DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Specialist Ildefonso Doctor, left, worked with Specialist Albert Santos, right, to evacuate Specialist William Littleton who was "wounded" on Wednesday.

Hawaii Guard fights
battles in cityscape
training arena

Future combat is likely to take
place in an urban setting

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

With more than 80 percent of the world's population living in cities, tomorrow's battlefield will probably be in a building or on some crowded street.

That's where three Hawaii Army National Guard infantry rifle companies spent this past week as part of their annual two weeks of active duty. The streets and the buildings, with names like "Center Plaza" and "Paradise Inn," were not located in a country such as Kosovo or Somalia, but on the training grounds of Schofield Barracks.

The rifle companies belong to the Army National Guard's only combat unit -- the 29th Infantry Brigade -- which began its annual two weeks of active duty training July 15. The 29th Brigade is spread over three states -- Hawaii, Oregon and California -- and one of its units traces its lineage to the highly decorated 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team.

More than 3,000 citizen soldiers donned their camouflage fatigues and reported to Schofield Barracks and the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island. In June, a group of Hawaii National Guard military police soldiers flew to Fort Polk, La., to do their active duty training at the Joint Readiness Training Center.

DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM First Sgt. Pat Quel, 57, was the oldest soldier who took part in this training exercise at Schofield Barracks on Wednesday.

Utmost in the minds of the citizen-soldiers this year are the events of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

So far, only one small Hawaii Army National Guard unit has been activated, though none of its soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan. Those that were called up were used to back up the active duty force at Schofield Barracks and Fort Shafter.

Capt. Kukunaokala "Kuna" Mendonca, commander of Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion/299th Infantry, said "there is an increased sense of urgency and sense of realism among the soldiers" since the terrorist threats.

"Many of them realize that they could be called to fight, even if it's here on their homeland in the U.S. Since Sept. 11, the men take this training more seriously."

The soldiers of Alpha Company, who are all Kauai residents, spent six months preparing for this year's annual training exercise. Working out of armories in Hanapepe and Kapaa on Kauai each month, the 95 Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers focused on warfighting skills designed to be useful in urban settings. Mendonca, who lives in Makiki and works in the technical support division of Spirent Communications, commutes to Kauai each month to attend the drills.

For three days and nights last week the Kauai soldiers trained and lived at Schofield's Military Operation in Urban Terrain, or MOUT facility, which is a series of two-story, hollow-tile buildings laid out to resemble several city blocks.

"Here is where we put that practice into play," said Mendonca, an 18-year National Guard veteran. "These buildings are supposed to be holding suspected al-Qaida terrorists and it is our task to destroy them."

First Sgt. Pat Quel, a 21-year Army and National Guard veteran, said "the object is to secure the town and clear it of suspected terrorists."

This is done by sending two fire teams of 10 soldiers into a building to clear each room. Each room is wired with a motion-sensing device. As a soldier walks into the room, the device activates a battery-operated pop-up target of an enemy soldier dressed in a dark green uniform.

"The job of the soldiers is to knock out the targets," said Mendonca, "and then move on to the next room."

After firing blank ammunition during the rehearsal walk- and run-throughs -- which are also conducted at night, with soldiers wearing special night-vision devices -- the exercise ended with the soldiers firing bullets that use plastic heads.

"They may be plastic heads," said Mendonca, "but at close range they will kill a man. That is why we treat everything just the same as if we were firing copperheads or live rounds. Safety is foremost in these exercises. This is a very intense event for the soldiers."

It is Quel's job to make the training as close to the actual thing as possible. He spent three years on active duty, including a tour in Vietnam in 1963, before getting out in 1965. Quel, 57, re-enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard in 1984 because he believed "these young kids need experienced leaders. They are good soldiers, but need people who have been there.

"I know what to expect," said Quel, who works as an electrician on Kauai. "I don't want to send these guys out untrained. Being an infantry soldier is the hardest MOS (military occupational skill)."

Quel believes it's the simple things that soldiers need to know.

"It's like wearing all your equipment all the time and getting used to it and sweating in it."