Thursday, Jul. 02, 2009

3rd Brigade moves out to Fort Irwin before Iraq deployment

Sgt. James Jordan has served with Fort Benning’s 3rd Brigade on each of its three combat tours in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Following a rotation at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., this month, the 26-year-old Florida native will once again be called to war.

Jordan was one of several hundred 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team soldiers who departed Wednesday from Lawson Army Airfield and flew to Fort Irwin.

When asked why he’s chosen to remain a member of the Army’s most-deployed combat brigade and how he feels about leaving this fall for his fourth tour in six years, Jordan smiled. He just loves being a soldier, he said.

“I can’t get sick of it because it’s my job,” Jordan said. “I signed up to do it… Sometimes I look at it as a break to get away from here.

“I think I’m going to be here for 20 long ones,” Jordan said with a laugh. “I love it here. I’ve been with two different battalions here and they get better and better as the years go on.”

Training center

By week’s end, most of the 3rd Brigade’s approximately 4,000 soldiers will be on the ground at Fort Irqin’s National Training Center, ready to begin their monthlong rotation of pre-deployment training.

“NTC is our capstone event,” said Capt. Mike Barth, acting brigade officer in charge for this movement to the training center. “We’ve been training all year, starting with the individual soldier that learns his weapon and goes out and shoots, to the team and platoon level training where they maneuver together as well as the support units … They’ve been training all year to go there so that when they get there everything that we’ve been working on should fall into place and then we work together as a brigade unit to be successful in our mission.”

From the moment the men and women of the 3rd Brigade arrive in California, they will be immersed in Arabic language and culture. This will pay dividends during their upcoming deployment when they are at once surrounded by foreign sites and sounds, Barth said.

The first couple of days at the training center will be devoted to individual training. The real work begins when the brigade moves out to an area called “the box.”

“The box is this gigantic area of land that has Arabic towns, in fact that NTC built,” Barth said. “They have Arabic names, people from all over the world that speak Arabic so that when our soldiers actually dismount or mount into those towns the first thing they see is locals, everybody speaking Arabic. They have to use their Arabic skills as well as their cultural skills that they’ve learned and then on top of that all of their tactical skills we’ve been training for for the last year.”

Pvt. Raymond Perlmutter of Florida said although he’s looking forward to executing intensive, realistic missions, he’s not thrilled about conducting them in the scorching California desert. Spc. John Ragland of Houston echoed that sentiment. This will be the first time at National Training Center for both Ragland and Perlmutter.

“That’s one of biggest safety concerns is heat issues,” Barth said. “The heat is going to be ridiculous. It’s going to be 105, 110 during the day and it doesn’t really cool down too much. So, they are constantly pounding water, getting them in the shade, but this is just an addition to the training for the real life experience they’re going to get in Iraq.”