Soldiers fight through Malone MOUT
Sand Hill men tackle tactics of modern battlefield

(Click on photo above for higher-resolution photo)

Soldiers from Co. A, 2-58th Infantry secure a building at the Malone MOUT training site.

Story and photo by Pfc. Brian Trapp/The Bayonet

FORT BENNING, Ga. (TRADOC News Service, April 18, 2003) -- Infantry Training Brigade’s Soldiers are learning the skills used in rescuing prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch and taking over the Iraqi regime during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Soldiers of A Company, 2nd Battalion, 58th Infantry Regiment, set out to learn critical infantry tactical skills, close combat and fighting in an urban setting at the Malone MOUT site Tuesday.

“Combat has moved away from the jungles,” said Sgt. Ryan Shirley, MOUT instructor. “When you can send in a small number of troops to decimate a large number of the enemy, it’s going to take a lot of training.”

With the chance of having to use this training in the future, meeting the standards were on the minds of many of the Soldiers.

“Going through the training makes it more true than when I watched it in the movies,” said Pvt. Mike Greenwood, 2nd Bn., 58th Inf. Regt. “Knowing the guys doing this for real right now had this same training makes me proud and want to train harder.”

“It’s harder than it looks, everyone has to be on the same page,” said Pvt. Kavon Ford. “Teamwork is the most difficult part. Learning to count on my teammates makes my job easier.”

The tactics used carry over in their Soldier skills, agility, security and, probably the most important, team movement, Shirley said. Until now, the Soldiers have been depending on platoons. Working in four-man teams is pretty difficult for some of them.

“In a line unit, the ability to move as a team is No. 1,” Shirley said. “A team is like a family; the squad and platoons are like the extended family. Once the Soldiers are in a designated team, they learn together as a unit, and they’ll know their team well enough to be able to anticipate what they will do.”

Greenwood said the training is organized and lays out everyone’s role before Soldiers even enter a building. “I’m confident I could do it successfully with some more training,” he said.

The Soldiers learned movements that would be used in close quarters combat. Discriminating targets and engaging an enemy less than 12 meters away, Soldiers could be firing from as little as two feet from the enemy.

Combat is pushing more toward urban areas as cities grow. Now there are a lot more noncombatants on the battlefield, Shirley said.

The Soldiers learned how to enter and clear rooms, move around buildings and across roads.

“When I went through this training,” Shirley said, “I didn’t learn or remember enough from my training, so it was tougher for me down the road. “I try my best to fill them with my experience to help them learn. I try to make it fun enough that they maintain their military bearing, but still interesting enough that they'll remember the class.”

More than 800 Soldiers train at Malone MOUT every month, and that number could quadruple during the summer surge.