Article Photos

The sharp cracking sound of rifle fire filled the air as a group of soldiers dashed across the snowy field.

A few of the soldiers flopped onto the frigid ground and brought their rifles up to fire at the enemy as their buddies continued running.

A swirling cloud of yellow mist from a smoke grenade enveloped the soldiers.

Then, shouts of ''cease fire'' ended the battle as suddenly as it began.

That order to stop shooting concluded one of many training exercises completed Saturday in Fort Dodge by the Iowa Army National Guard.

About 70 soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 194th Field Artillery based in Fort Dodge spent the day practicing what the Army calls Warrior Tasks.

The troops crawled through the snow, reacted to ambushes by colleagues portraying the enemy and dragged men pretending to be wounded away from the battlefield. In the process, they fired thousands of rounds of blank ammunition.

''It's a lot better than sitting in an armory behind a PowerPoint,'' said Capt. Matthew Guerttman, the commander of the field artillery battery.

''It's a good morale booster,'' he added. ''You don't always get to play in the snow, but it's fun when you do.''

The homeland security training area along Avenue O was the setting for the mock battles. That property is owned by the city while Iowa Central Community College manages the training programs there. A fire training tower on the grounds became a perch for soldiers portraying enemy snipers.

Saturday's training was one of a series of exercises intended to get the entire 1st Battalion, 194th Field Artillery prepared for a possible mission to Afghanistan.

''We actually have no official deployment orders,'' said Brig. Gen. Timothy Orr, the adjutant general of the Iowa National Guard.

He stopped by to observe part of the training because, he said, as the state's top National Guard officer he has a responsibility to certify that Iowa's troops are prepared to handle any mission.

The orders to send the battalion, which has other armories in Algona, Estherville, Spencer and Storm Lake, to Afghanistan may come in late summer or early fall. Until the day those orders actually arrive, it's a ''wait and see game,'' Orr said.

The soldiers aren't waiting idly for their orders to Afghanistan. On Saturday, troops from every unit that makes up the field artillery battalion were training. And those activities weren't the end of that training. In every coming month, the soldiers will gather to practice more and more complicated military skills. This summer, the soldiers will travel to Camp Ripley, Minn., for intensive annual training.

The goal, Orr said, is to reach a high standard of proficiency before the possible deployment to Afghanistan.

In Fort Dodge, the training began with some basic skills like crawling. The way soldiers crawl isn't for babies, however. When bullets and shrapnel are flying, hugging Mother Earth is essential to survival. So on Saturday morning the troops were flat on the ground, so low that their helmets created furrows in the snow as they slithered along.

Next, they practiced advancing in teams of two, firing on an unseen enemy. One soldier would shoot, while the other ran. They advanced across the field, taking turns shooting and running.

During what Guerttman called the ''battle drill'' the troops squared off against the enemy in an exercise that covered much of the training ground.

A squad of about nine soldiers moved toward the training tower, trading shots with the bad guys, hiding behind vehicles, and using smoke grenades to conceal their movements.

Staff Sgt, Robert Higgins, of Fort Dodge, said that during the exercise experienced soldiers and new members of the unit learn from each other.

''It's good to get out of the armory and get these guys dirty,'' he said. ''This training does serve a serious purpose.''

Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net