Iraqi Army getting first-rate advise

Courtesy of Multi-National Force - Iraq.
Monday, 30 October 2006

By Sgt. Shannon Crane
129th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

U.S. Army Capt. Samuel Shepherd, military transition team adviser for 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, monitors the radio as Iraqi soldiers stand ready during a cordon and search mission in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Embedded transition teams assist with logistics and battlefield enabling effects, such as medical evacuation, close air support and artillery. Official Department of Defense photo.

CAMP TAJI — 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, 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 at Camp Taji play a key role in this process, 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 – to provide the necessary training and guidance to bring their 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.

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