Last Updated: 10:45 pm, Friday, April 29th, 2005

Iowa National Guard captain says training insufficient for duty in Iraq
By Associated Press

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DES MOINES (AP) — A commander with the Iowa Army National Guard says training problems at a U.S. Army base in Texas left his unit ill-prepared for duty in Iraq, according to a copyright story in The Des Moines Register.
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Capt. Aaron Baugher, of Ankeny, was the commander of the first Iowa infantry division trained at Fort Hood, and in a report obtained by the Register he said the 2004 training “was of very little value and poorly instructed” by soldiers who typically had never served in Iraq or Afghanistan.
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Baugher’s unit of 58 soldiers, the 194th Long-Range Surveillance Detachment of Johnston, returned to Iowa in late February after nearly a year in Iraq.
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“Having been in Iraq ... conducting combat operations on a wide spectrum, we can confidently say we did not learn a thing at Fort Hood,” Baugher wrote.
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Col. Luke Green, chief of staff of the Fifth U.S. Army, said Baugher’s complaint emphasizes the short training schedule part-time and reserve units have to become combat ready.
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“This is like getting your football team on the first of August and you have a game on the first of September, and you are working ... hard to get people ready, except in this situation people can die,” Green said.
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About 40 percent of all U.S. forces in Iraq are Guard or Reserve members.
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Baugher’s report said that in some situations, veteran Iowa soldiers had to correct instructors at Fort Hood.
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None of the soldiers in Baugher’s unit were killed, but one was seriously injured after being shot by sniper.
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Al Dochnal, a regular U.S. Army officer who commanded the brigade that trained the Iowa unit, disagreed with Baugher and said the Iowa soldiers received excellent training.
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Brig. Gen. Mark Zirkelbach, deputy adjutant general of the Iowa Army National Guard, said he traveled to Fort Hood last year to personally address Baugher’s complaints.
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He said he met with the commander of a garrison support unit and was told corrective actions were being taken.
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Zirkelbach said his primary concern was to ensure that 700 soldiers from the Iowa National Guard Task Force 168, which arrived soon after Baugher’s unit, didn’t have the same problems. The result, he said, was the Task Force 168 soldiers had a better experience than the 194th infantry detachment.
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“We owe it to our soldiers to give them the best chance of survival that we can. That was really the message that we took to Fort Hood,” Zirkelbach said.
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Baugher’s report also detailed complaints about no heat or hot water in their barracks at times in January, a lack of professionalism by Fort Hood soldiers, delays in processing troops, and mistakes on soldiers’ pay records.
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“All of these issues build to one point, and that is a clear picture to the soldier and the leadership that they are not a priority and they are simply here to check a block on required training and get pushed out the door to Iraq with as little hassle to Fort Hood as possible,” Baugher wrote.
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Baugher’s report also detailed problems in his unit getting the equipment it needed before it was deployed.
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