But the demands of Iraq — where insurgents attack U.S. convoys with roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and suicide vehicles — mean the 3rd ID is going there anything but light. It's bringing its 70-ton Abrams tanks and its armored Bradley troop carriers, the kind of bulk the Pentagon was pulling out of Iraq a year ago in favor of quicker, lighter vehicles. The division's convoy trucks and Humvees sport new steel cladding. Maj. Russ Goemaere, the 2nd Brigade spokesman, says troops will drive no unarmored vehicles in Iraq except for those that never leave military compounds.
The division's vehicles are so heavy they would destroy roads if they drove. Rail lines taking them to port offer an intimidating display. Fresh desert-tan paint can't hide the heft riding on hundreds of flatbed cars.
The Humvees in particular show how experience in Iraq has translated into metal. Gone are the canvas-like doors that were standard equipment. In their place are windowless steel panels that go about three-fourths of the way to the roof. The gaps at the top are shaped so soldiers can fire across a wide angle, as insurgents pop out of doorways or alleys.
The attacks can come “out of basically anywhere,” says Staff Sgt. Leo Levesque, 29, of Benton, Ill., a veteran of the 3rd ID's first deployment. “You could be down a street 1,000 times and then, on that one day—” Levesque leaves the sentence incomplete.
The division is bringing all its 155mm Paladin howitzers: 32-ton, tanklike mobile guns that can fire explosive salvos 15 miles. It's a lot more artillery than is probably needed, but Lt. Col. Merkel says the Paladins are extra insurance and more armored protection for the unit's troops.
When the 3rd ID was rushing north along the Euphrates River in March and April of 2003, there was a front line. Troops to the rear were protected behind it. It's one of the many characteristics of the Iraq war then that no longer apply today.
Advance teams from the 3rd ID's home here are scheduled to fly to Kuwait after Christmas, followed shortly by the rest of the division. Unless there's an emergency, the division convoy won't reach Iraq before the elections Jan. 30. But over its yearlong deployment, one of the 3rd ID's chief missions will be to get control over the insurgency in central Iraq in time for further Iraqi elections planned for next summer.
The 3rd ID, which still carries the World War I moniker “Rock of the Marne” for its stoic defense of that French territory from the Germans, prides itself as a division of warriors. They are, says the division song every member must memorize, “dog-faced soldiers.” Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of World War II, was a member of the 3rd ID.
The fighting aura is so persistent that commanders regularly put down rumors here that the division isn't really going back to Iraq but is getting ready to invade someplace else — Iran? Syria? — in the war on terrorism.
