TRAIN AS YOU FIGHT

That is the mantra of Army training. This is a great article on the training being given all National Guardsmen at Camp Grafton training area in North Dakota. Training that prepares them for the non-traditional enemies in Iraq.

It used to be that Camp Grafton personnel would drive into Devils Lake to dryclean the cooks' uniforms, said Lt. Col. Adams. Now, any time any vehicle leaves camp, it must be in, at a minimum, a three-vehicle convoy -- two of the vehicles being armed Humvees called "gun ships."

"Devils Lake in our scenario is considered just like a Fallujah," Adams said, referring to the restive Iraqi city.

Guardsmen regularly drive to the south end of the camp in convoys, where they are ambushed by teams of three to seven experienced Guardsmen role-playing insurgents, according to Maj. Jeff Holzworth, the 164th's executive officer. They set up improvised explosive devices, hiding them in a carcass of a dead animal or in a pop can, just as in Iraq. They shoot guns and rocket-propelled grenades. They strike at inopportune times such as at corners and intersections, just as in Iraq.

The point Holzworth said, is to train Guardsmen to look for unusual signs that indicate an ambush.