Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Kerensa Hardy | Major General Ali Jassim Muhammad Hassen Al Frejee, 17th IA Div. commander, talks with...... read more read more
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By Sgt.1st Class Kerensa Hardy
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division
CAMP STRIKER, Iraq – Within a month of its inception, the 17th Iraqi Army Division is already independently providing security in areas formerly occupied by coalition forces.
Created from the 25th Iraqi Army Brigade, the 17th IA Div. officially stood up in mid-July when Maj. Gen. Ali Jassim Muhammad Hassen Al Frejee was promoted to his current rank. Al Frejee and his unit will continue to transition into a lead security element in the Southwest Baghdad area now under the authority of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
"This was brought about by a number of factors, but more importantly in this case is the result... a Sunni majority population supporting a professionalized Iraqi security force, and perhaps less profound is their support of the local government in its effort to provide essential services," said Col. Dominic Caraccilo, commander of 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div.
Caraccilo, of Seneca Falls, N.Y., said the 17th IA Div. is less reliant on the Coalition for mentorship, but retains a need for the Coalition-provided effects such as field artillery, aerial platforms and ISR.
"However, [Al Frejee] is working hard to replace some of our special skills with his own," Caraccilo added, referring to IA route clearance team training currently under way.
The 17th IA Div.'s commander expressed confidence in the partnership of the 17th IA Div. and the 17th IA Military Transition Team, a team of more than 30 professionals created by the Rakkasans. The MiTT will collectively help the newly formed division achieve established goals. Eighteen Soldiers interact with the IA division staff on a daily basis; the remainder of the team serves in a support role.
MiTT members advise their IA counterparts on day-to-day operations using translators to overcome the language barrier, offer assistance when needed and provide alternative points of view to help them achieve success.
"They are doing very well in providing support; they are a big help to us here in training, supply and fighting insurgency," Al Frejee said. "I believe the work with both sides is good and is going very well."
Al Frejee said the security gains in the area are the result of the blood and sweat of Iraqi and coalition soldiers, as well as the efforts of Sons of Iraq.
"I believe now South Baghdad areas are mostly quiet and safe if you compare things now and how they were a year ago; it is a great thing," Al Frejee said. "We will be an example; we should do it in the right way to ensure success."
The 17th IA MiTT is playing an integral role to help achieve that success and is just one of many moving pieces in this transition process.
The 17th IA Div. is undertaking a task that would be difficult for a fully equipped, fully manned division that has been operating for years.
"We're asking them to do three very distinct missions ... at the same time," said Lt. Col. Joel Grantham, 17th IA MiTT chief.
The 17th IA Div. will assemble, equip, man and train a division element; transition into a leading operational role in southern Baghdad; and continue to conduct daily combat operations.
The 17th IA Div. has "a very strong, dynamic leader," said Grantham, a Vicksburg, Miss., native. "They've got very good brigade and battalion commanders. With the incorporation of a division staff to enable operations, they should be fine."
"They're fully capable of doing their job," Grantham said. "This was a brigade with eight battalions; now, it's a division with three brigades and more battalions and essential enablers to go along with the division headquarters. But it was built out of a very solid base."
Rakkasans transitioned Patrol Base Corregidor, the first patrol base in their battle space to undergo this process, to the Iraqi army Aug. 5, 2008; another is scheduled for the upcoming week.
The transition will continue through November when the 17th IA Div. should have all required personnel and equipment necessary to achieve success.
Captain William Vick, 17th IA MiTT adviser to the 17th IA Div. logistics officer, is assisting the unit in getting the equipment it will need to man the battlefield. The 17th IA logistics staff is taking the lead developing distribution plans for the needed equipment.
Vick, a native of Breckenridge, Texas, is working with his counterparts to find shortages for the infantry brigades, a motorized transportation regiment and engineers in the 17th IA Div. The unit will draw 45 fully equipped humvees from Taji and attend a four-day class which will include an orientation, inventory and a two-day drivers' training class on the vehicles.
"One of the most difficult things for [some people] to understand is we're not going to make them into the U.S. Army, our job – in my opinion – is to get them to the point where they can function as an army, as a staff – on their own," said Master Sgt. Alfred Dalton, 17th IA MiTT noncommissioned officer-in-charge. "And I think they're close. There are a lot of things they do well as a division."
"Sometimes, if you get to the desired end state, it's not important how you get there as long as they know how to get there every time on their own, said Dalton, of Clarksville, Tenn.
Grantham tells his team to look at the end results and ask what the 17th IA Div. needs to accomplish them.
"It may not necessarily be the way we do it, but if they accomplish the mission, and they get the tasks done that need to be done, [then] that's okay."
| Date Taken: | 08.13.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 08.13.2008 11:00 |
| Story ID: | 22440 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 918 |
| Downloads: | 813 |
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