Division's soldiers prepare for changing Iraq

Eds: UPDATES with comments from officers, soldiers, background on deployment, training exercise; ADDS byline, Internet note.

By JOHN MILBURN

Associated Press Writer

FORT RILEY, Kan. (AP) -- In the coming months, the 1st Infantry Division will roll up its "Big Red One" flag and plant it in Iraq for a year, the scene of a fight that's slowly becoming America's other war.

It's far from the war that many officers and soldiers of the division fought just a few years back. But none of them have a problem with that new reality.

As the 1st Infantry Division's commanding general and his staff prepare for their upcoming turn in Iraq, the nation's focus has shifted to what was once considered "the other war" being fought in Afghanistan.

"It's a different environment that we're going into," Maj. Gen. Vincent Brooks said Wednesday. "It's easy to lose focus on the work to be done when it's not the primary focus. Afghanistan is the primary focus."

President Barack Obama is considering recommendations from Gen. Stanley McChrystal to change the strategy in Afghanistan, including a request to increase troop levels from between 10,000 to 60,000. At the same time, the U.S. continues to wind down Iraq operations, eyeing a near complete withdraw of combat forces by the end of 2011.

Brooks will lead about 850 soldiers who will provide command and control over coalition forces from a base in Basra in southern Iraq, an area that comprises nine provinces. U.S. forces will remain in an advise and assist role as Iraq holds national elections and takes steps closer to full transition of security to its forces.

Afghanistan is not unlike the situation the 1st Infantry's 4th Brigade found in Iraq in 2007, when it was part of Gen. David Petraeus' surge.

"When 4th Brigade deployed, we were in a crisis situation in Iraq," Brooks said.

Much has changed militarily and politically in Iraq since then. The brigade is back in Iraq in more subdued role with the general reminding his troops to have an open mind and "whatever your last experience in Iraq was is just your last experience in Iraq."

"We're always training for uncertainty," he said.

Col. Richard Piscal, the division's chief of staff, added: "Less kinetic is a good thing."

The division headquarters was busy Wednesday as soldiers and officers neared the end of a mission readiness exercise. It is the division's final test before it deploys, encompassing three months of activities compressed into eight days. Many got by on four hours of sleep and were back to work, much like schedules they will soon keep.

Units from the 3rd Armored Division and 4th Infantry Division traveled to Fort Riley to participate. They will be working under the division's command in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Mike Mammay, deputy commander of 4th Infantry's 3rd Brigade from Fort Collins, Colo., doesn't expect Iraq to be much different from he left it in May.

"We're not expecting a lot of surprises. The challenge is the draw down (of U.S. forces) and how that goes," Mammay said. "There will be risk associated with that."

Sgt. Maj. David Santos has seen Iraq twice and Afghanistan once as an infantryman -- and a lot of time away from his wife and three kids in seven years of marriage. He's on division staff now and thinks that will be more challenging because of the new responsibilities.

Santos was in on the initial invasion of Iraq and back again when violence was high.

He said it is now at the "best it's been in the last five or six years. I look forward to seeing that," he said. "Afghanistan, there was an eye-opener. I'm not disappointed that I'm going to Iraq."

He knows that he will have to return to Afghanistan, as will many soldiers in the coming years.

"I hate to use the word routine, but it's almost become routine. It's a necessary evil in our nation's history."

Mammy calls it "a good news story" that the nation's focus isn't on Iraq. But he's realistic about what the future brings and how many deployments -- including Afghanistan -- are in the offing.

"Most of us didn't sign up for this to take it easy," he said. "Things could change. We could wake up tomorrow and have new orders. We go where the Army tells us."

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On the Net:

1st Infantry Division: http://www.1id.army.mil