Campbell soldiers prep Afghan training mission

[unhappycamper]

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, march through tall grasses Nov. 12 at Fort Campbell, Ky., during a training mission. The soldiers are preparing for a one-year deployment to Afghanistan.


Campbell soldiers prep Afghan training mission
By Kristin M. Hall - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Nov 15, 2009 17:32:12 EST

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — With an Afghanistan deployment looming, soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division are trying out new roles that reinforce their jobs as advisers working to build up and train Afghan troops.

Members of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team recently played the parts of Taliban commanders, recruits and detainees as well as Afghan National Army soldiers. The exercise at Fort Campbell last week involved an assault by helicopter into a Taliban recruiting camp where soldiers found a cache of weapons hidden in a cave.

“Most Army people are type-A people. We want to do everything ourselves,” said Lt. Col. Stephen Lutsky, commander for 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry. “It’s forcing us to take the Afghan security forces, the police and the army, train them and show them how to do it, because they want to do it.”

As leader of the group portraying the Taliban forces, 2nd Lt. Frankie Shy had more than two dozen fighters spread out in a clearing amid woods at Fort Campbell. But the group was quickly overtaken by U.S. and Afghan forces who dropped in from a Chinook helicopter.

“My job is to fight to the death. But I was taken out. You are speaking with a ghost,” he joked.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/ap_army_101st_airborne_training_111509/