GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Lt. Col. Lloyd Miles commands the 2nd Warrior Brigade Combat Team, which leaves for Iraq over the next two weeks.
Army leader says
troops ready for IraqLt. Col. Lloyd Miles is leading
4,000 Schofield soldiers
When Lt. Col. Lloyd "Milo" Miles deploys to Iraq next week, he will have tucked in his pocket a tiny "Bob the Builder" figure -- a gift from his 3-year-old son, Nathan.
CORRECTION
Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2003>> Col. Lloyd Miles will command the 2nd Brigade Combat Team that will spend a year in Iraq. A story on Page A6 Friday incorrectly listed his rank as lieutenant colonel.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com.In return, Miles will leave Nathan his garrison cap to remind the boy of his father, who will lead 4,000 soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division for a year-long deployment.
"He identifies me (with) that cap," Miles, 45, told reporters yesterday as he finished clearing his Schofield Barracks office.
The soldiers of Miles' 2nd Warrior Brigade Combat Team will fly by chartered commercial jet to Kuwait, where they will train and prepare for their deployment in Baghdad.
Miles said the soldiers will first be assigned to the 4th Infantry Division and then later attached to the 1st Division. The 4th Division was the Army unit that captured Saddam Hussein last month. Miles said Hawaii's soldiers are slated to replace the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Tikrit.
Miles, who also commanded a battalion in a peacekeeping operation in Kosovo four years ago, said the 25th Division soldiers will be in an area "about the size of New Hampshire" that includes deserts and mountains in the east.
Unlike Miles' earlier Kosovo experience, Iraq is "not clearly defined" as either a combat operation or a peacekeeping mission.
"The complexity of this mission is that all those things will be happening at the same time," said Miles, who graduated from West Point in 1980. "In certain areas, especially in the western portion of our sector, it will certainly be combat."
He said that portion includes the so-called Sunni Triangle -- the site of many attacks on U.S. forces. Other portions of the sector where the Kurds dominate, Miles added, will involve more traditional peacekeeping operations, such as separating rival ethnic factions.
Miles said his soldiers are well trained "to be able to operate at the entire spectrum of operations."
He added, "The soldiers are very adaptable, pretty savvy, and they will adapt to their environment pretty quickly."
Miles, whose father was a career Army soldier, said he always knew he wanted to serve.
While attending third grade at Hale Kula Elementary School at Schofield Barracks, "I remember my teacher, Mrs. Taniguchi, was asking all the kids, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?'" he said. "I said I wanted to be a (West Point) cadet. The teacher laughed because I guess that was an unusual response."
When he was a commander of a battalion of the 101st Infantry Division at Fort Campbell in 1996, Miles lost part of his left leg while searching for a grenade that had been lost during a live-fire exercise. After two years of treatment, he returned to command the same battalion.
"It just forces you to really reach deep and look deep what it is and why you want to serve your country," said Miles, who has a prosthetic limb. "I have been asked many times since then, Why did I stay? People would say, 'Why not just leave the military, take a medical retirement and go off and do something else that would not be as physically demanding on your person?'
"My answer would be, It is not about a life of ease. It's not about a life of comfort. It is really one of service," he said.
The soldiers will continue to deploy from Schofield Barracks through Jan. 26.
