Home » Archives » "Stryker soldiers learn Iraq ropes in ‘The Box’"

Stryker soldiers learn Iraq ropes in ‘The Box’

Jun-10-2007 » Filed Under: 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment

By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes

HOHENFELS, Germany — More than 3,500 soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry (Stryker) Regiment are scouring the training area here for “insurgents” and doing bilateral meetings with Arabic-speaking role-players as part of an exercise that will prepare them for a 15-month mission to Iraq.

Joint Multinational Training Command spokesman Maj. Eric Bloom said the soldiers, who leave Vilseck for Iraq in August, will be in training area, called, “The Box,” this week and next along with 500 Arabic-speaking civilian role-players as well as soldiers from the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany.

Hohenfels-based Company A, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment and members of the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police are also participating.

Second Cav deputy commander Lt. Col. Bryan Denny said the first week of the exercise involves soldiers from the Regimental Support Squadron and Headquarters Troop as well as 2nd and 3rd squadrons. Next week the two infantry squadrons will swap with 1st and 4th squadrons, which are doing gunnery training at Grafenwöhr this week.

The exercise incorporates a large number of Iraqi civilians who populate mock villages and serve as interpreters. Denny said the Iraqis provide excellent training to soldiers who will focus on bilateral meetings with locals during the Iraq mission.

“As much as we practice defeating IED (improvised explosive device) makers, we want to focus on relationships and partnering with our Iraqi forces counterparts,” he said.

On Thursday, as 2nd Squadron’s Company D soldiers delivered medical supplies to a “clinic” in the training area, they mingled easily with the Iraqis. Although the role players are supposed to speak only in Arabic, they were eager to swap jokes and ask the soldiers questions in German or English when their boss’ back was turned.

First Lt. Sean Walsh, 24, of Doylestown, Pa. — a platoon leader with Company D — said he’d already learned a lot from the Iraqis during the exercise.

“Today I had an interpreter from Mosul and the other day I had one from Tikrit,” he said. “We are able to ask them questions about the cultural norms; how can we gain the respect of people from those areas.”[...]


Advertisements