Military Transition Team Soldiers continue building Iraqi Army forces

Courtesy Photo | Lt. YaRub Kahtan, 17th Motorized Transportation Regiment, 17th Iraqi Army Division,...... read more read more

Courtesy Photo | Lt. YaRub Kahtan, 17th Motorized Transportation Regiment, 17th Iraqi Army Division, explains the role of staff officers to other soldiers in his unit during a Staff Principles 101 class held on Forward Operating Base Falcon, March 19.  see less | View Image Page

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

03.21.2009

Courtesy Story

2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division

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BAGHDAD – Iraqi army soldiers from the 17th Motorized Transportation Regiment, 17th Iraqi Army Division, finished the first week of classes in a new Staff Officer training course developed by U.S. Soldiers with the 17th MTR, Military Transition Team, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, held on Forward Operating Base Falcon, March 21.

The course includes training on everything from basic staff officer principles and roles, to information on military decision making procedures, troop leading procedures, and mission planning and execution. The class itself was initiated by a request from the Iraqi 17th MTR commander and developed in coordination with their MiTT team.

"Right now our unit doesn't work like a good unit with a strong staff structure," said Maj. Dhamad Shaial Menahi, commander of the 17th MTR, 17th IA Div. "They don't know their special duties; they don't know how they are supposed to cooperate together or how they are meant to assist their commanders. So this training is very necessary, so that the officers and the soldiers know their jobs and duties and how they cooperate together so that they work as one team."

Anthony Cisneroz, a member of the17th MTR MiTT, from San Antonio, Texas, took the lead on supervising and preparing the course material, with input from his Iraqi counterparts.

The brainstorming resulted with a 13-week course similar to college courses, said Maj. Stephen Turner, commander for the 17th MTR MiTT. The course is structured to start with simple concepts and work its way up throughout the following 13-weeks.

"We're starting with the very basics, basically staff principles, staff roles, moving on into estimates, both logistical and operational, and ending the 100 series with what the commander's responsibility is to his staff. And with 200 and onward we just keep on building up," he said.

"We are starting with the basics because that is the right way to learn," said Lt. YaRub Kahtan, 17th MTR, 17th IA Div., who was the instructor during the first week of class.

Drawing from different resources, course instructors stripped down the information to the bare essential concepts and foundational principles of staff functions.

"We got a lot of the guidance from FM 5-0, which is operations and plans [manual for the U.S. Army], and we pulled a lot of the classes out of there," said Cisneroz. "We also pulled a lot of the classes off of the MND-B website. MND-B has a section for the Iraqi security forces, and so we basically went in their website and pulled off a lot of their classes and tailored them into these basic courses."

For instance, the operation order class identifies the five parts of the OPORDER and a little bit more, it doesn't get very extensive, said Cisneroz. It is not uncommon for U.S. forces to use 30 page OPORDERS with 16 annexes. For his Iraqi partners, he admitted they're not ready for that yet, so a combined decision between the Iraqi commander and the MiTT members tailored the classes to the needs of the students.

The course consisted of three days of classroom instruction each week. During the other days, Iraqi army instructors from the 17th MTR studied material in preparation for upcoming classes from the 17th MTR MiTT.

"Initially we were going to teach the class ourselves, but how receptive are they going to be to that? I would rather have my own personnel up there if I were an IA student. So the instructors that we have are good, they can converse well and I think we're making a lot of money off the train the trainer process." said Cisneroz.

IA instructors train small groups of students; ranging from eight to ten people at a time. The size of the class lends itself well to discussion and interactivity as opposed to large scale lecturing.

"All of the students are very receptive and they participate well in the class," said Iraqi 2nd Lt.YaRub Kahtan, one of the Iraqi instructors.

The course material, although based on U.S. Army principles, is designed for Iraqis to develop into something that works for them.

"The key thing here that we have to remember is that we're not trying to teach them the U.S. way, we're trying to give them tools that they can take and use on their side," said Turner.

"We're just trying to show them again some kind of standard to follow, it doesn't have to be U.S. standards, just any standard to follow," said Cisneroz. "We're only in our first class, but I think it's a great program to give them a foundation to build on."

The success of this program and other facets of training with the 17th MTR, is largely due to the strong relationship between the Iraqi Army soldiers and their U.S. Army MiTT team.

"The relationship has been pretty strong since the beginning since we've been on ground with them for about three months now," said Cisneroz. "We had good rapport with the old commander and we have good report with the new commander that just came on board. He knows that we're there to help him."

"I really appreciate my brothers and sisters and friends in the MiTT team, they help me, they support me, they teach my soldiers to make them better at their jobs, and I appreciate that," said Maj. Dahmad Shaial Menahi. "And I appreciate all the MiTT teams that have worked with me since five years ago when I was a lieutenant. I cannot find the words to describe how I feel about these people."

"At the end of the course, they are going to be staff qualified," said Turner. "Right now, I'm just kind of excited to see the final product; I believe this to be a major stepping stone for the IA staff process."

The end of the Staff Officer Course is scheduled in June.