It isn't enough to learn how to salute and shoot. Today's soldier also has to know where Mecca is, how to behave around Muslim women and how customs in the Arab world vary from those in the United States.
A three-hour "Islam Cultural Awareness" class is mandatory for all units at Fort Dix, not just those headed to the Persian Gulf. Ditto for Army troops being deployed from Fort Benning, Ga., Fort Hood, Texas, and other bases.
"Yes, we're there to accomplish a mission and win a war," said Maj. Steve Stover, an Army spokesman. "Whether it's in Afghanistan, fighting terrorism, or in Iraq, liberating that country, it's just in our best interest to not insult any of the locals unnecessarily."
At Fort Dix, a major reserve center that deploys U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard units for duty overseas, the training comes in a classroom-style session at the base theater.
Standing before about 300 camouflage fatigue-clad soldiers on a recent morning, Master Sgt. Connie Penner conducted a presentation using an overhead projector.
Beginning with Islam, she told them that the Quran is to Muslims as the Torah is to Jews and the Bible is to Christians. Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islam lunar calendar, is a time for soul cleansing and faith deepening.
After discussion about the religion, the subject matter turned to differences in customs between the Arab world and Western countries. In the West, youth is valued, Penner said, while in Arab culture wisdom grows with age.
When the presentation progressed to guidelines for dealing with Muslim women, the overhead projector showed a photograph of an attractive Western woman, wearing a skirt. This triggered a cascade of wolf whistles from the mostly male audience. Penner grinned, but continued on.
She explained that Arab women are keepers of the family home who have restrictions on behavior, dress and other personal displays. Then she quieted the crowd with a real-life example, telling them that a GI during the Persian Gulf War had sex with a Muslim woman.
"He got shipped out of the country before anything bad could happen to him. She got beheaded," Penner said.
To some, like Sgt. Ronnie Stiles, 34, a military policeman who was in the Gulf War in the Navy, the presentation was old hat. Others were hearing it anew.
"It's interesting just learning about the culture, and the way we might think something is nothing that's very important to them," said Capt. Thomas Lewis, 34, a National Guardsman.
Similar training has been given in various forms to U.S. servicemen since World War I, when GIs were given instruction on what to expect "over there," according to historian Jeffery Charlston of the Army Center of Military History. Soldiers headed to Europe in World War II and Vietnam also were given training on customs, according to Charlston.