• Latest stories
• Local
• State
• National
• World
• Health
• Agriculture
• Politics
• Business
• Crime
• Manhattan/Junction City
• Photos

• Log in

Fort Riley Desert Training: Day 3

49 News' Ben Bauman makes it into battle, and the mess hall

Story by Ben Bauman

4:45 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Day 3

Slept 'til 7. Went to chow of scrambled powdered eggs, steak, some kind potato with spicy tomato chunks, black beans and meat in it, bagel,with cream-cheese already inside, fruit cocktail, chocolate muffin, milk, OJ and coffee. Not bad, except for the eggs.

During their desert trip, Ben and Justin sat down with Topeka soldier Captain Wes Wilson. Listen in on their conversation here.

Then we met up with Col. Vermeesch. He watches 49 News every night back in Fort Riley. We followed him and an entourage to meet the leader of the "Iraqi Army", also here at FOB Seattle. Everything here at Fort Irwin, also called the National Training Center, or NTC, is designed to replicate conditions and situations that the soldiers will find in Iraq. So, they are trained to work side-by-side with the "Iraqi Army", which here is made up of role players, actors. This morning, we shot video of Col. Vermeesch meeting his counterpart in the "Iraqi Army" for the first time. The meeting took place in the "Iraqi Army" headquarters here at FOB Seattle. It's a separate building, complete with an Iraqi flag out front. The man playing the role of the Iraqi military leader was quite convincing. The PAO told us he is an Iraqi-American, and may have actually served in Saddam's army. Following that, we convoyed with Col. Vermeesch to a nearby "Iraqi" village for a similar meet-and-greet with village leaders. Again, actors, but Iraqi-Americans, speaking only Iraqi through translators and playing parts of mayor, civic and religious leaders. It's all a part of the training for American forces to gain the trust, and work with the Iraqi people, civilian and military.

Another soldier Ben and Justin met is Staff Sergeant Mark Hurning from Wisconsin. In this interview, learn why Hurning never wanted to be anything but a soldier, and after one deployment to Iraq and another upcoming, still can’t imagine doing anything else.

After that, it was back to FOB Seattle for lunch with a Fort Riley civic contingent. They arrived by helicopter and had a quick MRE lunch and briefing by Col. Vermeesch. The contingent consisted of mainly local government leaders from communities surrounding Fort Riley. They've gotten together to call themselves the Greater Fort Riley Community, GFRC, to work together providing support for Fort Riley families living in their communities.

About MRE's: Meals Ready to Eat. They come in a pouch, and in several different varieties. I had enchilada, while Justin tried the chili. Once you open the pouch, you find several other pouches. Mine included one for the enchilada, one containing refried beans, another with crackers, one with picante sauce, one with cheese and one special pouch which warms up the food. I don't know what's in it, but you open the pouch, put the food needing warmed up in it, dump in a little water, then quickly fold it over and slide it in a cardboard box. It starts getting too hot to handle before you get that done. Seriously. You leave it alone and watch the steam seep out of the cardboard for a few minutes, carefully cut it open and you have piping hot enchilada!

From there, we convoyed back out to the same Iraqi village, where Delta Company was going through an exercise called Cordon and Search. Actors play the part of villagers, while troops stationed here at Fort Irwin play the part of the insurgents. That's all a part of the NTC philosophy, realism and challenge. The U.S. and Iraqi troops practiced rolling into the village looking for a specific person of interest. When they arrive they are greeted with IED's, sniper fire, take some casualties which need to be evacuated, and so on. Every soldier and role player is outfitted with laser receivers, and all weapons are firing blanks that activate lasers. They make the same noise as real bullets, but fire only lasers. When someone is hit, their laser receiver emits an alarm, so that person knows he's been hit and is out of action.

The exercise and convoy back took about 5 hours, so we were ready for chow when we got back. Pasta with chicken, green beans, lettuce salad, bread, chocolate pudding.

Then we tried out the showers. They are in a self-contained unit, like a freight shipping container. Six shower stalls along one wall, with hot water, courtesy a generator outside. The hot water supply was getting low by the time we got there, so our showers were barely warm. But after two days, it still felt pretty good.