Photo By Sgt. Daniel Blottenberger | Military police Soldiers with Multi-National Division - Baghdad's 59th Military Police...... read more read more
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By Sgt. Daniel Blottenberger
18th Military Police Brigade
BAGHDAD – More than 140 Iraqi police cadets gathered, Aug. 9, 2008, at Combat Outpost Cash for another day of strenuous training in hopes to become future member of the Jisr Diyala Emergency Response Unit.
The first day of their second week of training – during the four week ERU training course – began with the cadets forming up into their separate platoons and performing physical fitness training under the already sweltering hot desert sun.
By 9 a.m., the heat was already blistering on the cadets.
The physical fitness training the cadets conducted in were: wind sprints, lunges, firemen carries (where one recruit person places another over his shoulders and carries the person for a specified distance) and an uphill run, all of which followed various warm-up exercises.
The PT the cadets' conduct is built to improve their endurance for future operations and to build team work and camaraderie amongst the group.
To keep the cadets motivated, Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers of the 59th Military Police Company's Police Transition Team participated in the relays. In addition to bragging rights, the cadets had an additional motivational incentive with the losing squads performing extra pushups as the winners watched on.
"This kind of training never could have happened last deployment," said Spc. Gilbert Ramos, a military police Soldier with the PTT, who is a native of Tampa Bay, Fla. "We did not conduct physical fitness training with the IP last time we were here."
The Soldiers of 59th MP Co. are not strangers to training IP. They trained the IP forces in Mosul during their previous deployment and have spent more than 13 months training IP in Baghdad their current deployment.
"There is a definite improvement in the IP," said Ramos. "Now the IP really care about doing their jobs and are willing to learn how to do their jobs better."
After the daily PT session was complete, which ended with a run up one of COP Cash's massive sand dunes, the cadets sat attentively listening to a Jisr Diyala IP commander presented a class on how to conduct themselves if kidnapped by enemy forces.
"We are trying to integrate IP and national police officers as trainers by having them come and teach select classes on military skills to help build a better working relationship between the different Iraqi security forces," said 2nd Lt. Nicole Fogel, platoon leader, 59th MP Co., who is a native of Brownsburg, Ind.
Apart from military tactics, the cadets spent the first week of the training primarily in a class room setting as they were taught basic policing theories, such as police ethics and human rights policies.
Upon completion of police theory, the cadets transitioned into their second week of training where they are taught military training, such as clearing a building, to include room and personnel searches.
As the curriculum developed into the third week of training, the cadets receive instruction on various policing skills: how to operate an IP station, how to run a detention facility and how to handle civilian grievances.
During the fourth and final week of training, the cadets go to a weapons range to become more proficient with using their assigned weapons.
The training days are long and fluid and are completed when the training objectives are met for that day of the training. Though the training was intense, the cadets remained motivated and appear to be developing a team attitude as the training progresses throughout the days of the course.
"The cadets are pretty motivated. They have come up with platoon names and, at the end of the day, they have physical fitness competitions and the losers clean up the training area," said Fogel. "They have developed a friendly rivalry amongst the platoons. Though the training is intense for them, they are not quitting and they are returning every day to train."
As a result of the friendly rivalry between platoons, the cadets have developed motivational cheering contests and physical fitness competitions between platoons to keep the units morale levels high. As they continue through the training, a sense of pride permeates the training compound. It is this pride in mission accomplishment that their Multi-National Division – Baghdad counterparts expect will be taken back to their stations.
The cadets' motivational level kept the training moving steadily throughout the day as they moved into the next training phase and began training on room searching and clearing tactics.
During the training, Spc. Glenn Alexander, a military police instructor with 59th MP Co., who is a native of Cleveland, explained the seriousness of the training and how dangerous room clearing can be. The cadets took the training serious and went through several practical exercises of clearing rooms to make sure they had the technique down properly.
Sgt. Michael Van Houten, who was overseeing the room clearing training, told the cadets that the room-clearing operations they are learning are very important since they directly relate to situations they will directly face once they are on the job.
"Everything we do here can be applied to their real world job," said Van Houten, a native of Davenport, N.Y.
Along with the room-clearing training, the cadets also learned the proper techniques and procedures on searches and worked as a team to find hidden explosives, firearms and criminal documents.
"We do a lot of team-building exercises during the training," said Fogel. "The cadets are from different areas in Baghdad and don't know each other all that well, so our goal is when they are done training, they will be able to go out and be a cohesive unit."
Almost all of the cadets are from the Jisr Diyala and Sadr City areas of Baghdad.
The goal of the new ERU in Jisr Diyala is to act as emergency reaction forces for the area and, eventually, transition with the Iraqi national police, who are filling in at the checkpoints in Jisr Diyala, said Fogel.
"Our PTT goal is to have this elite force of IP be the more professional ISF in the Jisr Diyala area," said Fogel. "We are mentoring the noncommissioned officers to enforce the standard that the ISF officers have set for them."
A part of the training also includes learning what a chain of command structure means in a security force element.
The cadets are taking what is taught and really running with it, said Fogel, adding that they are also learning the importance of recognizing their proper chain of command.
"We are enforcing their chain of command to them," said Fogel. "Now they are going to their chain of command when they have problems."
As a group, the PTT in charge of the training said the improvements in the cadets between day one and now have been immense.
"I'm definitely impressed with the cadets," said Sgt. Gordon Williams, PTT squad leader, who is a native of Casper, Wyo. "They know more than we thought they would about being police."
Williams said he credits the success of the training to the great working relationship the cadets have with the PTT Soldiers.
"Once the cadets got more comfortable with us, they have shown us what they know a lot more," said Williams.
After the day's training was complete and the temperature began to cool down, the cadets formed up one last time and marched back to COP Cash as they sang their marching cadence louder than they had all day.
The 59th MP Co., is deployed from Fort Carson, Colo., and is currently assigned to the 95th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade, Multi-National Division – Baghdad.
| Date Taken: | 08.09.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 08.13.2008 08:46 |
| Story ID: | 22429 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 54 |
| Downloads: | 44 |
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