercise with the Washington State Patrol and the state Department of Transportation. Off-post convoys will travel during off-peak traffic hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.


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