Courtesy Photo | Sgt. Richard Howard (center), with Company A, 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 1st...... read more read more
By Sgt. Mary S. Katzenberger
BAGHDAD — Sgts. Richard Howard and William Stewart understand the importance of “being on the same page” while manning a checkpoint.
The infantrymen, with Company A, 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 1st Advise and Assist Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, United States Division – Center, served together in Al Anbar province, Iraq, during “the surge” from 2007 to 2008. The non-commissioned officers and their soldiers conducted missions in Bradley Fighting Vehicles around Ramadi, Iraq, and had to be prepared to set up hasty checkpoints with only a few minutes’ notice.
The proper conduct of these checkpoints was essential to the soldiers’ mission, and allowed them to capture known insurgents or their associates and disrupt the flow of supplies used for crafting roadside bombs.
As it was then, so it is now—only today, Iraqi Army soldiers are in charge of manning their own country’s checkpoints and observation posts. Howard and Stewart are teaching them how to do it, sharing their experiences to benefit the students.
The infantrymen’s most recent educational initiative was focused on checkpoint operations and the development of a standard operating procedure to be adopted by the 9th Iraqi Army Division, and possibly the IA as a whole. The four-day course, at the Division Tactical Action Center for the 9th IA Div. at Camp Taji, Iraq, provided a forum for the officers—who hailed from different battalions throughout the division—in which to discuss ideas, ask questions and decide upon best practices.
The final SOP, created as a culmination of the project, would encompass everything from checkpoint supplies to standard battle drill responses to threats.
“They’re already doing the right thing—we just need to get them on the same page and get this stuff on paper,” said Stewart, a Greensboro, N.C. native. “That’s the new step we’re taking with [Operation] New Dawn.”
Howard, a Cleveland, Texas, native, said without a written SOP, checkpoints can fall victim to confusion. However, with standard, service-wide drills and procedures, soldiers can operate efficiently and effectively no matter where they are.
Stewart and Howard said they stress to their students the importance of training, exposing as few troops as possible to danger at checkpoints, and of developing quality assurance and monitoring systems—such as inspections conducted by officers and sergeants—to ensure that IA soldiers are held accountable for set standards adhere to them at their posts.
“We’re not trying to make them into the [U.S.] Army,” Howard said. “We throw out scenarios [and] they develop the [solutions]. It’s to give them ideas [and] raise a lot of questions because this is their time to get together.”
Howard and Stewart said the training was meaningful to them for many reasons.
“Compared to my last deployment … working with the Iraqi Army—it’s [like] night and day,” Howard said. “It lets [us] know that what we’ve done in our time in the Army—what we’ve done in Iraq—wasn’t for nothing.”
Stewart added that the change in mission from kicking in doors to being classroom instructors has been refreshing.
“That’s what we want,” he said. “We have to pass this knowledge on just like we do to our privates and to our future [non-commissioned officers]—we have to pass this knowledge on to them so they can pass it down.”
Howard agreed.
| Date Taken: | 11.12.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 11.12.2010 06:40 |
| Story ID: | 59981 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 137 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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