Maj. Shane Sims goes through a final checklist with the driver of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle on the testing pad at Fort Benning, a day before trucking the 25-ton tracked vehicles into Columbus on Thursday, June 5, 2008. (Dave Bender)
Two Bradley Fighting Vehicles – tank-like personnel carriers – clanked along in downtown Columbus traffic on Thursday, in order to test out hi-tech camera gear.
A Bradley Fighting Vehicle pulls into traffic in downtown Columbus for a test run. The tank is sandwiched between two of the test team's pickup trucks to minimize the chance of hitting a civilian vehicle , June 5, 2008. (Dave Bender)
Cpl. Jason Wade of Columbus State University police watched as the vehicles rolled by his post near a parking garage on Front Street:
“That's something downtown's never seen before. It's pretty neat! Couldn't imagine being stopped at a red light and seeing this big 50-caliber gun stuck in my rear view mirror (laughs).He's watching an army test to better protect soldiers out on patrol from bombs, bullets and the mayhem on Iraqi streets.
“It's kind of overwhelming at this point, because there's so many noncombatants that are there, and a lot of them have cameras, so it's hard to distinguish an actual video camera or something like that. Also, you're trying to pick people apart in groups, and by the time you do, you're already passed them and moved on to the next group.”Jolley has to pick out eight soldiers who are wearing street clothes, and posing as insurgents. They're brandishing long black tubes as make-believe weapons, and hiding in the deep shadows of windows and doorways, and behind bushes and foliage.
Interviewer:
What about the infrared signatures?
Jolley:
“Infrared's difficult during the day, because the sun heats up the surrounding areas so much, that people don't stand off against the background as well as they do during the nighttime.”
“Our job here is to work as an enemy for this exercise, so that they can see if the new camera systems they're trying to incorporate into the Bradleys' are effective. Other people out here have mock rifles, so that the Bradley crews can differentiate between what weapons we're using.”But despite the snafus the army says it wants all the feedback – positive and especially negative - from the camo-clad troops, so they can fix the bugs before the system is deployed in Baghdad's back alleys.
Interviewer:After the Bradleys are trucked back to Fort Benning, and the field reports are filed, Sims says additional system testing and adding improvements will take place at the Army's armor center at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
“You're running through downtown Baghdad; a kid runs up with spray paint, gets two cameras out; someone throws a grenade on it – you can blow out a camera...”
Sims:
“You're very attuned into what some of the issues are. those are very good questions, and those are issues we're all addressing in this experiment.”
Relieved family and friends joyously greeted over 250 US Army soldiers of the 598th Maintenance Company, and an advance force of the Third Brigade as they stepped off the plane at the post's Lawson Airfield, close to midnight on Wednesday.
Both units served 15-months in the Baghdad area. The advance troops will prepare for the main force of 3,000 troops, who are due back in several planeloads in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, over 160 soldiers of the 63rd Engineering Company are preparing for a similar combat tour in Iraq. Specialist Adam Wilson says he's grateful the army will look after his wife and children while he's gone:
"If she gets run down, or gets in a predicament, then hope is close by; that's a huge load of my shoulders to know that she's not alone."Wilson's unit is to leave on Sunday, and will serve 15-months.
The Department of Defense on Friday announced the death of three Ft. Benning soldiers in fighting in Iraq.
They died on October 30 of wounds sustained in combat in Salman Pak, when enemy forces engaged their unit with small arms fire and an improvised explosive device, according to the statement.
They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.
They are:
Leslie and Army Spc. Josh Reeves.
(Courtesy Online Athens)
A soldier who was killed in Iraq the day after his wife gave birth to their son has received a posthumous promotion to corporal.
Corporal Joshua Reeves of Watkinsville was killed September 22 when an improvised bomb exploded near the 26-year-old's Humvee while on patrol in Baghdad.
His wife, Leslie, gave birth on September 21 to their son in Tennessee.
Army officials presented Reeves' parents with their son's Purple Heart and Bronze Star medals yesterday at Evergreen Memorial Park in Athens. Army officials said his promotion was in recognition of his service.
Reeves was assigned to the Second Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, part of the First Infantry Division's Fourth Brigade. The brigade has been in Iraq since February, part of the surge of 30,000 soldiers aimed at ending violence in Baghdad.
Click here for previous GPB coverage of this story, and of the war in Iraq.
(AP)
Nearly 70 soldiers from Fort Benning will deploy to Iraq this week. The deployment comes after four soldiers from the base were killed in fighting in Baghdad over the weekend.
Base Public Affairs Office spokesperson Elsie Jackson told GPB News the maintenance battalion soldiers would provide support and logistics for combat units in Iraq and Kuwait. Family members will see the troops off at the base's Lawson Army Airfield on Wednesday.
The Defense Department announced Tuesday that Iraqi insurgents killed three Ft. Benning troops in a roadside bombing and shooting attack on Saturday. A forth soldier was hit and killed from small-arms fire on Sunday. Both attacks took place in the Baghdad area.
21 troops from the base have been killed in the conflict this year.