Battle staffs train for a common killer in Iraq: IEDs

Photo By Spc. Deborah Ledesma | IED Lane Training at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, gives troops a basic understanding of what to expect on the roads of Iraq. Battle Staff training expands on these basic concepts.  

01.24.2002

Story by Spc. Deborah Ledesma 

40th Public Affairs Detachment

By Spc. Debrah A. Robertson
40th Public Affairs Detachment

KUWAIT — The warfighter is maneuvering the streets of Iraq, trying to decide whether or not that chunk of concrete on the roadside is an improvised explosive device, but do they have time to think about the logistics behind these deadly devices?

The Counter-Improvised Explosive Device/Counterinsurgency (COIN) Battle Staff Training Seminar, held almost daily at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, not only has senior noncommissioned officers and officers asking these questions, but answering them as well.

Who dug the hole to place the IED? Who set the fuse? Who scouted the location? And, more importantly, why?

The seminar, set in a college-like atmosphere, provides information on the latest trends in Iraq to brigade and battalion battle staffs before they move their units up north.

Battle staff focuses on the whole system behind an IED, said Maj. Charles Brown, Third Army/ U.S. Army Central C-3 Training-Forward collective trainer.

It teaches leaders to ask how each step of setting an IED was carried out and why the individual involved participated in the terrorist act.

"You never think about what's left of the bomb," said Brown of the complicated system of individuals who bring about the birth of an IED.

"To defeat (the insurgents), we have to have an understanding of the operational environment," said Simon Matthews, a COIN instructor with MPRI. "It's a tough environment (the troops) are going into."

"The training provides clarity on who the actors of the battlefield are," said Matthews.

Although he has been deployed to Iraq before, Sgt. 1st Class James Taylor, the operations noncommissioned officer for the 101st Field Support Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, said the training brought him "up to speed" on the current relationships of the different tribes in Iraq.

He said the training brought to light some of the reasons tribesman help insurgents with their quest to harm American and allied forces.

This includes who is sympathizing with insurgents, which tribes are Sunni or Shiite and what events may have occurred that would lead a group to help plant an IED, such as what they may perceive as an injustice done to them by a Soldier.

"This training will help not only us, but those on future deployments," said Taylor, who plans to use the training to help build a rapport with the Iraqi's he may encounter during his missions off base in Iraq.

Understanding where they are coming from and why they do the things they do can help troops counter their attempts to do them harm.

Using the example of a young man digging a hole for an IED so that he can receive money to feed his family, Matthews demonstrates to his class the importance of knowing the people they encounter. He tells his class that by providing bread to the man, he may decide not to dig the hole, not only because he is no longer as desperate to provide food that day but because the servicemember has created a rapport with him. The man does not want to harm the person who helped him.

Thinking outside the box is the Battle Staff Training Seminar's trademark.

Matthews and his fellow instructors teach servicemembers from multiple military branches to look beyond the situation at hand and ask why.

If the leaders of the warfighters know why an event will occur, then they can better direct their troops on the appropriate actions to take to counter the event before lives are lost, said Matthews. Whether by deciding the amount of force to use during a heated confrontation with an Iraqi civilian or how to react to the graciousness of an Iraqi host, the training helps breach these scenerios.

"You can't just shoot into a crowd and kill innocents," said Brown.

Such actions give civilians motivation for helping the insurgency, said Matthews.

"You have to understand the environment," he continued.

"Every innocent killed creates 10 insurgents who want revenge," said Brown.

The training teaches leaders to think beyond the battlefield and use countermeasures to stop civilians from becoming insurgents before they have taken lives.

• Date Taken: 01.24.2002
• Date Posted: 01.24.2007 09:46
• Story ID: 8917