SEO - Forest Service Trains Soldiers For Afghanistan

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FEBRUARY 6, 2006

Powell, Wyoming - Craig Sax showed his son, Justin, how to tie heavy water containers to the back of a small donkey. “You like that tie, huh, Justin,” Craig asked when the final knot was tied. “I’ll make you tie the elk on next time.”

Craig is a game warden for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Second Lieutenant Justin Sax is an Army Ranger with the elite 10th Mountain Division headquartered in Fort Drum, New York.

The father and son from Cody, Wyoming have tied many a load to the backs of mules and horses. This is Justin’s first time packing little donkeys but he learns quickly, and Craig is grateful for his son’s skills. “I can’t tell you the upwelling of pride that I feel about Justin,” Craig said. “These men will be operating at 4,000 to 16,000 feet in Afghanistan and their likelihood of survival will be increased because of this training and these animals.”

Soldiers of the Army’s legendary 10th Mountain Division have turned to the traditions of the Old West, and specifically to Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers in the northern Rocky Mountains, for advice on how to properly pack donkeys and other animals.

“It’s a pleasure to pass your knowledge and information on to the next generation,” said Travis Lunders, a Forest Service law enforcement officer from the Black Hills National Forest. “And it’s an honorable cause.”

The 10th Mountain Division was an elite group of expert mountaineers and skiers trained by the U.S. Army to combat the Nazis entrenched in the mountains of Italy during WWII. Their original purpose was to stop a German invasion of the United States through Canada. Members of the Division were instrumental in America’s outdoors and environmental movements after the war.

The mountains of Afghanistan will soon be the new theater of operations for this tough specialized division. And the transportation of choice is four-legged and ornery.

Justin Sax is a living example of the Division’s long tradition, an outdoorsman and mountaineer with a deep knowledge of the wild country. But Justin’s soldiers come from many backgrounds.

PFC Geoffray Mwangi from Kenya has served in the Army for two years. His African home is far away from Wyoming and Afghanistan. “I am used to working with cows but I always feared donkeys and horses,” he said. “The first thing I have to do is gain it’s confidence and learn the psychology of the animal. I’ve never packed any animal so everything I’m learning is new.”

Officers from U.S. Marshall’s Service, the Secret Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming Game and Fish, and Wyoming’s Park County Sheriff joined the Forest Service to teach the soldiers everything they know about packing livestock. Law enforcement officers train every year in lost arts like throwing a diamond hitch on a loaded pack animal to secure precious cargoes of food and water, tents and cook stoves, and more exotic things like basket stretchers for search and rescue.

“I’ve spent the last few months talking to soldiers who have been there trying to get this right,” said Ron Ostrom, a law enforcement officer from the Shoshone National Forest. “We’ve taken a packing course and turned it into a military tactical packing course. It’s just a few simple knots and then learning where to put the ropes and they’ve got it.”

Thirty one soldiers spent five days learning the psychology of horses, mules and donkeys, how to pack various saddles, donkey nutritional needs, and the many tricks of the packer trade.

“This group has people from all over…so fast to learn, so professional, it makes me feel good about our military,” Lunders said.

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Forest Service Helps Train Soldiers For Afghanistan

Forest Service Helps Train
Soldiers For Afghanistan