Day 2: Training turns into ‘hurry up and wait’

A diverse group
Nearly 1,000 Army officers who remained in the Individual Ready Reserve past their eight-year obligations have served in Iraq since the war began, according to the Army’s Human Resources Command.

Deierlein was struck by the diversity of the 50 or so officers who reported for duty with him on Nov. 13, 2005. The group included some executives, an investment banker, two policemen, a firefighter, a U.S. air marshal, two lawyers, a judge, a Home Depot store manager, a real estate agent, a chemist, a journalist, a couple of students and an engineer.

“Too many have small children — even a few newborns,” Deierlein wrote in his first monthly e-mail update to his friends and family.

The angst and emotional turmoil were palpable among the officers — one of the first groups of reserve soldiers to be given a choice, albeit a last-minute one, to resign their commissions and leave or to stay and go to Iraq.

All but a couple decided to stay, including Billeter.

Hilferty, the Army spokesman, acknowledged that these officers found themselves in a tough spot.

“It would be hard to be there and (to have) told all your friends you’re going and then to go back home,” he said.

But he denied there was any attempt to pressure the ready reservists.

“It wasn’t our policy to tell people (at Fort Jackson) to trick them into going,” Hilferty said. “That would have been reprehensible.”

‘Welcome back training’
The officers spent 10 days at Fort Jackson receiving what Deierlein called “welcome back training”: brushing up on first aid and mapping skills, relearning how to shoot 9mm pistols and M-16 rifles, memorizing dozens of confusing acronyms and abbreviations that would become everyday terms when they reached Iraq.

Courtesy of Tom Deierlein Officers practice clearing buildings during their 'welcome back training' at Fort Jackson, S.C., in November 2005.

They also had to start jogging and doing sit-ups and push-ups again. Many of the reservists, now well into their 30s and 40s, couldn’t pass their first physical fitness test. One weighed more than 250 pounds and had a heart stent.

Deierlein had a history of being fit — running cross-country, summiting Mount Rainier — but he hadn’t worked out consistently for years. He knew he needed to lose some weight and get back into shape. While he did pass that initial physical fitness test, those early days of training tested his confidence.

“Still feel a bit like a fish out of some partly familiar waters,” Deierlein wrote to friends and family. “More than anything I am annoyed that I can’t do some of the things I used to do in my sleep.”

He could run a mile in 6:30, but he couldn’t manage a single pull-up. He could shoot at expert level with a 9mm pistol, but he barely qualified with the M-16.

After a few days off for Thanksgiving, the reservists reported to Fort Bragg, N.C., where they would live in World War II barracks and receive the remainder of their training before deployment. A few of them would be sent to Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa, but most were bound for Iraq. The soldiers had  five months to prepare themselves to survive in a war zone.

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