Combat skills training readies troops for tours in war zones

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Air Force Staff Sgt. Jesse Reddam, an airman assigned to the 86th Maintenance Squadron, and other combat skills classmates practice the "smash" move during the rifle fighting portion of the training course Thursday at Ensiedlerhof Air Station in Kaiserslautern, Germany.


Combat skills training readies troops for tours in war zones
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, December 22, 2008

EINSIEDLERHOF AIR STATION, Germany — With bodies planted face-down on the ground, so close they could almost taste the wet dirt under their noses, airmen with the 435th Air Base Wing slid along Thursday in a low crawl while cradling an M-16 rifle.

Some grunted, others groaned. Most stopped a few times to catch their breath.

After 20 yards of trying to elude detection by an imaginary enemy, the 50 or so airmen stood with mud staining their armored vests and helmets.

Welcome to combat skills training, a new course now required for all 435th airmen within 120 days of deploying to a war zone or any area qualifying for hostile fire pay.

“It’s to get people prepared to go into theater and to be able to survive and excel,” said Col. Don Bacon, 435th wing commander, who in May returned from a year-long deployment in Iraq.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59560