'It's a completely different fight' in Afghanistan

The thunder of artillery fire echoed across Fort Carson last week in a training exercise previewing what the 4th Brigade Combat Team expects to face in Afghanistan in a few weeks.

In two tours in Iraq, the brigade fought from armored Humvees, relying on heavy machine guns and the firepower of nearby American tank units to overwhelm insurgents.

In Afghanistan, they'll be fighting on foot in roadless mountains where tanks can't go.

Their most powerful weapon will be the radio.

"It's a completely different fight," said Lt. Col. Reik Andersen as he watched his battalion blast targets in the last major training exercise before they leave for a year in Afghanistan.

Commanders have been driving home the differences between Iraq and Afghanistan for more than a year. Soldiers have practiced long marches over Fort Carson's rocky ridges, getting in shape for what's ahead.

They need to learn to conserve ammunition because they'll only have what they can carry.

"We've focused on not what to think, but how to think," Sgt. Kennith Hicks said.

The unit will be based in Jalalabad, a valley city near the Pakistan border. But the fighting likely will be in the mountains leading to the Khyber Pass, a legendary battleground from 19th century British campaigns.

The area is important today because it is a chokepoint in supply lines. Heavy fighting has erupted there in recent months as Taliban guerrillas have attempted to cut off convoys.

Artillery and mortars, virtually unused in Iraq, will be the lightly armed soldiers' firepower.

Artillery's destructive power was also a liability in Iraq, where commanders haven't used the big guns out of fear of hitting civilians.

In Afghanistan, insurgents fight from mountain redoubts far from cities, allowing artillery to make a comeback.

"In Iraq the enemy was much more intermixed with the population," said Andersen, a veteran of fighting in northern Iraq. "In Afghanistan, they're more separated."

Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Klapp said using artillery means training soldiers in everything from radioing for fire support to pinpointing targets.

Klapp stamped from foxhole to foxhole at a training range drilling those skills into soldiers as clouds of dust and smoke erupted from derelict vehicles arrayed across a valley nearly a mile away. Other targets popped up closer to the troops, forcing them to use their machine guns and rifles while calling for artillery and mortar support.

"You throw hell at them for two hours," Klapp said.

The brigade is bringing heavy 155 mm artillery pieces taken out of mothballs for the Afghan fight. They'll also have 105 mm cannons and mortars that can rain shrapnel on enemy formations.

"They have to choose the right weapon for the right target," Klapp said.

Major training exercises are over for the brigade's soldiers, who will soon start shipping equipment to Afghanistan.

A combination of new recruits and soldiers from other Army units have swelled the brigade's ranks. In January, the soldiers completed a month of training in Louisiana - their graduation exercise before Afghanistan.

Soldiers are ready to go, but they're entering that tough time of saying goodbye to loved ones before they head for a year at war.

"I wish I had just one more summer," said Klapp, a father of three.