Fort Hood units heading to Calif. for training in 2014 [View all]

[unhappycamper]

http://kdhnews.com/military/fort-hood-units-heading-to-calif-for-training-in/article_a8ce6b5e-4e86-11e3-9e71-0019bb30f31a.html

Fort Hood units heading to Calif. for training in 2014
Posted: Saturday, November 16, 2013 4:30 am
Rose L Thayer

Despite the fears of another round of sequestration looming, two Fort Hood units said they are still on target for rotations at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., in early 2014.

Last month, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno surprised people when he said the Army only has two brigade combat teams trained and ready for combat operations. If sequestration continues, the general said he will focus 2014 training dollars to get seven brigades ready, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Nov. 7.

Combat training centers are one of the key ways the Army validates units, and seven rotations to the National Training Center were canceled because of budget constraints in fiscal year 2013.

“Usually, it’s a force of about 5,000 to 8,000 men and women who go there, who get a chance to train and really get certified in the kind of operations that we think they might have to deploy and do, so we weren’t able to do that,” Odierno said.




unhappycamper comment: The last time I was in Ft. Hood and went to California, I ended up on a troopship to Nam. We hit 40 foot swells a few hundred miles north of Hawaii and most of us puked our brains out to Subic Bay. One more day to puke and we were off to the sunny beaches of Da Nang.

Once we got to Da Nang, the 198th Light Infantry Brigade was loaded on LSTs for our ride to Chu Lai. That was another puke-fest.

The highlight of my first tour was Tet.

The highlight of my second tour was invading Cambodia.