LI troops still headed to Afghanistan

At a giant military preserve just south of the Canadian border upstate, a National Guard sergeant from Levittown was in combat pantomime, demonstrating to a team of soldiers how to peer from behind a wall without getting shot.

The demonstration by Sgt. Adam Drobecker, 25, was one of hundreds that took place at Fort Drum in May, as some local members of the New York Army National Guard's 69th Infantry Regiment prepare for deployment to Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama's recent announcement that he's reducing the number of troops stationed in Afghanistan -- which followed the May 2 killing of terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden -- has not altered plans to send more than 100 Long Island members of the regiment to fight there, said Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg.

The soldiers are to arrive in Afghanistan near the end of the year, as members of the regiment's 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. They will replace 2,200 members of the Oklahoma National Guard. The "Fighting 69th" -- the New York unit's nickname since legendary battles it fought in the Civil War -- has already served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Along with their training, brigade members will have to get their finances and wills in order, help spouses prepare for months of single parenthood, and steel children for months of homework assignments, Little League games and good-night songs without them.

These soldiers see their mission ahead as clear.

"Osama bin Laden's death just changes who the number one guy we're after is," said the 69th's commander, Lt. Col. James C. Gonyo. "Even though he is dead, unfortunately there are people to replace him. It is still a dangerous world."

The president's plan will pull 10,000 troops from Afghanistan -- roughly 10 percent of the current troop strength there -- by the end of the year.

But that still leaves the need to field replacements for troops ending their deployment time -- typically a year.

Drobecker, who joined the military right out of high school, said although he was pleased to hear that the al-Qaida chief had been found and killed, he is resigned to the idea that instability in the region will block a more immediate and larger withdrawal of U.S. troops.

"Just because bin Laden has been killed, that doesn't mean all the troops are coming home . . . yet," Drobecker said. "There is still a war on terror going on. There are still soldiers being deployed."

The Fort Drum training was meant to prepare area National Guard members -- about half of whom have never been deployed -- for the rigors of combat.

During two-week stints that ended in June, guardsmen put aside regular jobs as police officers, truck drivers, contractors and salespeople, and took turns sharpening skills they will need if they are to carry on the fight in Afghanistan.

One afternoon, as anti-tank "Warthog" jets arced and dipped in a hazy sky, troops practiced techniques used to scramble through razor wire, mount barrier walls or creep up on an enemy. They practiced clearing a building of enemy fighters, using some of the same skills that Navy SEALs applied while stalking bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout. They engaged in role playing to learn to use interpreters to gain the trust of Afghan civilians.

Drill leaders watched for bad habits that on the battlefield could prove deadly.

At one point, as soldiers in a field practiced crawling through a choke point, a soldier who was supposed to be providing cover ahead of his comrades absently looked backward, admiring their progress.

Capt. Lou Delli-Pizzi of West Islip spotted the gaffe, and made a note to bring it to the soldier's attention. "That could get somebody killed," he said.

For many of the soldiers, the hardest part of preparing for war will be tackled in the months before their deployment.

1st. Lt. Mike Clifford, a delivery truck driver from Babylon in civilian life, said he is preparing for the rigors of Afghanistan's high mountains by running at Robert Moses State Park, sometimes sprinting up the 156 steps of the Fire Island Lighthouse's spiral staircase.

"I've been expecting to have to go for a while now," said Clifford, 24, of his first deployment.

Spc. Edwin Yanes of Brentwood said he expects that preparing his family emotionally for his departure will be wrenching.

He had volunteered to be sent to war because money is tight. Yanes, a former high school wrestler, has not been able to find steady work since a trucking business he started went under. Now 30 and recently married to a woman with two children, he said his new family could use the extra money from his combat pay.

He was training at Fort Drum in May when his orders came in. He called home to tell his wife that he would be off to Afghanistan by this winter.

Yanes said it was a long moment before she said anything.

"I told her two nights ago, and just heard silence on the phone," Yanes said then. "Just by her voice and her tone, I think she's scared."