Soldiers given driving lessons

FORT DRUM — With 3,500 soldiers just returning from 15 months in Iraq, the Safety Division here has its hands full with reintegrating them into a civilian world and driving skills.

"Once you've been deployed for a year to 15 months, you haven't touched a car in that amount of time," said David C. Mushtare, the senior safety director at Fort Drum. "We don't want them to come back and jump into their vehicles and crash. It also gives us a chance to teach them new regulations here at Drum or new laws out there in the civilian world."

The safety day Thursday brought soldiers from the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion to Old Post and the simulator building that houses, for the lack of a better description, interactive video games. Soldiers took turns using computers as well as motorcycle and car simulators to test their driving skills.

"I wrecked a lot, and I've never really gotten into an accident before," said Pfc. Zach S. Willingham, who tested himself on the personal vehicle simulator. "It gives us things to look for and be aware of."

Most of the soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team will go on their 30-day block leave in the next week — and some will be going toward warmer climates and jumping on a soldier's favorite toy, a motorcycle.

"For the younger soldier, they like the speed and freedom of motorcycles," said William S. Del Solar, the assistant safety officer for the division. "In part, we are trying to modify that behavior that a soldier can have of, 'I just got back from combat.'"

A recent study conducted by the Combat Readiness/Safety Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., found that roadways in the States are becoming increasingly dangerous for soldiers compared with roadways in a war zone. According to the study, 51 soldiers died in motorcycle accidents in 2008, up from 38 in 2007.

One of those soldiers was Staff Sgt. Stephen Goodman, a member of the 10th Sustainment Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. Sgt. Goodman struck a utility pole in North Carolina when he was on leave in October.

On the other hand, vehicle accidents in Iraq and Afghanistan are on the decline. There were only seven deaths as a result of an accident in a Humvee or truck in 2008, down from 11 in 2007.

A 40-foot trailer was parked outside the main simulator building, where weapons training also takes place. The trailer was home to two large driving simulators that can bring any kind of driving situation, in any kind of vehicle, to life.

"They have certain rules of the road in military combat, and when they drive over there, they forget the rules of the road here," said George Perez, an instructor with MRPI L3 Communications, who gave the briefing to the soldiers before and after the trailer simulation. "They are more prone to accidents when they come back, and we have to try to get them acclimated to here again."

The driving simulators give soldiers a real sense of what it is like to drive in snow and other road conditions that are the norm in the north country. The simulators also are used in pre-deployment training and have prepared soldiers for rollovers during an improvised explosive device attack.

"A combat loss is a combat loss," Mr. Mushtare said. "What I mean by that is whether a soldier is killed in combat or in an accident where that soldier never made it to the battlefield, that accident becomes a combat loss."