Air Assault training with a twist

Photo By 1st Sgt. Luisito Brooks | A Soldier with the 36th Brigade, 9th Division Iraqi army scans his sector for potential threats during a cache search mission here. U.S. and Iraqi Army Soldiers conducted air assault training the day prior to travelling by air for their mission March 14.  

CAMP TAJI, IRAQ

03.14.2010

Story by Spc. Luisito Brooks 

4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division

CAMP TAJI, Iraq — The UH-60 Black Hawk and Mi-17's rotors tossed clouds of dirt into the air on their approach, as Soldiers from the 36th Brigade, 9th Iraqi army and the 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division ran to the landing zone to be air lifted back to base, completing their mission March14, in Tarmiyah.

"The IA came up with the idea to combine the training mission and the cache search," said 1st Lt. Shawn Kitchin, a platoon leader with A Troop, 2nd Sqdn., 1st Cav. Reg., 4th Bde., 2nd Inf. Div. "Both objectives needed to be done, so we planned it and executed it."

The day before, all of the participants involved in this mission came together to rehearse the proper way to load and unload the helicopters. Rehearsals went on all day until the sun had almost set.

"We practiced a lot and it was fun," said Lt. Hasim, a 9th IA Div. officer. "Everyone was excited about this new experience and training because we are working with our partners the American Soldiers."

The training event had been in the planning stages for a few weeks and luckily the weather was good, explained Staff Sgt. Eric Rodrigues, a squad leader with A Troop.

"We air assaulted into what are key spots that were used to bury caches," said Sgt. Matt Engelbecht, a team leader with A Troop. He added that they used military working dogs and mine detectors during the search.

The team navigated through tall, dry grass and brush, looking for anything that could possibly be the location of a cache.

"We looked all over that place for a few hours and we didn't find much, but this mission wasn't wasted," said Engelbecht, a Weatherford, Okla. native. "The IA can now take this training and build from this point forward."

After the long, hot mission, the team returned to Taji, the body language of most of the Iraqi and Raider Soldiers the same- exhausted.

"It always feels good to get this body armor off especially after walking so much today," said Engelbecht.

The group came together to conduct an after action review, to discuss and evaluate what happened during the day, and what was learned from the mission.

"The mission went very well because many of my Soldiers never had this experience before," said Hasim. "Now we can take what we learned and be more confident with [future] missions."

• Date Taken: 03.14.2010
• Date Posted: 03.23.2010 20:27
• Story ID: 47110
• Location: CAMP TAJI, IQ