3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs

Courtesy Story

MOSUL, Iraq – U.S. forces in Badoush, west of Mosul, trained Iraqi police and Iraqi army soldiers mid-October at Joint Security Station Badoush on proper explosives handling and disarmament techniques to help minimize the risk of injury or death to their due to mishandling.

Training through U.S.-Iraqi partnership has become a primary focus for U.S. forces since the implementation of the Security Agreement, June 30, which mandated that all U.S. combat troops withdraw from Iraq's cities and hand over security to the Iraqi security forces.

One of these combat units, Company D, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd "Greywolf" Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, transitioned their operations from the densely populated city of Mosul to Badoush, a much smaller area just west of the city. They began partnering with their IP and IA counterparts to establish joint training and operations in the area.

As Co. D began working with the Badoush ISF, they saw a need to provide procedures for explosive ordnance handling and disposal.

Drawing on their experiences with the IA earlier in their year-long deployment, which started December 2008, 1st Lt. Nick Rinaldi, the platoon leader for 2nd Platoon, Co. D, and Sgt. 1st Class Johnny Abinovega, 2nd Plt.'s platoon sergeant, coordinated with a U.S. Explosive Ordnance Disposal team to schedule the explosives training.

They then went to their ISF counterparts to solicit students for the training.

"We [invited] 20 Iraqi security force members including Iraqi traffic police, Emergency Response Battalion police and Iraqi army soldiers to spread the [training] to the biggest audience possible," said Lt. Rinaldi.

The IP participated in a training session where the 749th EOD team, with the 3rd HBCT, explained how to identify and safely handle explosive materials. The class also covered how to collect evidence from blast craters and how to properly handle evidence so that it is admissible in the Iraqi courts.

The class also offered real-world training scenarios in which the IP were required to secure a site and collect evidence such as command detonation wire and cell phones that could be used for remote detonation. They donned rubber gloves and evidence bags and sifted through the training area that had been set up by the instructors.

Though there has not been another training session since this one, Co. D hopes to continue these types of training events aimed at making the ISF a more efficient security force according to Lt. Rinaldi.

Associated Images

Control Panel