MRAPS and horseback

MRAPs reducing IED deaths in Afghanistan

Vehicles have reduced deaths and injuries by 30 percent since 2009
By Tom Vanden Brook - USA TODAY
Posted : Tuesday Sep 7, 2010 13:38:22 EDT

WASHINGTON — The military’s new armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in Afghanistan are significantly reducing troop deaths in roadside attacks at a time when insurgent bombings are at record levels, according to statistics provided to USA TODAY.

Deaths of U.S. and allied troops fell from 76 in July 2009 to 57 in July of this year, according to the military command in Afghanistan.

Nearly 80 percent of roadside bomb attacks on Humvees from January 2009 through the end of July 2010 killed occupants, according to Air Force Maj. Michael Johnson, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, the top command in Afghanistan. That figure dropped to 15 percent for attacks on MRAP vehicles, and an all-terrain MRAP model tailor-made for Afghanistan’s rugged terrain. The trucks are designed to shield people from roadside bomb blasts.
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MRAPs reducing IED deaths in Afghanistan

Ft. Carson Special Forces train on horseback

By Lance Benzel - The (Colorado Springs) Gazette via AP
Posted : Tuesday Sep 7, 2010 13:37:49 EDT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Before dawn one recent morning, as much of the city slept, a small group of elite Fort Carson soldiers was choppered onto a mountain clearing near Colorado Springs and left to find its way down — in the dark, on horseback.

It’s an image straight out of a military thriller, but it’s exactly how Green Berets from the post’s 10th Special Forces Group have been training for upcoming operations.

The horsemanship training at the Stables at the Broadmoor — which began in late July and concluded last week — offers a rare glimpse at what the unit expects on the battlefield.

Not that you’ll hear that from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

“This is basic training for Special Forces,” said 10th Special Forces Group spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Osterholzer, downplaying the maneuvers as “standard stuff” for soldiers who use nontraditional means to get in and out of the hostile areas where they battle insurgents under the cloak of secrecy.
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Ft. Carson Special Forces train on horseback