Training reflects reality for combat vets

Training reflects reality for combat vets
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, February 29, 2008


HOHENFELS, Germany — A training scenario in which a “car bomb” blew up a bus load of Iraqi civilians was nothing new to some of the 18th Engineer Brigade soldiers involved in cleaning up the mess.

Many of the soldiers participating in the training at Hohenfels Joint Multinational Readiness Center are combat veterans who have responded to real mass casualty events in Iraq.

“I can’t count how many times I’ve seen it,” said 370th Engineer Company soldier Spc. Merit Draven, 28, of Sonora, Calif.

During this predeployment training, Draven helped treat simulated wounds that ranged from mutilating blast injuries to amputations and abdominal wounds. But, he added, he’s seen worse.

“I have seen 40 or 50 people (injured) at a time from suicide bombers and IEDs (improvised explosive devices),” he said.

Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Mann, of the 54th Engineer Battalion, said his unit took 14 casualties in a rocket attack on Camp Ramadi in March 2006.

“I was one of them. I had shrapnel wounds,” said the 40-year-old Camarillo, Calif., native, adding that soldiers who helped him and other victims did an outstanding job and everyone who got hurt in the blast survived.

Maj. Damon Knarr, 32, of Merritt Island, Fla., a JMRC observer controller training the engineers, said the car-bomb scenario was a surprise thrown into a route-clearance training mission.

“The VBIED (vehicle borne improvised explosive device) went off in front of their convoy while they were doing route clearance. There were four civilians killed and 10 wounded,” he said.
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