Iowa National Guard captain says training insufficient for duty in Iraq

[Barrett808]

A commander with the Iowa Army National Guard says training problems at a U.S. Army base in Texas left his unit ill-prepared for duty in Iraq, according to a copyright story in The Des Moines Register.

Capt. Aaron Baugher, of Ankeny, was the commander of the first Iowa infantry division trained at Fort Hood, and in a report obtained by the Register he said the 2004 training “was of very little value and poorly instructed” by soldiers who typically had never served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Baugher’s unit of 58 soldiers, the 194th Long-Range Surveillance Detachment of Johnston, returned to Iowa in late February after nearly a year in Iraq.

“Having been in Iraq ... conducting combat operations on a wide spectrum, we can confidently say we did not learn a thing at Fort Hood,” Baugher wrote.

Col. Luke Green, chief of staff of the Fifth U.S. Army, said Baugher’s complaint emphasizes the short training schedule part-time and reserve units have to become combat ready.

“This is like getting your football team on the first of August and you have a game on the first of September, and you are working ... hard to get people ready, except in this situation people can die,” Green said.

(more)

http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1050213&l=1&t=Iowa+%2F+Illinois&c=24,1050213

[UpInArms]

1. personally, I'm certain that this is

the fault of the Clenis.

:sarcasm: