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By Nathaniel R. Helms

The 3rd/87th ID (TS) has constructed four villages at Camp Shelby where incoming soldiers can practice search and cordon operations. The villages include mosques, offices, markets, walled residences and tunnel complexes (Photo by Nat Helms).

First of Three Parts

CAMP SHELBY, Miss. - Here at this sprawling Army base, officials call the ongoing mobilization agenda a "training matrix." What it really constitutes is the Army's crash effort to overcome a critical shortage of trained soldiers and units in the aftermath of the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition to teaching soldiers new ways to make war, the program is responsible for a burgeoning paradox that brings into question far more than how to make tigers out of yesterday's civilians who suddenly find themselves tasked with bringing order out of chaos in the two-front war against terror.

Part of that training matrix is predicated by the raw material the Army is compelled to work with in today's all-volunteer recruitment environment. Instead of a steady supply of eager 19- and 20-year-old volunteers led by professional officers, the Army finds itself augmented with National Guard and Army Reserve units frequently filled by older men called back for their second and sometimes third wars; barely pubescent teens whose greatest worry last spring concerned who to take to the prom, and women traditionally considered non-combatants who today find themselves uncomfortably close to the cutting edge of combat.

They are being trained and led by an unlikely collection of Regular Army officers and NCOs, Reservists, and National Guard part-time leaders who have sometimes reluctantly assumed the mantle of leadership because there is no one else left here at home to do the job.

To carry out this mission, the Army has turned to a concept called "Immersion Training," which places the trainee in a mock environment that replicates as best as it can the conditions a soldier will encounter in combat.

The Army has hired 300 civilians, including 80 Iraqi-Americans, to work as "civilians on the battlefield" at Camp Shelby, adding a powerful dose of realism to each training event (Photo by Nat Helms).

Camp Shelby has been the incubator for hundreds of thousands of citizen-soldiers preparing for the crucible of war since 1917. During World War II, soldiers bound for North Africa were exposed to conditions they might find in Tunisia. During the Vietnam War, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade trained in conditions similar to Vietnam, and again during the Bosnian and Kosovo crises of the 1990s, soldiers bound for Eastern Europe trained in a mock Yugoslavian environment. During the past 18 months alone, more than 40,000 soldiers have been prepared for desert combat in the red mud and pine trees of Mississippi.

At the same time that Camp Shelby is churning outs thousands upon thousands of hastily-trained soldiers in record time, it is both creating and implementing innovative combat doctrine and tactics intended to address a different kind of war than the Army was prepared to fight just four years ago - before 9/11.

And the procedures have changed as well: Instead of gravel-voiced sergeants barking commands, the Army has turned to quietly whirring computers whispering orders at nano-speed across far-flung continents. Today's Army has shed much of its traditionally abrasive character. Burned out soldiers can ask for "stress relief" to avoid mental anguish and young soldiers can ask for "counseling" when they have a problem. Off-duty entertainment doesn't include swilling "three-two horse piss" (3.2 percent alcohol beer) at the slop shoot and watered-down drinks in dirty-leg bars just outside the gate. Instead, today's soldiers sit quietly in front of computers at the cyber café, write lonely missives via e-mail and find quiet corners where they can talk on their cell phones without interruption. There is an "all ranks" club on post that it relatively quiet compared to the raucous behavior of yesteryear. In the barracks, soldiers watch movies and play games on their laptops and portable DVD players before trying to get some sleep after typical 18-hour training days.
Today's citizen-soldiers are being fed on a mixed diet of old and new.

Whether your goal is to establish a civilian career, pay for college or prepare for a secure retirement, YOU CAN make it happen in the Army National Guard.

Unlike the tired squads and platoons of yesteryear where soldiers dragged their tired dogs through ankle-deep mud, the modern soldier frequently sits in front of a widescreen

computer monitor fighting virtual battles without breaking into a sweat. Role-playing is as important as hand-to-hand combat and "Female Consideration Training" has replaced the importance of the cat hole in field hygiene. Even as the Army reinvents itself to fight the new form of conflict in the post-9/11 world, as an institution it is still grappling with the vast social experiment that began in the 1990s when the Pentagon mounted a wide number of programs aimed at reducing sexual tensions within the ranks.

Part of the menu has been carved from the carcass of a lumbering dinosaur that just two decades ago rumbled across a Cold War landscape where cumbersome armies prepared to fight cataclysmic wars of national survival. The new courses offer lighter fare: mobility, speed and agility, and the power of information on the battlefield. At the same time, the doctrine the Army has adopted to fulfill its new role of nation-building collides with a host of restrictive congressional mandates, conflicting national will, and modern social behavior that flies in the face of the traditional warrior spirit.

Soldiers with the 2nd BCT training at Camp Shelby negotiate with village leaders in a mock Iraqi town. Such realistic scenarios offer the National Guard soldiers a taste of the confusion and stress they will encounter on the ground in Iraq. (Photo by Nat Helms).

Despite the hurdles, the Army is getting a tremendously complicated job done with a remarkable degree of success. A visitor to Camp Shelby cannot help but notice that morale is high and the troops are locked and cocked. "Hooah" is the standard answer for almost every question or command, and there are no doubts among the soldiers training here that they are going to war. If "standing tall" is a fair measure of early success, the Army has discovered a training formula that is working.

The base today is preparing a brigade combat team from the Pennsylvania Army National Guard for an upcoming 12-month deployment to Iraq. Members of the current training cadre, who have seen mobilized units come and go for more than two years, generally agree it is a better than average unit: clearly motivated, arriving with its equipment in relatively good shape, and led by experienced non-coms and officers who for the most part want to be there.

During each 90-day training cycle, three different separate Army commands are involved in the training operation. Each is distinct and utterly dependent on the others to accomplish the overall mission.

The ultimate success for preparing 2nd Brigade, 28th ID (M) PARNG lies with its commander, Col. John L. Gronski. His training counterpart is Col. Daniel L. Zajac, the commander of the Army Reserve training brigade at Camp Shelby. Zajac reports to First Army HQ at Ft. Gillem, Ga., which is responsible for and oversees all the mobilized Army Reserve and National Guard units called into service in the eastern half of the United States.

Zajac's unit, the 3rd Brigade, 87th Division (Training Support), is staffed by Regular Army officers and NCOs, as well as recalled Reserve and National Guard counterparts. A 1981 West Point graduate, this hard-charging Regular Army armored cavalryman has served in Germany, the former Yugoslavia and Iraq, as well as various commands within CONUS over the course of his 23-year career.

"We call it turning them green," Zajac said while shooting a red laser marker across the maps in the briefing room. "It means getting them mentally, physically, and emotionally prepared for combat. My staff has to stay involved with many kinds of situations simultaneously and they do a good job."

At Zajac's fingertips is the capability to actually see where and how units at Camp Shelby and units in Iraq are deployed with equal ease. Blue Force Tracker technology allows the colonel and his staff to keep tabs both on units they are training and units they have already deployed to fine-tune the ever-evolving training matrix. Zajac said constantly tailoring the training matrix is necessary to meet the ever-changing scenarios in today's combat zones.

Zajac is generally liked and respected by his staff, although like all commanders, he is sometimes the butt of jokes about his command style. Aides describe him as tough, hard working, and quick to shoot from the hip when angered. He loves the rough and tumbles of the big Abrams tanks and Bradleys he once shoved around the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., and likes to reminisce about his days snooping about former Yugoslavia during the tense peacekeeping mission following years of civil war there. His training philosophy is tried and true: the more soldiers sweat in training, the less they will bleed in combat.

Gronski and Zajac will work together until the 2nd Brigade deploys to Iraq in May 2005. A tall, spare, Ranger and airborne-qualified infantryman, Gronski explained his training philosophy : "My job is to make sure these soldiers get the proper training. They have to know why they are here." Gronski added, "We don't just tell them what to do, we tell them why they are doing it."

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team consists of nine maneuver and support battalions, including two infantry, one armored, one field artillery, one combat engineer, and one battalion each of logistical support, cavalry, signal and military intelligence. The entire brigade includes slightly more than 3,900 soldiers, of which about 250, or 6 percent, are women.

Gronski deployed with about 2,000 of his soldiers in 1992 to Central Europe to provide force protection and anti-terrorism operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He took over the brigade from an ailing commander in January and expects to lead it through its 12-month deployment in Iraq beginning in late May.

Gronski's boss back in Pennsylvania is Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Jessica L. Wright, a veteran helicopter pilot who has flown Hueys, Chinooks, and the venerable CH-54A Sky Crane (once the Army's largest helicopter) during her career. Visiting Camp Shelby last week on an inspection trip, Wright said in a brief interview that despite her gender she claims no particular identification with those of her own sex. "God made me a woman," she said. "Congress made me a general."

The overall commander of the Army's training effort here is Lt. Gen. Russell L. Honoré, who as Commanding General of First Army is the top dog for every deployed Army Reserve and National Guard unit east of the Mississippi River. Honoré is known within the ranks as the "Ragin' Cajun" for his reputed quick temper and well developed ass-chewing abilities.

While Honoré has reportedly embraced most of the concepts and principles of the modern Army, soldiers here say he has not totally embraced the kinder and gentler ways of the new Army. Honoré is also the author and biggest promoter of Immersion Training and a powerful proponent of the "Warrior Ethos," a written creed for soldiers designed to guide them in their pursuit of combat excellence. A Louisiana native, Honoré' was commissioned out of ROTC as an infantryman in 1971 and has served in staff and command positions around the world. He is a frequent visitor to Camp Shelby, and a self-proclaimed advocate of tough, realistic training.

"We are in a war with no rear areas or front lines," Honoré is quoted in a briefing manualprovided to Camp Shelby visitors. "We have to instill the 'Warrior Ethos' into the mobilized soldiers we train. Every soldier must be able to function as an infantryman. Soldiers must be tough, realistic, hands-on, [who receive] repetitive training until their response is intuitive."

The general noted that this comes down to soldiers' first impression in active duty life: "When soldiers get off the bus at MOB (mobilization) station, they must feel they have arrived in Iraq or Afghanistan."

It is on Honoré's head that lies the ultimate success or failure of the Guardsmen and Reservists being trained here to fight the war on terror. Whether he and the soldiers under his command can effectively perform their mission without offending Congress, the American public, and the often disgruntled and confused soldiers heading for harm's way, is the subject of the rest of this DefenseWatch investigation.

©2005 DefenseWatch. Contributing Editor Nathaniel R. "Nat" Helms is a Vietnam veteran, former police officer, long-time journalist and war correspondent living in Missouri. He is the author of two books, Numba One - Numba Ten and Journey Into Madness: A Hitchhiker's Account of the Bosnian Civil War, both available at www.ebooks-online.com. He can be reached at natshouse1@charter.net. All opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.