596th Maintenance Company soldiers practice evacuating casualties at Grafenwohr, Germany, on Thursday in preparation for deployment to Iraq next month. (Seth Robson / S&S)
596th Maintenance Company soldiers practice evacuating casualties at Grafenwohr, Germany, on Thursday in preparation for deployment to Iraq next month. (Seth Robson / S&S)
596th Maintenance Company soldier Spc. Anthony Barefoot, 23, of North Manchester, Ind., fires a .50 caliber machine gun at Grafenwohr on Thursday. (Seth Robson / S&S)
596th Maintenance Company soldiers train at Grafenwohr on Thursday in preparation for deployment to Iraq next month. (Seth Robson / S&S)
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Fathers often have plenty of useful advice for sons heading off to war.
But the advice Iraq-bound 2nd Lt. John Curran got from his father, Charles Curran, 51, was more up-to-date than might be expected.
John Curran, who is preparing to leave for Al Asad with the 596th Maintenance Company next month, said he is getting pre-deployment tips from a father who just got back from six months working there as a program manager with defense contractor Northrop Grumman.
“Anyone who is not nervous about going to Iraq is kidding themselves, but we are prepared,” said Curran, who will be on his first mission to the desert.
The 24-year-old Pleasanton, Calif., native said he’d heard positive things about Iraq from his father, who is fluent in Arabic and spent a lot of time talking to Iraqis.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the things that you don’t see on the news. My dad said: ‘Be safe and aware of anything different, but most of the people are really happy to see you and appreciate what you are doing,’” he said.
This week Curran and the rest of the 596th have been at Grafenwöhr completing the Iron Warrior training mandated for all Iraq-bound units serving under the 1st Armored Division.
Capt. Douglas Sweet, commander of the 596th, said the final part of the training involved live-fire convoys in which 20 soldiers at a time drove five Humvees and a 5-ton gun-truck down a range and reacted to a series of attacks.
The convoys had five tasks, including evacuating wounded soldiers and reacting to near and far ambushes, an improvised explosive device and a rocket-propelled grenade, he said.
During a convoy run on Thursday one of the 596th soldiers, Spc. Anthony Barefoot, 23, of North Manchester, Ind., stood up in the cab of the 5-ton gun-truck firing blank .50-caliber bullets at pop-up targets.
Barefoot also is preparing for his first Iraq mission and he said he felt ready.
“This was the sixth or seventh time I’ve done a convoy training. There is always more to learn but you feel prepared,” he said.
Between 60 and 70 percent of 596th soldiers have been to Iraq already and the unit itself deployed there in 2003, Sweet said.
The 26-year-old Albany, N.Y., native said he served in Iraq in 2003 with 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.
His unit set up a cordon during the operation in which former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was captured, he said.
“I’m interested to see how it has changed. We have got a lot of feedback from our sister companies that have recently returned from Iraq. There is a higher prevalence of IED attacks. In OIF I (Operation Iraqi Freedom I in 2003) IEDs were still becoming the main weapons. They were using a lot of small-arms fire then,” he said.
The 596th is much better equipped than Sweet was his first time in Iraq, he added.
“The vehicles we are taking to the FOB (Forward Operating Base) are all up armored. All the soldiers will travel downrange with all their body armor. I was in a Bradley unit (in 2003) and we didn’t have body armor the first time,” he said.
