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Analysis: Army Groups Training In Kuwait For Urban Combat Missions
All Things Considered: February 2, 2003
 Urban-Combat Training
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Near the border with Iraq, the US Army is training for the urban combat that many people in Baghdad are anticipating. NPR's Eric Westervelt has been watching a live-fire exercise by the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Kuwait, and he joins us now.
Eric, what have you been seeing?
ERIC WESTERVELT reporting:
Hi, Steve.
I was with three platoons from the Army's 315th Infantry Regiment, and for the last couple of days, they've been doing this live-fire exercise where they practice getting out of their Bradley armored fighting vehicles--this is infantrymen--and they get down and practice crawling, moving and sometimes stacking very closely behind these Bradleys and try to enter this makeshift combat city the Army has set up here in the middle of nowhere. And then the infantrymen are practicing, you know, securing buildings in this town in a painstaking room-by-room search, something they may have to confront if they do, indeed, go into Baghdad. Small teams would enter each room and then have to make a split-second, tough decision on whether or not they would open fire on these wooden silhouette targets, some of which were painted `Friend' and others painted `Foe.' And, you know, some were in the shape of, you know, women, children and babies and others were--you know, said `Foe,' and they had to decide right away whether they were going to fire or not.
INSKEEP: So how well did the US soldiers do?
WESTERVELT: Well, it was pretty tough, Steve. I mean, many of the soldiers haven't done a lot of urban combat training. This is a unit that practices extensively and trained to be in the open desert, and they made a lot of mistakes. And their commanders were certainly not shy about telling them what mistakes they made. I mean, one of the commanders and trainers out here was a former Army Special Forces master sergeant, you know, and he'd mix lessons with anecdotes from his own urban combat experiences in Somalia, Panama and other places around the world. One example during this exercise I just witnessed, a Bradley stopped too close to a building right under the windows before the building had been secured by these guys going in room-to-room search. And the command sergeant major said, you know--stopped it and said, `Half of you'd be dead by now.' All it would take is someone with a, you know, milk jug with gasoline, a Molotov cocktail, and they could drop it on your Bradley and set it on fire.
INSKEEP: Eric, it's pretty disturbing to hear you talk about soldiers having to practice with little wooden mockups, not just of Iraqi soldiers, but of civilians, of women and children. I suppose that's the difficulty of this environment, is you have soldiers who want to do everything they can in order to survive and yet, they have to be making some kind of effort not to kill innocent people.
WESTERVELT: That's right. These are crowded, close quarters, and the toughest decision is, you know, how to discern combatants from non-combatants, especially if an army takes up positions in a civilian area. And you've got windows, basements, doors, walls, fences, power lines, sewer lines to worry about, and you don't know what's around the corner until you get there.
INSKEEP: And we hear a lot about biochemical warfare suits. Were they wearing those suits, or what kind of gear were they wearing when they did this exercise?
WESTERVELT: For this training exercise, they were not wearing their chem-bio suits; they were wearing their full Kevlar helmet and vest to protect them. But they may, indeed, have to don their cumbersome and hot protective suits if they do go into Baghdad, and would certainly make their room-to-room combat that much more difficult.
INSKEEP: Eric, one other questions: We've all been hearing about the weather, which may make this thing more difficult over time, although we're still in this window where supposedly it's cool enough to attack. What's the weather like?
WESTERVELT: Well, it's really getting hotter by the day. I was out here for a couple weeks in December for a live-fire exercise with the very same people, and it's gotten a lot warmer in the month-plus since. And during the day, it gets extremely hot, and these soldiers will tell you, off-mike, anyway, that, you know, if they do this, they want to go sooner rather than later, because the weather is a factor.
INSKEEP: NPR's Eric Westervelt is just back from observing US troops training for urban combat in Kuwait. Eric, thanks very much.
WESTERVELT: You're welcome.
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