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U.S. NEWS Friday 17 March 2017
US soldiers train for jungle warfare in Hawaii rainforest

long to dry. The Army is cur- a dry change of clothes to
rently developing a new wear at night and to pay
uniform and boots specifi- special attention to dry-
cally for the jungle. Instruc- ing out their feet. That’s
tors in Hawaii are testing because feet won’t heal if
out some early models. they’re continually wet. A
The soldiers have also had small cut will become in-
to adjust how they carry fected and the skin will die.
their ammunition, canteens “The minute your feet go,
and other gear. In the des- you’re done. You’re not
ert, soldiers frequently strap going to be able to func-
gear on their chests so it’s tion in the jungle,” Lopez
accessible while riding ve- said.
hicles. Soldiers must also develop
One day recently, Lopez the mental stamina to per-
watched soldiers from the
1st Stryker Brigade Combat severe in a place where
Team in Fort Wainwright, they’re constantly wet,
Alaska, practice using a thick vegetation can hide
rope and pulley to cross a the enemy and deadly
stream. The soldiers were animals may be lurking.
attending the course to get (Though soldiers are spared
Soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team participate in ready for upcoming exer- threatening animals in Ha-
jungle warfare training at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. The Army has set up a jungle training course cises in Malaysia, Thailand waii as the state has no
amid a renewed focus on Asia and the Pacific after more than a decade of war in Iraq and Af- snakes and the only native
ghanistan. and other countries in the land mammal is a small,
(AP Photo/Daniel Lin) region.
Lopez tells soldiers to keep rare bat.)
AUDREY McAVOY Spanish-American War. The
Associated Press Vietnam War was fought in
HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. the jungle.
Army soldiers finished wad- The Army gave up its jungle
ing across a stream in a training school in Panama
rainforest in Hawaii, and in 1999 when the U.S. re-
they were soaked. Their turned land there to the
boots and socks were Panamanian government.
water-logged and their Then jungle training lost
clothes, hair and ears were priority in the aftermath of
caked with mud. the Sept. 11 attacks as the
The soldiers were going Army focused on prepar-
through training at the ing soldiers to fight in Af-
first jungle school the Army ghanistan and Iraq.
has established in de- Now, surviving and fighting
cades. The course is part of in tropical rainforests has
a program to train soldiers captured the Army’s inter-
for exercises and poten- est again. In 2013, it set up
tial combat on terrain that a jungle school at Scho-
looks more like islands and field Barracks, a sprawling
nations in the Pacific than Army post some 30 miles
arid Afghanistan and the west of the soft sands of
deserts of the Middle East. Waikiki. Its dense woods
Brig. Gen. Stephen Michael, have a stream soldiers can
deputy commander of the practice crossing and cliffs
25th Infantry Division, said for rappelling.
the Army set up the school First it needed instructors.
as its footprint was shrinking The Army sent soldiers to
in Iraq and Afghanistan af- military jungle schools in
ter more than a decade of Brazil, Brunei and other
war in those countries. tropical spots to reacquire
“The jungle school long-lost skills. Instructors-
gives us that focus, it re- in-training poured over old
inforces that we’re in the Army jungle manuals.
Pacific,” Michael said. “If “We had to relearn every-
you’re in the 25th, you un- thing,” said Staff Sgt. As-
derstand you got to fight in cencion Lopez, who was
the tough environment of one of the first instructors at
the Pacific.” the school, which is part of
Ever since the turn of the the 25th Infantry Division’s
20th century, the Army Lightning Academy.
has fought in tropical rain- The soldiers quickly discov-
forests. It spent years, for ered their existing uniforms
example, battling Filipino stood out among the trees
insurgents after the 1898 and the fabric took too