Newhouse News Services

WASHINGTON – No matter how many U.S. combat troops in Iraq eventually are replaced by Iraqis, an especially difficult and risky mission will remain an American responsibility: convoy duty.

The reality behind President Bush’s assertion this week that Iraqi units are increasingly capable of standing on their own is that none can operate without heavy and sustained logistics support from the United States, according to military assessments.

This means the American soldiers who drive and guard convoys – troops drawn mostly from Army Reserve and National Guard units that already have seen hard duty in Iraq – will be exposed to highly dangerous conditions there for the foreseeable future.

Every day, more than 1,000 trucks in long-haul convoys are on Iraq’s roads delivering the fuel, spare parts, ammunition, boots, medical supplies, food and water on which both U.S. and Iraqi forces depend. Thousands more keep far-flung American Forward Operating Bases supplied with rations, water and ammunition.

The crawling lines are guarded by Humvees and armored combat vehicles, often with attack helicopters overhead. Convoys endure a steady drumbeat of sniper fire, ambushes, suicide vehicle attacks, roadside bombings and other assaults, and bear a major share of U.S. combat deaths and injuries. For security reasons, the Pentagon does not segregate convoy casualty data.

Approaching the third anniversary of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Bush repeated this week that “as Iraqis stand up, America and our coalition will stand down,” his formulation for replacing Americans in combat with Iraqis and bringing the troops home. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, meanwhile, said that “some 100 Iraqi battalions are in the fight against the terrorists, and 49 control their own battle space.”

But by the Pentagon’s own analysis, there are significant caveats.

In a wide-ranging assessment of the war, mandated by Congress, the Defense Department reported last month on the steadily growing numbers of Iraqi units taking to the field. Deep in the fine print, however, it warned that Iraq’s forces remain “largely dependent” on the United States for logistics supply and support.

The problem is not just lack of trucks, drivers and security, but organization up to the defense ministry level, the Pentagon said.

It rated not one unit capable of fully independent operations, and added, “It will take some time before a substantial number of units are assessed as fully independent and requiring no assistance.”

And at present, Iraqis are not being prepared to take over convoy operations, U.S. Army transportation officers say. Instead, the Army is training increasing numbers of its own soldiers for convoy duty, once seen as a relatively soft “support” function and now viewed as a full-fledged combat assignment.

“We typically are the first ones in and the last ones out” of a war zone, said Col. Mike Dooley of the U.S. Army Transportation Corps, headquartered at Fort Eustis, Va.

Of Iraq, he added, “We will be there as long as the war goes on.”

Dooley said he has urged the Army to begin readying the Iraqis to run their own convoys. “That hasn’t happened yet,” he said.

The military freight that must eventually move by truck in Iraq is substantial. About 1,700 truckloads a month come by air to logistics bases in Kuwait or Qatar for onward shipment by air or truck. More tonnage comes by sea. Separately, Air Force C-130 and C-17 cargo planes land about 580 truckloads monthly at airstrips in Iraq, as close to troops as possible.

“By moving more cargo via airlift, we are able to reduce the number of vehicles, drivers and escorts exposed to the risk of enemy attack,” said Brig. Gen. Darren McDew, director of mobility forces for U.S. Central Command Air Forces.

But all cargo must move at least some distance by truck. Managing the convoys becomes the responsibility of the thousands of officers and enlisted soldiers graduating from the Army’s convoy courses.

Today every basic trainee is taught convoy combat operations in anticipation of duty in Iraq. “We’re sending them out into the wild, wild west, so we’ve got to prepare them,” said Lt. Col. Chris Rizzo, a battalion commander overseeing live-fire convoy training at Fort Jackson, S.C.

At the Army’s transportation center at Fort Eustis, Lt. Col. Andrew Peters, 39, chief of officer education, rides his students hard. As they prepare a training convoy, he barks, “Do you have a combat life saver? Have you looked in his bag to see if he’s got IV solution?”

“I can’t teach them every situation they will run into in Iraq,” said Peters, whose elbow was shattered in an attack on his convoy in Iraq in August 2003. “They do need technical know-how – how to call in a medevac – but mostly what I teach them is attention to detail.”