KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Soldiers of today use the cover of night to fight. Pfc. Robert Powell, left, has a PVS-14 monocular night vision scope attached to his helmet. Sgt. Danny Garner holds a M4 carbine, which is more compact and accurate than an M-16.
When Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Sablan enlisted in the Army 16 years ago, the Vietnam War to him was something out of a history book. What a difference
a decade makesSince the Gulf War, soldiers
have seen their guns and gear
improve dramaticallyBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comToday, Sablan, a training noncommissioned officer at Schofield Barracks, works with soldiers who are as young as his daughter. To them, the Gulf War too is out of a history book.
One of them, Pvt. 1st Class Robert Powell, 18, was in kindergarten in Washington's Yakima Valley when the military began its march into Iraq more than 12 years ago. Powell says he knows almost as much about the Gulf War as he does the Vietnam War, in which his father fought.
"Because he was a Vietnam War veteran," said Powell, who has only been in the Army for five months, "he really followed it closely and I never thought that I might be in another version of it."
Sablan, 34, was a member of 197th Infantry at Fort Bragg, N.C., when his unit was mobilized in September 1990 to fight in Iraq. His advice to younger soldiers in the 25th Infantry Division in Wahiawa is "just to stay ready."
During the decade following the Gulf War, Lt. Col. Bert Thompson, the division's training and operations officer, said "there has been a marked improvement" in the equipment issued to all infantry soldiers.
This includes better battlefield communications, new body armor, freeze-dried meals, and rucksacks that include commercially produced CamelBak, water pouches used extensively by athletes. It also will mean that soldiers will probably be required to fight in urban environments like Baghdad rather than in the deserts of Iraq.
"But our biggest advantage," said Thompson, an 18-year Army veteran and also a Gulf War combat veteran who served with the 82nd Airborne Division, "is that we fight at night and we avoid the day."
It was during the 1991 Gulf War that the U.S. military bragged, "We own the night," because of the extensive use of night-vision goggles that helped armored and light infantry brigades see and fire on targets first.
But not all soldiers in Iraq were issued night-vision goggles, Sablan said. Back then only a few soldiers, like truck drivers, got them and unlike today's version "they were like binoculars. They were horrible to drive with in the desert since there is no depth perception. At one time a soldier almost drove off the road using them."
"Any bright light that hit it would burn it out ... meaning you would have lost your ability to see clearly."
The current model weighs 14 ounces, is monocular and can be attached to a soldier's helmet and flipped over one eye when needed. "That allows the soldier to concentrate his night vision in only one eye," he said.
It was the night-vision goggles that Special Forces soldiers relied heavily on during the campaign in Afghanistan. The goggles magnify ambient light from the moon or stars up to 10,000 times and give the soldier a greenish, monochromatic view. Coupled with the aiming "death dot" of his laser, the soldier simply places the spot on a target and shoots.
Sgt. Danny Garner, 22, said all light infantry soldiers at Schofield are now issued the M4 carbine, which is nearly identical to the M-16 rifle carried by soldiers in the Gulf War, except "that it is more compact, a lot shorter and more accurate."
Garner said the M4 uses a collapsible butt stock "so it fits a soldier a lot better and because it's shorter, you don't bang into anything when fighting in close quarters."
The carbine, which weighs 12.7 pounds, can be equipped with a laser-aiming device. It was originally issued to only Special Forces and Army Ranger soldiers and is equipped with a rail system that lets a soldier mount accessories such as grenade launchers and a high-intensity flashlight.
As for added fire power, Sgt. Joseph McKinney, 26, said the Army replaced the Vietnam-era M-60 machine gun with a little heavier and longer M-240B, which also can be outfitted with a special optical scope.
Sablan said the M-60 machine gun "was harder to control and less reliable" than the M-240B. Firing the same 7.62mm belt ammunition as the M-60 machine gun, the M-240B was introduced during the late 1990s to replace the M-60 in infantry, armor, special operations forces and selected combat engineer units.
"The weapons we have today," Sablan added, "give soldiers a lot more confidence."
Soldiers deploying today also are equipped with stronger 16-pound Interceptor ceramic composite body armor that can withstand not only shrapnel, but rifle bullets; special Gortex cold and wet weather parkas and trousers, replacing the familiar Army field jackets; and three-piece sleeping bags.
Today's soldiers also are issued the new modular lightweight load-bearing equipment that has removable components and pockets that can accommodate pistols, ammunition and backpack.
Perhaps the only thing that hasn't changed since the 1991 Gulf War is the battle dress fatigues, except for color schemes, Kevlar helmets and the type of chemical and biological protective gear issued to all military personnel.
"I think that chemical and biological warfare is a bigger concern today," said Sablan. "From the day the ground war began we wore everything except for our rubber gloves and protective masks just to be safe."
