Troops hit midwest before Middle EastAbout 2,500 senior noncommissioned officers and officers from the Army – all components, all branches and all military occupational specialties, Navy and Air Force have gone through the training for deployments to Afghanistan or Iraq since it became the mission of Fort Riley's 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division. Disaster preparedness tested nationwideThe Departments of Defense and Homeland Security used the month of May to test themselves, other federal agencies, state governments and local emergency first responders in dealing with the consequences of a nuclear disaster in Indiana, a Category 3 hurricane wracking New England and a series of terrorist attacks in Alaska. Army loans equipment for hurricane responseThe Army is helping U.S. states and territories that are in the paths of potentially deadly hurricanes by providing equipment to fill shortages identified by National Guard commanders there, a senior Army official said June 1. Iraqi forces ‘couple years’ away from full controlBrig. Gen. Dana Pittard, speaking in a video-teleconference with reporters at the Pentagon in his last days as commander of the Iraq Assistance Group, said he thinks it will take a couple of years before the Iraqi security forces are going to be able to fully take control of the security situation in Iraq. Soldiers learn survival techniquesSgt. 1st Class D.L. Smith ran fuel operations when he was Iraq; but on this clear spring morning at Fort Riley, Kan., he is training two dozen young soldiers in the 1st Infantry Division how to safely exit a turned over humvee. |