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Jordanians teach American troops Cultural Awareness

Courtesy Photo | While on the mounting patrol lane a Jordanian role-player imitates the Iman of a...... read more read more

ZARQA, JORDAN

04.28.2006

Courtesy Story

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Capt. Chevelle Thomas
Third Army/Coalition Forces Land Component Command Public Affairs Office

ZARQA, Jordan (April 19, 2006) - More than 300 U.S. Soldiers gained greater insight into the Arabic culture in preparation for upcoming deployments into Iraq, with the wisdom provided by Jordanian allies at the Peace Operation Training Center in Zarqa, Jordan, March 24 through April 16.

The Cultural Awareness Course was part of U.S. Central Command's Theater Support Cooperation Program, with U.S. Soldiers from Third Army assisting in training the troops who came from units throughout the U.S. and in Germany.

"Third Army has partnered with the Jordanian Armed Forces to teach this training since October 2003 and pushes it as a key training platform and integral piece of the Forces Command training strategy for deploying Operation Iraqi Freedom forces," said Maj. Keith Thompson, Third Army C-3 training officer.

"The overall objective is to train our Soldiers on cultural consideration, not tactics. In doing so we hope to aid in the process of restoring diplomacy and order in the Middle East, promote multinational involvement, international cooperation and strengthen our relationships with countries in the Middle East," Thompson said.

Units who sent Soldiers to be trained include III Corps, 1st Cavalry Division, 25th Infantry Division, 13th Corps Support Command were some of the units involved.

The course consisted of three rotations: a senior-leaders seminar for brigade commanders, battalion commanders, sergeants major and field-grade officers, and two rotations of officer and noncommissioned officer training.

The senior-leaders seminar included a visit and panel discussion with Third Army Commanding General, Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb. Students also learned customs within the Arabic culture: hierarchy of tribes and structure of Iraqi society, social structure for a family or tribe, women in the Arabic society, basic Arabic language and the structure of their government.

Attendees visited the Jordanian International Police Training center, where U.S. contractors and Jordanians train Iraqi policemen to uphold law and order in Iraq.

Additionally, the officer and NCO rotations included four situational training exercises on checkpoints, building searches, mounted patrols and media.

The STX lanes focused on many aspects of Arabic culture and were taught by American observer controllers, Jordanian officers, NCOs and several Arabic role-players. Troops had to interact with them in a way that balanced the mission while respecting the culture and religious beliefs of the Arabs. Training missions involved such scenarios as searching and clearing a home, and speaking with the media about a family's home or mosque that was being used to store money and weapon caches to support insurgency.

Cultural awareness training is held in Jordan because the Jordanians are familiar with their Iraqi neighbors, said Jordanian Col. Ali Mahasneh, POTC commandant.

"They are our neighboring country," he said. "The common factors are language, history and customs, so we have a lot in common. We know a lot about their backgrounds and culture and we help by training these forces."

Mahasneh said, "â?¦ to respect the culture, to know the backgrounds, the cultural groups and political groups in Iraq â?¦ helps them and facilitates their work."

The Jordanian and U.S. cadre worked together months in advance to make sure everything was planned appropriately for the training.

Jordanian Lt. Col. Jamal Momani, POTC project officer said, "POTC is a specialized school in Jordan that trains Soldiers before they are deployed to any United Nations peace keeping mission."

For this course, Momani said the goal was to ensure American troops understood the different aspects of Arab culture, which could enable them to save the lives of Soldiers and Iraqi locals.

"The goal is to prepare officers and NCOs for deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom â?¦ to prepare them to be culturally aware for when they start doing operations in conjunction with the Iraqi police and Iraqi forces so that they take the cultural aspects into consideration when working with the Iraqi people," said Col. Kevin Fagedes, Third Army deputy C-3 officer.

Staff Sgt. Miguel Sanchez, POTC U.S. observer controller, 1st Cavalry Division, further explained the differences in this training. "What we are trying to do here at the checkpoint lane is not focus so much on the tactics, techniques and procedures, but we are trying to have these students experience basically what they are going to experience in Iraq," he said. "We want them to experience the situations, the culture and the environment before they actually get in theater."

Many students felt the training could be used in many ways to support their missions back in the United States.

"It's outstanding training. We can use it for home station training prior to deployments," said 1st Sgt. Larry D. McClelland, POTC student from the 565th Quartermaster Company. "This is training we could use to minimize incidents while in Iraq by being culturally aware."

"I think my favorite lane was clearing a building," said Capt. Kevin Pelley, POTC student, 92nd Military Police Battalion. "It allowed us to interact with the people â?¦ and see the inside of an Iraqi house." They also had the chance to deal with the native men and women and the cultural differences between them.

Some of the main points emphasized during the cultural awareness training were how women represent a symbol of honor in the family and men are a symbol of power. Other aspects of Islamic society discussed were face-saving, food customs, wedding ceremonies, funerals and the ramifications for ignoring the culture.

Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Sollenberger, POTC student, 128th Infantry said, "The vignettes we went over in the media portion will be especially useful to me because of the different scenarios we had to walk through on a day-to-day basis."

Sollenberger said he would incorporate his new knowledge into his unit's training at the squad and team level.

Cultural awareness training could also benefit young lieutenants coming out of their officer basic branch training, said Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Land, POTC student and air defense artillery officer basic course instructor. "I'm going to bring that (knowledge) back and run it up to our commander, the Officer Basic Course chief, and give some recommendations on where we can implement this kind of training."