Skills honed to cut Afghan civilian deaths

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Soldiers fire mortars during training at Fort Campbell, Ky., in September.


Skills honed to cut Afghan civilian deaths
By Kristin M. Hall - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 16, 2009 20:39:07 EST

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Deep in the woods on the Kentucky-Tennessee line, infantrymen headed for Afghanistan are honing their precision with powerful weapons like mortars in a key element of the American military’s new mandate to reduce civilian deaths.

Three soldiers from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division lie on their bellies on top of a berm on a forested Fort Campbell artillery range. A pair of Kiowa OH-58 helicopters circle around to the right to scout the enemy’s position, which in this training is an empty bunker surrounded by razor wire.

Mortars start whistling over the tree line and down toward an open field behind the bunker where a couple of old Army tanks painted bright yellow help artillery men precisely place the shots. The soldiers on the berm watch the rounds kick up clouds of dirt and rock, and a fraction of a second later, the sounds of the explosions echo back.

The 1st Brigade Combat Team is preparing for deployment to Afghanistan, and its training is going beyond using high-powered weapons like mortars and aerial bombs to fight an entrenched enemy. A new directive to avoid civilian casualties is being pushed down the ranks from colonel to private through drills on how to get close enough to thoroughly assess situations and carefully gauge the impact of every weapon.

For several weeks, the brigade has been focusing on advanced artillery training that incorporates the new rules.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/ap_artillery_training_campbell_111609/