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Sixteen months is more than enough time to prepare for the 25th Infantry Division's first European peacekeeping mission to Bosnia in April 2002 -- an assignment that the combat force does not normally undertake, according to its new leader. Infantry leader
confident of
Bosnia missionBy Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinHowever, Maj. Gen. James Dubik, who took command of the Schofield Barracks unit Nov. 3, told reporters yesterday that there is "way, way more than enough (time).
"We will be able to execute the training program to the right level of proficiency without any difficulty."
Gen. John Hendrix, commander of U.S. Army Forces Command, last week issued a report that said that lack of rigorous peacekeeping preparations for nearly 900 soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division who were stationed in Kosovo led to "a failure in leadership." For at least one company of soldiers, this led to excessive use of force and the slaying of an 11-year-old Albanian girl.
Although the general in charge of training for all Army units was careful not to say that this was a systemic problem with the training of U.S. peacekeeping forces, he did order all fighting units on the mainland to undergo specialized training.
This would include exercises where soldiers would be confronted not by enemy soldiers, but with angry civilians, demonstrators and feuding ethnic groups.
While not commenting directly on the Kosovo incident, Dubik said that he had "total confidence that between now and departure we will be able to be fully to train ourselves and our subordinate units."
Dubik said the difference between a combat assignment and a peacekeeping operation is that "in combat you expect contact with the enemy as a matter of course and fighting as a matter of course. In a peacekeeping operation, it's not a matter of course.
"It's something that could happen. You prepare for it, but there is no conventional enemy upon which to focus."
One of the first key differences in training for the Bosnia assignment, Dubik said, will be "the emphasis on cultural awareness, political awareness and situational awareness."
Some of the assignments Tropic Lightning soldiers will undertake will be patrolling the countryside, manning checkpoints, inspecting weapons storage sites and helping with the resettling of refugees.
This will be Dubik's third peacekeeping mission. In 1994, he was part of the multinational force, led by the 10th Mountain Division, that flew into Haiti to restore order to the Caribbean nation.
Four years later, as deputy commander with the 1st Cavalry Division, Dubik became the number two man in the 15,000-member Multinational Division North -- one of three sectors partitioning off Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In April 2002, Dubik will command a smaller Multinational Division North force, which is made up of four brigades of soldiers from Russia, Turkey, Nordic countries and the U.S. Dubik will arrive in Europe with a task force of 2,500 Tropic Lightning soldiers and combat units from the Idaho, Minnesota and Indiana Army National Guard.
The combined active and reserve unit -- known as Task Force Eagle -- will undergo its first test in a major training rehearsal January 2002 at the Army's Joint Readiness Training Center -- the military's premiere training facility -- at Fort Polk in Louisiana.
The 25th Division, formed nine weeks before the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, has fought in three wars. However, all of its past and current assignments have been in the Pacific, Japan, South Vietnam and South Korea.
The six-month Bosnia deployment will be the division's first European assignment. In 1995, 3,700 Tropic Lighting soldiers spent nearly six months patrolling the streets, harbors, airfields and towns of Haiti.
Lt. Col. Mark Milley, the division's operations and training officer, described the situation in Bosnia now as "stable" as "reconstruction efforts continue."