Long Absence and Transition Team Update

Another beautiful sunset at the National Training Center. Over the years I've never tired of the Fort Irwin sunsets. Well, it's been almost a month since my last post. Needless to say, lately I've been a horrible blogger. Unfortunately between Facebook and my Combat Advisor education, I keep managing to find other things to do than scroll on my experiences here at Fort Riley. I apologize up front for the recent lack of communication.

In the last month our team made a trip to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin California to participate in a mission rehearsal exercise with a brigade from the 25th Infantry Division. The Brigade Combat Team was participate in an Afghanistan scenario in preparation for a deployment later in 2009. Our team was sent in to give the Brigade an appreciation for what it means to have a team of advisors assigned to their coalition partners.

On the surface, we kind of appear as proverbial pain in the ass. We require more support than we have to offer in return. I hear friends of mine in theater complain about MiTTs unable to proficiently walk the line between their Iraqi counterparts and the local coalition force commander. What I think is missed in all the complaining is the realization the difficulty in finding balance between loyalty and 'going native' is grossly under appreciated.

What I learned at NTC with the Brigade is that you have two commanders with two separate agendas. One represents the future and the eventual ticket home. Increasing his capability and competence is what Counterinsurgency is all about. The other commander represents our personal future and holds the careers of the local Transition Teams in his hand. Obviously we are Americans first and foremost, loyal to the U.S. Army and our chain of command.

Fortunately, I see things getting better. From the Transition Team standpoint, the BCT Commander I met at NTC along with his staff 'gets' what COIN is about. They were intent on working through the local Transition Teams rather than just working them. They sought input from the Transition Team Chief on all matters relating to the host nation military. It was a pleasant surprise and raises my expectations for the upcoming year.

The impromptu relationship between the Transition Team, host nation military, and brigade combat team managed to be productive in a very short time despite new relationships and unfamiliar languages and land. I'm positive that had our teams met up downrange rather than in a training environment that the outcome would have been equally positive.

Well, our time here at Riley is quickly drawing to a close. The upcoming weeks will bring some time off and an eventual plane ride back to Iraq. I'll update as I can.

Weeks 5 & 6 - Equipment and Weapons Training

The training fire hose continues. We moved past the cultural and team indoctrination phase and transitioned into the field phase. The training consisting of communications, combat lifesaver, driver's training, and weapons. Communications entailed the latest on all the possible systems that will be available to the teams in theater. New to me was the capability of the handheld Harris and EMBITTER radios. My only previous experience with handhelds had been unsecured ICON and Motorolas. These represent an impressive jump in capability and will serve the team well.

Combat lifesaver has been upgraded since my last time through. Along with the new first aid kits came extensive tourniquet and tension pneumothorax training. Of course, the rite of passage in all CLS training events is sticking your buddy with an IV, and him sticking you. My partner and I did quite well, both hitting gold on the first stick. Others did not go so well. A few missed sticks is funny. Watching a poor soul get multiple perforations in both arms becomes quite sad.

Last week was a condensed version of range week. In order to get the team ready for NTC, we pushed through M9, M4, M203, M240B, and M2 and all the associated Pre Marksmanship Instruction (PMI) in a week. Most teams spread the training over a couple of weeks, but since we needed to get the training done, we compressed it and got it done in time to line haul our vehicles and equipment for a 10 day trip out to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.

You heard that right. We are deviating from the normal training plan in order to participate in an NTC rotation with a Brigade Combat Team from the 25th Infantry Division. The purpose is twofold. First, expose the BCT to a Military Transition Team and the security and support requirements associated with them. Second, and most important, this give our team the opportunity to roll in the desert under more realistic conditions than Fort Riley and work on out teams Battle Drills and Tactical Standard Operating Procedures. I anticipate the rotation will benefit everyone. I almost feel like I'm going home as I spent 5 rotations at the NTC in the first half of my career.

Weeks 3 & 4 - Language, Cultural Awareness and Counterinsurgency

For the last couple of weeks, we've been knee deep in classroom instruction. The curriculum here for deploying MiTT members starts with a solid foundation of FM 3-24's take on counterinsurgency. Instructors handed out homework in the form of Galula, Kilcullen, and Petraeus. The important thing to note here is that they're not just teaching this to the senior Non-Commissioned Officers and Field Grades, they're are teaching this to everybody. This includes to all enlisted and company grade officers that come through the training.

The goal is to provide every armed forces member deploying as a Training Team (TT) member a rudimentary knowledge of wide variety of considerations in play in their respective Area of Operations (AO), be it Afghanistan or Iraq. I have seen members here from the Army, Air Force, and Navy. While I get a minor chuckle at the cultural differences between services, the bottom line is that they are departing their traditional roles in order to assist the overall mission. Although, it's still funny watching them work their weapon through a clearing barrel.

Probably the most entertaining classes up to now are the Defense Language Institute (DLI) contracted courses in Iraqi-Arabic. They have done an outstanding job in putting together a talented group of individuals that perform the daunting task of teaching an alien language in what seems like an impossibly short time. They also provide invaluable insight in cultural awareness.

As we finish up this phase of our training we looking forward to the tactical phase. Vehicle, weapons, tactics, movement, and other traditional Soldier training awaits. We get in quality physical training in the morning and the food is nothing to complain about. All in all it's been a good couple of weeks as our team appears to have the right combination of leadership, common sense, talent, and experience.

I look forward to getting this mission underway.