Kiwis ‘at war’ in Hawaii
Blue smoke billows and explosions and machinegun fire fill the air.
Victor Company soldiers dart to the left and right across rocky volcanic terrain, pushing forward to their objective.
Somewhere among the dusty hills, the tussock grass and rocks is a forward unit with a bangalore – an explosive device designed to clear obstacles.
‘‘The idea is to test an infantry battle platoon by day and night,’’ said Major Brendan Jones of the New Zealand Army, officer in command of Victor Company.
‘‘That was the day-time part of the attack. Anywhere from 35 to 40 personnel going forward, securing fire support objectives and then having two-thirds of them come through a clearing enemy position.’’
Automated ‘‘jellybean’’ dummies – enemy targets – pop up from the ground.
A row of them line a distant ridge at the Pohakuloa training area, about an hour from Kona on Hawaii’s Big Island, taking heavy suppression fire from Victor Company machineguns.
The live fire exercise is part of the New Zealand Defence Force training at RIMPAC 2016 – the largest maritime exercise in the world and held every two years.
A platoon from each of the United States Marine Corps, Australian Defence Force, His Majesty’s Armed Forces from Tonga and the New Zealand Defence Force have come under New Zealand’s Victor Company.
‘‘This is how we train for conventional warfare,’’ Jones said.
It will take about an hour to run the battle course. Soldiers move quickly and in short bursts.
‘‘He’s got to move rapidly across the ground, bounding anywhere between five to two metres, rapidly and he’s taking different fire positions from standing, down to his stomach, to his knees and he is co-operating left to right.
Hosted by the US Navy at Pearl Harbour on the island of Oahu, RIMPAC is testing the military capability of allied nations.
New Zealand has deployed ships, aircraft and personnel to take part.
Pohakuloa is reminiscent of the landscape around Waiouru and the Desert Road in Central North Island – with rocks. It’s rugged, austere and big. For nearly two weeks, Victor Company have been put to the test both mentally and physically.
Stationed on a plateau more than 2000m above sea-level between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, Pohakuloa’s temperature dropped to less than 5 degrees Celsius at night, Jones said, and was scorching during the day.
It is demanding work. Soldiers are expected to carry up to 20 kilograms each, including guns, ammunition, rockets, flak jackets and helmets.
‘‘It is a heavy mental burden, a heavy physical burden at the same time. It’s probably equivalent to doing 100 burpees and running 100m sprints,’’ Jones said.
It was important to get the exercises right, he said.
‘‘If there is an emergency, humanitarian exercise, disaster relief, evacuation situation, New Zealand will easily be able to plug into working with our coalition partners.’’
US Marine Corps First Lieutenant Brandon Beans said morale had been high and working alongside troops from other countries was an invaluable experience.
‘‘They surprised me. At first, I didn’t know what to expect. They are very well disciplined.
‘‘Their tactics are a little simi- lar to ours, a little different in some ways but they’ve been executing the ranges really well.’’