Wednesday - November 01, 2006

From The Sandbox

You know, it’s amazing what a bunch of high school and college dropouts and other assorted dregs of society can actually accomplish. Senator John Kerry might be amazed to learn that these “rejects” and “losers” managed to completely defeat Saddam’s army in just a few months and are now pretty much on their way to rebuilding that country as a democratic nation.

The Iraqis now have as many troops in the field as we do and they’re getting better at taking control of their country, in spite of the fact that they’re being taught by so-called “morons”. Maybe ... just maybe ... John Kerry and his intellectual friends in the Democratic party need to go spend a few months in Iraq playing “Cowboys and Injuns” with these poor mentally deficient kids he voted to send over there ... before he voted against sending them ... but after he voted to cut funding for them ... but before he served in Vietnam. Oh, forget it. Maybe Kerry is better spending the week windsurfing, after all.

Working Their Way Out of a Job:
The Role of the Military Transition Teams
30 Oct. 2006
By Sgt. Shannon Crane
129th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP TAJI, Iraq - Rome wasn’t built in a day...and neither was its army. Constructing, supplying and properly training a country’s fighting force is hardly an expeditious task. It is a process. And this process can be likened to a marathon...not a sprint.

The same can be said for the Iraqi army. Over the past three years, it has been rebuilt from the ground up as a modern, effective, western-style fighting force consisting of ten divisions with approximately 131,000 soldiers.

Today, approximately 89 Iraqi army combat battalions, 30 brigade headquarters, and six division headquarters control their own battle space. Members of the Military Transition Teams (MiTTs) at Camp Taji, Iraq, have played a key role in this process, and they continue to do so as they slowly, but surely, train the Iraqi army to ultimately assume independence.

The purpose of the MiTTs is to advise, coach, teach, and mentor Iraqi soldiers and their leaders – to provide the necessary training and guidance to bring the Iraqi army to a level where it can work independently.

“First of all, we advise. So our job is to help the Iraqis plan and execute combat operations - those units that are already working in combat operations,” said U.S. Army Maj. Steven Carroll, a transition team chief from Fort Sill, Okla. “We’re primary trainers, or train-the-trainers, for Iraqi units that have just started. So teacher/adviser is the primary role for the team,” he added.

Each 11-15 man team brings a mix of combat and support specialties to include operations, intelligence, logistics, communications, engineering and security. Team members work one-on-one with their Iraqi counterparts, showing them the ropes of each specialty and offering advice on how to streamline operations.

“Second, we bring the effects - coalition effects - to the Iraqi army that they don’t have for themselves,” said Carroll. “Indirect fires, fixed air and helicopter attack aviation support, MEDEVAC helicopters and other non-lethal effects, like information operations assets, for example, that the Iraqi army uses during their combat operations, but can’t provide for themselves. We provide that,” he said.

In addition to training and advising, the teams often run patrols outside of the compound with the Iraqi soldiers to show presence, to facilitate effects, and to help the soldiers gain confidence in running their own operations.

“We go to checkpoints and provide U.S. presence, because without it, they can’t get attack aviation, or air MEDEVAC, or any of the things that we take for granted in our Army,” said U.S. Army Capt. John Govan, a logistics adviser from Mobile, Ala.

“Those have to be called in by the U.S., so we’ll go out with them sometimes as presence patrols, what we call battlefield circulation, where we move around and check on different checkpoints inside our Iraqi brigade,” he added.

The Iraqi commander of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division, who asked not to use his name for reasons of force protection, commented on the importance of the American transition teams running patrols with his soldiers, and what they ultimately learn from the experience.

“They train us how to deal with the insurgents,” he said. “They also train us how to deal with the civilians and the checkpoints, and they show us how to surround the areas if we suspect that we have improvised explosive devices or insurgents.”

For the transition teams to do their jobs effectively, it is necessary for them to establish a solid relationship with the Iraqi soldiers. They do this by embedding with the soldiers – living and working in the same areas on a daily basis. This is not as easy as it sounds, as many of the obstacles faced by the teams lay in the strong cultural differences between the American advisers and Iraqi soldiers.

“One of the biggest challenges, of course, is the language barrier,” said U.S. Army Maj. Marc Walker, a transition team chief from Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Walker then described the differences in work schedules between the Iraqis and Americans.

“The Iraqi soldiers’ normal day starts at seven and goes until noon,” he said. “Then they have an afternoon break, and then they start back up again right after dinner time, about six o’clock...then work until midnight. So we’ve had to adjust our schedules around theirs. We’ve had to adjust to their prayer times and all their religious rituals that they do, as well.”

- More from CENTCOM...

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/01/2006 at 10:12 AM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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