1st Infantry Division soldiers at Fort Riley train for their year-long mission.
Somehow it makes me feel a bit better to read about soldiers training to replace the soldiers there now.
Soldiers from a 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery platoon practiced Friday morning under 1st Division Road. As officers and reporters looked down from the overpass, a six-vehicle convoy crept around a curve. It stopped well short of the overpass, and soldiers jumped from their vehicles to look for anyone who might lie in ambush.
Minivans, cars and gravel trucks kept rumbling along the overpass. Trainers didn't stop them, because the soldiers will have to watch out for enemies amid the bustle of civilian life when they reach Iraq.
The soldiers quickly noticed Pvt. Matthew Witherspoon, who was loitering on the overpass. Witherspoon, dressed in a sweat suit, was playing the part of an Iraqi guerrilla. For all the platoon knew, he was simply a civilian.
"Remove your hands from your pockets," a soldier shouted as his colleagues trained rifles on Witherspoon from a distance.
"Huh?" Witherspoon replied, and the soldier repeated the command.
In an instant, Witherspoon pulled his hand free and hurled a dummy grenade. The soldiers, their rifles loaded with blanks, answered with a stream of gunfire until Witherspoon fell.
But the soldiers still couldn't assume they were safe. They moved slowly over and under the road with their rifles pointed in every direction until the convoy passed safely, 15 minutes after it had first stopped. Another soldier playing an enemy was hidden in nearby trees, but he never came out.
"They did everything right, so he ran away," Maj. Marty Leners said.
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