The Drill at Ft. Benning: ‘Waiting to See Who Goes’

The boys have their game faces on, grim expressions of seriousness, determination and fear.

On the sun-spackled courtyards of the Army base, in stores like Tommy’s Tattoos and Ranger Joe’s, in the linoleum-floored hallways of the ‘50s-era buildings, anticipation hangs heavy in the air.

Some soldiers want to bang heads. Others are hoping for cruise missiles to do the job. All say they’re ready--and waiting.

“The anger is building,” said Robin Sanders, 23, an Army Ranger from Rock Falls, Ill. “That’s good and that’s bad. You have guys that just want to get over to wherever and kill, kill, kill. But that could be dangerous. We’re just waiting to see who goes.”

At Ft. Benning, the training center for the Army’s 60,000-strong infantry, the talk Thursday centered on who might be sent to fight the new kind of war President Bush has vowed to launch against terrorists.

Like the rest of the country, soldiers are watching TV religiously, trying to figure out what form of military action is in store. The base here, along the Georgia-Alabama line, is home to the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry, the 36th Engineer Group and one of the nation’s three Ranger battalions. All could be among the first troops deployed, depending on the mission.

The Pentagon said Thursday that the first light-infantry troops have been deployed, but wouldn’t say who or where.

“We don’t know any more than you do,” said Rich McDowell, a Ft. Benning spokesman. “There has been no massing of troops.”

Officials at several other army bases, including Ft. Bragg, N.C., and Ft. Campbell, Ky., also reported a wait-and-see mode.

But the Army has all but promised a ground war, and that is reflected in the high level of security alert on Army bases, an increased intensity of training, and murmurs among senior officers who have been through this before. Military strategists say infantry and special forces will be key in a successful assault aimed at capturing or killing terrorist group leader Osama bin Laden and crushing his base of operations in Afghanistan.

“My gut says I’m gonna see some action,” said Pfc. James Rodgers of Chicago. “Of course I’m scared. Anybody who says they’re not is lying.”

On Thursday afternoon, Rodgers slipped into Ranger Joe’s military surplus store to buy a few items, including a video on hand-to-hand combat. A 19-year-old infantryman, he had just finished paratrooper training in the morning.

“It was scary as hell,” he said about his last jump, done in the middle of the night. “But now I’m ready.”

Ft. Benning, the nation’s only jump school, is where Navy SEALs, Marine reconnaissance officers, Army Rangers and all other elite troops learn the skills of a paratrooper.

Three 250-foot training towers cast long shadows across the base. A few soldiers practiced jumps Thursday and the pop-pop-pop of rifle fire from a nearby range could be heard for miles.

The base is a city within a city, 290 square miles and home to 40,000 people, most of them active duty soldiers.

Though fearful of the unknown, many soldiers said they wanted to avenge the attacks last week thought to have claimed the lives of more than 6,000 civilians.

“You can tell these kids are paying extra attention now during training exercises,” McDowell said. “This is a real mission.”

At Ranger Joe’s, just outside the base’s gates, one of the hottest selling items is a T-shirt with a picture of Bin Laden with a bull’s-eye on his forehead.

“One shot, one kill,” the shirt says.

Clerk Gene Behrends, a Gulf War veteran, said soldiers are pumping themselves up for what could be a “wicked fight” against Bin Laden and other terrorists.

“I remember how this was,” said Behrends, who said he fought with the 82nd Airborne in Iraq. “This is the grand adventure. The ultimate test. It’s what these guys always wanted but also what they were always afraid of.”

Especially their mothers.

Jean True drove 11 hours from O’Fallon, Ill., to be there when her son, Scott, graduates from infantry school today.

“And now he may go off to war,” True said. “Since last Tuesday, that’s all I’ve been thinking about.”

*

Times researcher Edith Stanley contributed to this report.