Brits team up to train Iraqi army

Photo By Christina McCann | Sgt. Paul Watson, a native of Manchester, England and a member of the British Army's Royal Guards, pulls rear security on a combined U.S., Iraqi, and British patrol. Watson has been working with the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., since May, training Iraqi soldiers at Patrol Base Lion's Den south of Camp Striker, Iraq, and is one of four British soldiers in the current rotation with 2-14, which changes every 90 days.  

IRAQ

07.30.2007

Story by Christina McCann 

2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Public Affairs

Spc. Chris McCann
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Public Affairs

PATROL BASE LIONS' DEN, Iraq — One of the United States' longstanding allies is helping build the Iraqi army, sometimes from the ground up.

There are four British soldiers serving with troops of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., at Patrol Base Lions' Den, Iraq, at any given time.

They aid the "Golden Dragons" of the 2-14 Inf. Regt. military transition team, also known as a "MiTT."

Capt. James Morris, a native of Devon, England, is a Royal Marine who came to work with 2-14 Inf. Regt. as part of an officer exchange with U.S. troops.

Sgt. Paul Watson is a native of Manchester and a member of the Royal Guards, the well-known guards around Buckingham Palace who wear tall bearskin hats and are teased by tourists trying to get them to break their straight faces.

They and two others deployed April 28, training in Kuwait and Iraq, before arriving at Lions' Den in May to work with the infantry battalion. They work closely with Capt. Dennis Grinde, of Grand Forks, N.D., and Sgt. 1st Class Scott Madden of Miamisburg, Ohio, the MiTT commander and non-commissioned officer in charge, respectively.

"There's really not much difference between the U.S. and British armies," said Morris, who served with the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team in Afghanistan in 2006. "Your armored Humvees are much better. But patrol tactics are not much different. You can integrate British and U.S. troops with no problem. What you call 'fives and twenty-fives' we call 'five-meter-and-twenty-meter searches,' but it's not difficult to figure out. The tactics remain pretty much the same."

Watson agreed.

"I call it 'same (stuff), different army," Watson said. "soldiers are soldiers at the end of the day, wherever you go."

"It's really interesting, "Grinde said. "We're really all one team. Like Winston Churchill said, fighting a war with an alliance is hard, but it's impossible without one."

The MiTT has been working on training many Iraqi soldiers, most of whom they had to re-train from the ground up because the troops had not internalized much of their previous training.

On a recent mission, much of the Iraqi company was 35 minutes late to begin the patrol.

"One of the platoon leaders, Omar, always has his guys there on time and squared away," said Morris. "The others, not so much."

"We're not trying to get them up to Western standards. We're trying to get them to Iraqi standards, so that the British and American Soldiers can go home and they can have a functional native army," Morris said. "We're not here to change their culture, we're here to train them. In their culture, it's very 'insh'allah' – God willing – being on time isn't a big deal."

"In the last four weeks, they've started really thinking," Watson said. "They're asking for vehicle support, but they're doing their own techniques and we're falling back a little bit."

"They need confidence," Morris added. "We're trying to give them that, and then start weaning them off our support. We're stepping back and doing overwatch while they do more of the missions now."

After the Iraqis train at Lions' Den, they will go south to Tallil to work with an Australian unit, which helps get them to a higher level of skill, Morris said.

Until then, the Soldiers of 2-14 Inf. Regt. and their British attachments continue to teach.

"If we train them in the morning and late afternoon, they remember more," Morris said.

Making classes entertaining is also important, said Watson.

"The level of education and literacy they have means that practical, hands-on training works better," he explained. "And when we make it a little entertaining, it works much better."

The coalition forces also try to keep things entertaining for themselves.

The British regale the 2-14 Inf. Soldiers with tales of their riot training, with full-contact company-on-company riots, with a unit of British regulars against a unit of Nepalese Gurkhas. The fighting is no-holds-barred, with live Molotov cocktails – "petrol bombs," as Morris and Watson call them – and attempted kidnappings.

The Americans enthusiastically ask about Watson's time in the Queen's Guard. ("Does the Queen send tea out for you?" "Yes, but we can't drink it, it would involve moving," And "What happens if you smile?" "Twenty-eight days in jail, no questions at all.")

There is also some good-natured ribbing about the American Revolutionary War.
"You guys should be good at counter-insurgency now," one Soldier said, laughing. "I think we kind of beat you with insurgency warfare a few years ago."

"That you did," Morris said, also laughing, "although we had a good run at the beginning. But we're onto those tricks now."

More importantly, the Iraqi troops are improving drastically.

• Date Taken: 07.30.2007
• Date Posted: 07.30.2007 23:12
• Story ID: 11528
• Location: IQ