FT. IRWIN, Calif. — Weekend warriors no more, the stockbroker, the motorcycle cop and the carpenter were undergoing intense training last week for their new mission as part of an occupation army in Iraq.
They were busy cordoning off villages, detecting homemade bombs, negotiating with Muslim religious leaders, enduring anti-American taunts from hostile crowds and engaging in other military exercises here at the Army's National Training Center in the Mojave Desert.
The three Californians -- Palm Desert stockbroker Barry Sayers, Fresno Police Officer Robert Espinoza and Hemet carpenter Mark Reed -- are part of the biggest rotation of National Guard forces into a foreign combat zone since the Korean War. Several thousand National Guard soldiers assigned to the 81st Armor Brigade are training at Ft. Irwin until mid-March, when they will ship out to Iraq.
By April 15, Pentagon officials say, about 40% of the 110,000-plus U.S. force in Iraq will be National Guard members or reservists. They leave behind family and jobs for perilous overseas duties not performed by American soldiers since the occupations of Japan and Germany after World War II.
In Iraq, the National Guard's mission is to provide security until the Iraqi military and police can do it on their own. Although the Bush administration has pledged to turn over political control in Iraq by the end of June, the National Guard assignment, which includes a total of 2,000 troops from California, half of whom are already in Iraq, is scheduled to last at least until spring 2005.
In a training exercise last week, Sayers got a taste of the frustration that may lie ahead as he stood atop a Ft. Irwin hill watching soldiers under his command get ensnared by a mob posing as angry Iraqis. Lt. Col. Sayers is commander of the 600-soldier 1st Battalion, 185th Armor Regiment headquartered in San Bernardino.
The exercise was designed to teach the soldiers how to surround an Iraqi village and search for hidden weapons. The unit's first attempt at this failed.
Some of Sayers' 185th guardsmen appeared more prepared than others.
Reed, 45, a father of four, marveled at the idea of crossing oceans to a foreign land.
"I've been to Catalina; that's as far out to sea as I've been," said Reed, a sergeant. Before this, he said, his main duties during his 11-year stint in the National Guard have been to help fight California forest fires.
