Army Chief Casey: Iraq limiting 'full-spectrum' training of forces

A Soldier from the 25th Infantry Division takes aim at an “insurgent” during the battle for Gahr Albai and Millawa Valley, a war game scenario at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin

U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey Jr. said Friday that the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops in Iraq is being felt across the wider fighting force, but has not hampered complete fighting readiness...

"Now, we're in a position where folks are focusing their training on the mission they're going back to," he said during a visit to the Joint Multinational Training Command in Grafenwoehr, where U.S. units bound for Iraq perform final exercises before deploying...

"The fact that we are focusing on mission-specific training, and not able to conduct a lot of full-spectrum training - the training for operations across the spectrum of the conflict - is a limiting factor," he said. "It will be a while before we get back to that."

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