Army’s 4th Infantry Division marks Pacific pivot with training in Indonesia

Soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division are training in Indonesia this month as the Fort Carson, Colo.-based unit shifts its focus from Europe to the Indo-Pacific.

The division was reassigned from III Armored Corps to I Corps in December and has since focused more heavily on the Indo-Pacific, Brig. Gen. Ed Matthaidess, its deputy commander for operations, told Stars and Stripes by phone from Indonesia on Sept. 4.

About 150 division soldiers are participating in Super Garuda Shield in Baturaja, where they are testing new command-and-control technology while adapting to an environment far removed from their mountainous Colorado home.

“It’s a huge learning experience,” Matthaidess said from the back of a Stryker armored vehicle.

Troops from the United States, Indonesia and 13 other nations are slated to wrap up two weeks of training Thursday. The exercise has included amphibious assaults, airborne operations and live-fire drills across Indonesia.

The 4th Infantry Division, which fought in both world wars and in Iraq and Afghanistan, spent an extended period in the Pacific during the Vietnam War, Matthaidess said.

Its increased focus on the region follows the division’s reassignment to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.-based I Corps, which oversees Army forces focused on the Indo-Pacific.

The Indonesia training is also giving the division a chance to test the Army’s next-generation command-and-control technology in the field. Soldiers are using new radios to securely share information among applications connected through low-Earth-orbit satellites, Matthaidess said.

The technology allows commanders to replace sprawling tactical operations centers filled with large monitors — sometimes jokingly called “TOC Mahals” — with smaller, mobile command posts carried aboard five-ton trucks.

“These nodes help us hide in plain sight,” Matthaidess said.

Soldiers assigned to the 4th Infantry Division fire on a range at Baturaja Combat Training Center, Indonesia, on Sept. 7, 2026. (Austin Steinborn/U.S. Army)

The division tested that mobility before it even reached Indonesia.

“We flew here from Fort Carson with four Strykers and exercised mission command en route,” Matthaidess said. “I was taking meetings I would normally take back at Fort Carson with a ramp down on the Stryker.”

The capability could allow commanders deploying to a future conflict to maintain communications and battlefield awareness while traveling to the fight rather than waiting to establish a command post after arriving, he said.

In Indonesia, the division is working alongside an infantry battalion from another I Corps formation, the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division.

It has also been drawing on the experience of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division, which has operated extensively throughout the Indo-Pacific. Matthaidess said he stopped in the Philippines on his way to Indonesia to visit 25th Infantry Division troops at Fort Magsaysay, north of Manila.

The 4th Infantry Division is looking to participate in additional Indo-Pacific exercises, including Cobra Gold in Thailand and Talisman Sabre in Australia next year, he said.

Super Garuda Shield is part of Operation Pathways, U.S. Army Pacific’s campaign linking bilateral and multinational exercises across the region.

The training has also exposed Fort Carson soldiers to unfamiliar terrain and climate.

Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Honkala, a platoon sergeant with 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, said moving through the Indonesian jungle presents different obstacles than training in Colorado.

“We don’t have to walk up a steep incline, but we have to go between trees,” he said by phone from Sumatra on Sept. 6.

The weather has also been an adjustment.

“We are used to the heat in Colorado, but the heat here is a bit different,” Honkala said. “The biggest difference would be the humidity.”

For platoon leader 2nd Lt. Leo Lowin, deploying to an unfamiliar environment is part of the attraction of military service.

“That’s why we join the Army,” he said.