Stryker brigade to skip test run (ran out of troops - untrained recruits being sent to Iraq)

There aren't enough trained troops for the escalation/surge,so Bush is sending in recruits before they finish training,

See Joe For Clark's thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3109645

especially post#10 http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/military/stryker/sto...

Stryker brigade to skip test run

Training here, not at Fort Irwin

MICHAEL GILBERT;

The News Tribune

Published: January 12th, 2007 01:00 AM

A Fort Lewis Stryker brigade will leave for Iraq in April instead of May as part of the “surge” of U.S. forces aimed at reversing sectarian and insurgent violence in Baghdad.

The 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division will skip a previously scheduled trip to the Army’s National Training Center in Southern California and instead conduct its last pre-deployment rehearsals at Fort Lewis, a brigade official said Thursday.

The unit of some 4,000 soldiers will be the fifth Stryker brigade to go to Iraq, but the first without the benefit of a test run “in the box” at either Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert or the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La.Maj. Jim Brown, the brigade’s executive officer, acknowledged Fort Irwin offers “a great benefit” to units getting ready to deploy.