Your Army continues to go rolling along…
This was on most of the MSM outlets but just in case you hadn’t heard, U.S. and Coalition forces rescued three hostages just west of Baghdad.
“Based on intelligence that we recovered over the last 36 hours, an operation was planned and conducted, and those three hostages were rescued,” Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said during a briefing from Baghdad. “I’m happy to report all three are in good condition.”
In an effort to strengthen the Army’s Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) pool, they’ve announced the Individual Warrior initiative.
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, March 22, 2006) — The Army is creating a special “Individual Warrior Category” within the Individual Ready Reserve for Soldiers who are qualified and ready to deploy.
Soldiers in the IW Category will be required to maintain a higher state of readiness than other IRR troops by participating in virtual musters, attending annual readiness processing and –through managed training opportunities — maintaining proficiency in their military occupational specialty.
The IW Category will focus on elevating individual expectation management, proactive career management, unique training opportunities, and promote continuum of service toward a military retirement, officials said.
The Individual Warrior initiative is an excellent idea, especially for those with critical skills not used in peacetime, but become more needed in times of war.
Operation Northern Lights, a joint operation, yielded the discovery of several enemy weapons caches in the area of Abu Ghraib, Iraq. The success of this operation goes beyond the destruction of terrorist’s weapons caches, but that the mission was based off of intelligence from local Iraqis. That in itself is an indication that things are going well.
The joint and combined operation began with 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, moving to blocking positions by ground before Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, air assaulted onto the objective to conduct a cordon and search.
By late afternoon, Soldiers from the 3rd Bde., 6th Iraqi Army Div., discovered five weapons caches, containing a machinegun, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, three AK-47 assault rifles, 2,200 PKC machine gun rounds, two boxes of gunpowder, an RPG rocket, an Iraqi police jacket, 18 106mm tank rounds, 400 blasting caps, 40 artillery rounds, 17 pressure plate initiators, 20 Motorola radio initiators and thousands of .50 caliber machine gun rounds. They also detained a suspected terrorist near one of the caches.
The Army fields a new Containerized Kitchen for rapid deployments that is capable of feeding troops hot chow within 45 minutes of hitting the ground.
“It took two of the older mobile kitchen trailers to serve 700 Soldiers,” said Sgt. 1st Class Charles Ray, an instructor at the Field Operations Training Branch, Army Center of Excellence, Subsistence, Quartermaster Center and School, Fort Lee, Va. “With one CK, we can serve 800 troops in less time, and with greater mobility than ever before.”
The CK is a self-contained system for food preparation – cooking and warming by utilizing a griddle, steam pans, cook pots, roasting pans, or sheet pans in the oven. Food is kept fresh in two refrigerators or warm in a holding cabinet. Hot and cold water are provided for food prep and clean up.
“Four Soldiers and one supervisor man the CK, and once they reach their destination, it takes less than 45 minutes to get a CK up and running,” Ray added. “The CK is a very efficient system that is mostly beneficial to division-sized elements.”
We’ve come a long way from boiling water in our steel pots to heat up our c-rations.
Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division/Air Assault provide secruity for pilgrims in Karbala.
MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq (Army News Service, March 22, 2006) – An estimated 3 million Shiites began a yearly journey to Karbala March 17 and Iraqi forces have posted additional security elements along the main highway leading out of Baghdad to safeguard travellers.
Participating in the pilgrimage to Karbala was previously forbidden under ousted ex-president Saddam Hussein.
“Our job is to make sure that everyone is safe and that there are no weapons in the crowd,” said Cpt. Saad Abdullah, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division. “My soldiers have done a very good job following their orders, and I am proud of how they’ve kept everything under control.”
The Army has teamed up with the Air Force (formerly the Army Air Corps) to develop a new cargo aircraft designed for intra-theater operations.
“The aircraft we field will provide a key capability to the joint force commander,” said Dichter. “For 59 years, the Air Force has been the service provider of intra-theater airlift, and for approximately 40 years, we’ve done that with essentially one airplane – the C-130.”
On the Army side, Mundt said that the new aircraft would replace what he called a “very, very old and tired airframe in terms of the C-23 Sherpa, C-12 and C-26. Our Soldiers deserve better than that – we can also get them off the roads so they don’t have to be exposed to improvised explosive devices.”
The Air Force leads the world in the ability to perform operational and strategic intra-theater lift, he said. But because of the changing battlefield, the brigade combat teams modularity and the logistics concept of support changing to a push system, the Army needs additional intra-theater lift capability to fill the last tactical mile.
So if you happen to cross paths with one of your Soldiers when he/she has a moment to catch their breath, a “thank you” would be entirely appropriate. Sgt Hook out.
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