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Unit uses border mission as training for Iraq

FORT RILEY, Kan. — A thousand miles south of here, soldiers from this post have trained for the Iraq war by helping the U.S. Border Patrol cover a wide swath of south Texas.

By providing extra eyes and ears for agents, helicopter crews from Fort Riley and Fort Carson, Colo., were learning to operate in terrain close to what they will find in Iraq this summer.

“They learned how to do things the right way and do it faster every day,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Stephen Waller of the Combat Aviation Brigade’s 1-6 Cavalry, which includes soldiers from both the Kansas and Colorado posts. “And you do it without bullets flying overhead. You can correct it without someone getting killed.”

But with U.S. forces stretched across battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, some question whether the military should be involved in such missions.

“Surely, the Army has enough to do without getting into that business,” said James Joyner, a former Army officer and military analyst in Washington. “And it’s not like our helicopter assets aren’t getting a workout, either.”

Joyner said the help that active-duty troops provide along the border should come from the civilian Department of Homeland Security personnel and the National Guard.

Commanders volunteer their units for the border missions, which are organized by Joint Task Force North, based at Fort Bliss, Texas. Most last only a few weeks, but some last months.

Task force spokesman Armando Carrasco said the active-duty troops bulk up law enforcement’s presence, especially at night. And the task force touts the missions as training opportunities, including access to ranges where units can fire missiles.

“These mission sets allow the military units to train in terrain and geographic locations and climatic conditions that would be similar to where they may be deploying in the future,” said Xavier Rios of the Customs and Border Protection Agency.

One goal of the border training was to teach disparate elements — the soldiers from Colorado and Kansas were joined by other parts of the 1st Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade — how to work together before they’re in a war zone.

And although the 1-6 Cavalry’s border mission was scheduled before the helicopter crews knew they would be going to Iraq, Lt. Col. John Thompson, commander of the 1-6 Cavalry, said the missions offer training that his troops need regardless of where they might be deployed.

Still, Maj. Gen. Carter Ham, the 1st Infantry Division’s commander, acknowledged there was “real concern” about the border mission taking soldiers away from training on their home posts — and away from their families — just before they face spending up to a year in Iraq.

“We determined that the training value that would be gained was worth the time away from home station,” Ham said.

Overburdening units before they deploy for Iraq is a concern throughout the Army.

For example, another unit in the Combat Aviation Brigade, the 1st Battalion, 1st Aviation, will go to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., before deploying to Iraq later this year.

“Right now, the Army is a cauldron,” said Lt. Col. Mike Mahony, commander of 1-1 Aviation, walking up and down a ridge as the Apache helicopter battalion conducted gunnery exercises at Fort Riley’s training ranges, with crews arming and fueling a half-dozen helicopters in a flurry of activity akin to NASCAR pit crews during a Sunday afternoon race.

Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, doesn’t object to the border training for active duty troops, although she is concerned about spreading the military too thin.

“We can do a lot of things, but not if we’ve stretched our military to the breaking point,” Boyda said.

Military units have supported missions along the U.S.-Mexico border since 1989, starting with efforts to stop narcotics trafficking and expanding to include efforts to stop terrorist and illegal immigrants. In 18 years, nearly 6,000 deployments have been completed.

The military units use tactics also needed to fight insurgents in Iraq. But instead of looking for insurgents and roadside bombs, they scan for illegal immigrants and smugglers of drugs, weapons or people. They forward their information to law enforcement, because federal law prohibits active-duty soldiers from making arrests or monitoring individuals or organizations on U.S. soil.

That makes the mission challenging, said Thompson, “but worth it, very similar to what we’re going to do in Iraq.”

Still, Joyner said, it’s bad for the military to be involved in law enforcement and border operations.

His preferred model is Operation Jump Start, President Bush’s effort to put 6,000 National Guard troops on the border to help law enforcement as a temporary fix until the Border Patrol can hire enough new agents.

“The National Guard, in their role as state militias, could be used as an occasional augmentation force, but the active Army operates under different rules of engagement,” Joyner said.