One by one, the American soldiers slid down a muddy hillside to a river deep in the Hawaiian jungle. With guns on top of rucksacks, they kicked their way across, wobbling in the current, trying to stay quiet.
It was a sluggish advance stinking of sweat and silt — reminiscent of Vietnam, and similar to what they might face in a potential fight with China almost anywhere in the Pacific.
“It’s incumbent on us to become resident professionals,” said Col. Christopher D. Johnson, who traversed the river arm in arm with a junior officer. “Firemen don’t figure out how to work a fire engine at the fire, right?”
Military strategists like to say the jungle is neutral, helping neither friend nor foe, but for most of the 79 students last month at the U.S. Army’s only jungle school, “the J” was just plain new. It was nothing like home or deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, which explained why they were there: To deter China and work effectively with partners in the region, American ground forces need more jungle expertise.
The Marine Corps has been assigning a significant portion of its force to the muggy, rainy terrain of Okinawa, Japan, and training with partners near the Equator. For the Army, Hawaii has become a regional proxy. Commanders are pushing more soldiers through its jungles as the 25th Infantry Division expands instruction at its expeditionary school and leads a new Pacific training rotation that brought together 5,300 troops in November for simulated battles with other services and nations.
The jungle buildup, with roots in the “pivot to Asia” under President Barack Obama, highlights the challenge the U.S. military faces as it tries to prioritize China
and unbind itself from decades of war in the Middle East, even as conflict there pulls America back in.
For Hawaii, the shift has been slow but undeniable: Government records point to new command centers, piers, runways and barracks, along with a boost in training tempo, sending more planes over beaches and warships in and out of Pearl Harbor.
Residents have expressed ambivalence about the escalated activity. But some military officials worry they are still not doing enough to prepare American troops, especially the Army’s 452,000 soldiers, for what they might face in the region.