Navy sailors get Army crash course in ground combat at Fort Jackson
SUSANNE M. SCHAFER
Associated Press
FORT JACKSON, S.C. - Navy sailors are trading sea legs for land combat as the U.S. Army is opening its largest training base to help them survive when sent into Afghanistan or Iraq.
The Navy is sending thousands of men and women to support Army units in those regions and wants its sailors to hone their fighting skills.
"Hit the ground and brace yourself with your weapon!" senior drill instructor Warren Brown yelled at a dozen trainees slithering across a mud-soaked field. "Look around, pick yourself up and go! You're under fire!"
After struggling up from the mud with her M-16 in hand, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jade Permenter insisted Brown's instructions to keep her head and butt down might save her life someday.
"This is excellent training, really. It will be very helpful. I'm headed to Iraq. I need this," said the 34-year-old reservist nurse from Columbus, Ohio.
So far, some 1,200 sailors have gone through an intense, two-week course crammed with the basics of basic training: learning to fire M-16 rifles, toss hand grenades and conduct house-to-house patrols while weighted down with body armor - tactics normally foreign to those accustomed to life aboard a ship.
They learn the ins-and-outs of improvised explosive devices - the roadside bombs that have been exacting a deadly toll on American servicemen and women. They learn how to take and give instructions while under fire on a convoy and how to enter a booby-trapped building
Link Here
Associated Press
FORT JACKSON, S.C. - Navy sailors are trading sea legs for land combat as the U.S. Army is opening its largest training base to help them survive when sent into Afghanistan or Iraq.
The Navy is sending thousands of men and women to support Army units in those regions and wants its sailors to hone their fighting skills.
"Hit the ground and brace yourself with your weapon!" senior drill instructor Warren Brown yelled at a dozen trainees slithering across a mud-soaked field. "Look around, pick yourself up and go! You're under fire!"
After struggling up from the mud with her M-16 in hand, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jade Permenter insisted Brown's instructions to keep her head and butt down might save her life someday.
"This is excellent training, really. It will be very helpful. I'm headed to Iraq. I need this," said the 34-year-old reservist nurse from Columbus, Ohio.
So far, some 1,200 sailors have gone through an intense, two-week course crammed with the basics of basic training: learning to fire M-16 rifles, toss hand grenades and conduct house-to-house patrols while weighted down with body armor - tactics normally foreign to those accustomed to life aboard a ship.
They learn the ins-and-outs of improvised explosive devices - the roadside bombs that have been exacting a deadly toll on American servicemen and women. They learn how to take and give instructions while under fire on a convoy and how to enter a booby-trapped building
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 4:04 PM
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