SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, EAST RANGE — For the first time, 19-ton Stryker armored vehicles this week roamed the back woods of this approximately 4,500-acre training area.

The Army is taking it slow. As in a few miles per hour.

In knee-high weeds yesterday, about a dozen close-spaced traffic cones traced a serpentine route that Stryker drivers had to negotiate. Soldiers on foot front and rear guided the eight-wheeled vehicles with airplane-style arm gestures.

For extra measure, the vehicles had big signs hung on the front that said "Student Driver."

The Strykers can hit 70 mph on the highway and have been battle-tested in Mosul in northern Iraq, but at Schofield, soldiers are still kicking the tires and getting a feel for how they handle.

"You definitely don't slam down on the gas. You feel the power of it," said Pvt. Wendel Brueckner, who at the age of 18 is an assistant driver in a vehicle that cost about $1.5 million.

"I drove a (Ford) F-250. It kind of drives the same way," said the New Hampshire man, who joined the Army in September and arrived in Hawai'i in January.

About 60 of the 328 expected Stryker vehicles are on the island, including nine spares. The 2nd Brigade at Schofield has begun the operational phase of its $1.5 billion transformation into one of seven Stryker brigades worldwide.

Ron Borne, the 25th Infantry Division's "transformation" director, said the driver training will be followed by open road and night practice on the East Range. Weapons systems will be fired beginning next month at Schofield.

The East Range has 14.5 miles of trails dedicated to Stryker training, and the speed limit for the course the vehicles were on yesterday was 15 mph. The unit is expected to be operational in the fall of 2007.

The Strykers started arriving on O'ahu more than a month ago from General Dynamics Land Systems. The vehicles arrive on cargo ships in batches of 30 to 50 a month and are taken by flatbed truck up to Schofield.

Ten variants of the Stryker will make up the brigade, ranging from a $1.3 million to $1.5 million infantry carrier with two crew and a nine-man infantry squad, to a 105mm mobile gun system that looks like a tank with wheels.

A nuclear, biological and chemical reconnaissance version that costs about $4 million has an interior over-pressurization system allowing it to travel in contaminated areas.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, who commands the 25th Division, this week noted the debate that "went on and on" about tracked tanks versus the new wheeled Stryker vehicles.

But he said the history and survivability of the vehicles in Iraq has borne out the vision of Strykers by Kaua'i native and former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki.

Officials say the Strykers, with a 350-horsepower Caterpillar diesel engine, are quieter than a Humvee.

Capt. Jeremy Clardy, 29, from South Carolina, said for his reconnaissance Strykers, "that's a big thing for my specific role in the fight."

"Most of the soldiers have commented on how it drives better than their own car," Clardy said. With eight big tires, "you go over bumps and don't realize you've even gone over a bump in most instances."

Brueckner said one of the biggest driver challenges is knowing the control panel. He can operate the Stryker with a hatch at 10 degrees, 25 degrees, or closed with periscopes.

"You've got to keep your eyes on the road and you've got 50 switches to your left," he said. "If they say do something, you've got to know exactly how many rows up, and which switch, and flick it without taking your eyes off the road."

Borne, the division's transformation director, said an 18- to 22-building urban terrain Stryker training center will be built in the Kahuku area where short-range plastic training ammunition will be used.

Stryker movements there and to Dillingham Airfield for training probably won't begin until next summer, Borne said. Existing and planned trails will be used as much as possible to keep the armored vehicles off public roads, the Army said.

Brueckner knows the Strykers don't have as much armor as a tank, "but it handles better, and we can be in urban situations and get down alleys faster.

"It's kinda cool. There's been a couple of (Stryker) brigades to go in front of us, but them and this unit as well, we're still kinda setting the footprint of what will happen."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.