Morale is high and training has been top-notch as members of the 115th Fires Brigade deploy to Kuwait this week after several weeks at Fort Hood in Texas.
That’s the opinion of Dan Coe of Lovell, who recently made two trips to Texas to visit his two sons, Brian and Shawn, in June prior to their departure overseas. Both are members of the 2-300th Field Artillery.
Coe first attended the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Boss Lift June 1-2, where he was able to see firsthand how the soldiers were training for their 10-month mission providing security for convoys running from Kuwait to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Then Dan and Patty Coe traveled to Fort Hood for the June 21 Deployment Ceremony, followed by four days with their sons in San Antonio on a four-day pass every soldier received prior to deployment.
“From both visits I had, my take on it was that the facilities there were in good shape at North Fort Hood (where Reserve and National Guard units train),” Dan Coe said. “The barracks were in good shape, the chow halls were in excellent shape and chow was good.
“A number of the guys commented, and I witnessed, too, that a lot of the training was detailed and excellent.”
Coe said he witnessed the soldiers undergoing close-quarters combat training for situations like entering a house, including live-fire drills where soldiers are taught to quickly diagnose whether a person is friend or foe.
“That kind of training was reserved for special ops five years ago,” Coe said. “A number of guys commented that their training has been far superior to their first deployment.”
Because the soldiers will be providing security for convoys, much of their training has centered on IED Defeat – how to find, identify and destroy improvised explosive devices along convoy routes, Coe said. He noted that the current Humvees the soldiers ride in have much more armor plating than previous models.
“They’ve beefed them up considerably,” Coe said.
The 2-300th Field Artillery will provide convoy security from Camp Virginia in Kuwait to various locations in Iraq and back again.
“That’s why there’s so much training on IEDs,” Coe said. “The unit they’re replacing has been there since November and hasn’t had an IED incident. Things are a lot more secure, but they’re not immune to problems that can arise.”
Coe noted that special advance teams go ahead of the convoy to sweep for IEDs.
Morale high
There are more than 10,000 soldiers at Camp Virginia in Kuwait at any given time, Coe said, noting that the base is a “full-service base with full amenities.”
Morale was excellent last week as the deployment approached, he said.
“They feed the soldiers well and they’re happy,” he said. “They’re homesick – who wouldn’t be? – but they have good facilities, good training and good food. The 2-300th is all from Wyoming, so they know each other. They truly are a band of brothers.
“The commanders repeatedly have said that ‘our mission is to run an efficient operation in the theater according to our orders and to bring everyone home safely.’ And to do that, they have to watch out for each other. It’s engrained in them. They believe it and they live it.”
Coe said the 115th started flying to Kuwait on Monday, June 29, deploying in waves. There are some 2,500 soldiers in the 115th, he said, including some 700 from Wyoming, which has the largest group. Around 38 soldiers are from Big Horn County. Other troops are from South Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado and Alabama.
The overall commander of the 115th Fires Brigade is from Wyoming – Col. Richard Knowlton.
By the end of the four-day pass last Thursday, June 25, reality had set in among the soldiers, Coe said, noting that the attitude was: “We’re ready, it’s time to go get our mission done and get home.” Current orders call for the soldiers to return in mid-April of 2010.
The Coes
The deployment is the second for Brian Coe, a 2005 Lovell High School graduate. He served in Kirkuk in the north of Iraq during his first deployment. He was overseas for about a year, from April of 2006 to April of 2007. He then attended the University of Wyoming for two years, majoring in criminal justice. He plans to resume his college studies in the fall of 2010.
It is the first deployment for Shawn Coe, a 2007 LHS graduate. After high school, he was hired full time by the Wyoming National Guard as an armorer in charge of weapons including maintenance and repair. He could remain in the Guard or go to college when he returns, his father said.
Both brothers are top gunners as part of three-man Humvee crews, Brian with Company B out of Lander and Shawn with Company C out of Worland.
Coe said he is proud of the soldiers fighting in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
“They’ve sacrificed a huge amount of their life to provide for our freedom,” he said. “It will be 120 degrees in the middle of a sand storm and they’ll say, ‘What the heck am I doing here?’ But they do it and they do it well.
“I hear over and over how much respect there is for Wyoming troops, their work ethic, efficiency, performance of their missions and assignments and their camaraderie.”