Guardsmen will head
to Iraq prepared,
says commander

He vows isle troops will get
the right gear and training

The head of the Hawaii National Guard says he is satisfied with the training Hawaii's citizen-soldiers are receiving in Texas in preparation for duty in Iraq.

In a two-page response to concerns that training was inadequate, Maj. Gen. Bob Lee, head of the Hawaii Army and Air National Guard, wrote that "all the training conducted at Fort Bliss is based on actual lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan."

He was responding to concerns raised by soldiers of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade, which was sent to the El Paso, Texas, Army post in October as part of its three months of pre-deployment training.

Some soldiers and family members recently complained to the Star-Bulletin and U.S. Rep. Ed Case that soldiers from Hawaii did not receive adequate cold-weather gear and were not given sufficient time on the firing ranges. They said too much time and emphasis were placed on infantry skills instead of fine-tuning specialty skills such as vehicle maintenance training.

Lee acknowledged that there were "isolated cases where soldiers were issued wet-weather parkas instead of cold-weather parkas," but said that situation had been corrected.

He said the question of "getting sufficient maintenance training is somewhat complicated." But in Iraq, Lee said, "all soldiers have to be prepared to defend themselves at all times. We have intentionally concentrated on improving combat skills for these noncombat soldiers.

"Our intent is to ensure their survivability in the combat zone. The training at Fort Bliss is designed to be tough, stressful and demanding," he said. "It is intentionally conducted over a long period of time so soldiers understand how to pace themselves."

Lee also discounted complaints about a shortage of training ammunition at Fort Bliss.

He said all soldiers have to go through several steps before firing live ammunition. "This gradual progression is primarily for safety considerations," he said.

When he visited Fort Bliss during the Thanksgiving holiday, Lee said he saw "extensive live-fire training being conducted."

On Monday, Lee told the Star-Bulletin that during a visit to Iraq last week, he was told that all vehicles used by reservists and Army National Guard soldiers from Hawaii would be properly armored. He said he was especially concerned about the vehicles that will be used when the 29th Brigade convoys from Kuwait to Iraq.

Soldiers of the 29th Brigade are on Christmas leave and will not report back to Fort Bliss until Jan. 2. They will then ship out to Fort Polk in Louisiana for the final phase of combat certification, which is expected to take about a month.