Photo By Sgt. Spencer Case | Attendees of the Iraqi NCO training course at Camp Ur, plan their next training combat...... read more read more
CAMP UR, Iraq - It's easy to spot a British soldier in line at Camp Adder's dining facility " jokes British army Sgt. Maj. John Wilson " all you have to do is look for an Australian.
The British soldiers comprising the Monitoring, Mentoring and Training Team have grown used to having U.S. servicemembers misidentify their uniforms. They have also become accustomed to the daily challenges of supervising the Iraqi army training at Camp Ur.
Since October, the team, pieced together from the King's Own Royal Border Regiment, has been the primary coalition presence at the Iraqi base. Though they only started out with about 35 soldiers, a number that was gradually reduced to about 20 as some were reassigned, the team continues to shoulder a large responsibility.
"We've got to build up the security forces for the Iraqi army, or for Iraq," said British Maj. Phil Nathan, the team commander. "Once we've got a secure environment, they [the Iraqis] can take on a lot more of these responsibilities themselves and then turn their attention towards infrastructure. And so training soldiers, getting a credible army built up, is absolutely vital for the whole process."
As the largest training installation in southeast Iraq, Camp Ur is a particularly important piece of the equation. When the team inherited responsibility from the King's Royal Hussars, Iraqi instructors were teaching as many as 600 students at a time in a variety of essential military courses, including basic training, NCO training and job-specific training. The team later added a course retraining officers who served under the former regime.
Each morning after a physical training session and a routine safety briefing, the troops don their body armor, climb into vehicles, and leave Camp Mittica for the nearby installation of Camp Ur.
Throughout the day the British troops do what they can to minimize intervention while ensuring the training is up to par. The troops eavesdrop on classroom instruction through the help of an interpreter and analyze the training from a distance.
Whenever they have a suggestion for an improvement, they pull the instructor aside to keep the students from loosing confidence in their teachers.
However, occasionally they will address the entire class to emphasis a particular point.
The going has not always been easy. The team had intended to leave a self-sustaining base in January, but they found the installation was not ready to be completely autonomous when the time arrived.
Instead of moving on to new assignments, many of the troops in the team ended up spending their entire six-month deployment at Camp Ur.
"I think some of the greatest challenges have been coming to terms with the cultural differences," Nathan said. "They have a different leave policy, which is very frustrating at times. Just when you think you've got key personalities up to speed in certain areas, they go off on leave for a week or two, then you have to start the process all over again with somebody different."
Despite the slow pace and seemingly insurmountable problems, British and Iraqi leaders agree that the patience has paid off.
Nathan said the strides the Iraqis have made getting over bureaucratic 'teething troubles" in the headquarters element is "probably our most significant result."
"I think the overall quality of the training has improved a lot since we've been there," Nathan said. "The headquarters is a lot more efficient than it was, the levels of communications through the organization are much better."
An Iraqi officer who had spent about eight months at Camp Ur said through the help of a translator "a lot of things have changed for the better while I've been here, that's because our friends from the British army help us."
Further down the chain, Cpl. Keith Wilson, a communications specialist who helps train the Iraqis on equipment like Global Positioning Satellite systems, radio systems and reports, had positive things to say about the Iraqi training.
"Within the time that they're working with and the resources that they have, they're doing a reasonable job," he said.
Even with the improvements, there is more work to be done. The team will hand over responsibility to the next group, which will be formed from the Grenadier Guards, an infantry battalion, next month. The next team will continue to mentor them until they start company collective training. The current team hopes to run four companies through the three-week program by early July.
Making Camp Ur autonomous turned out to be no picnic, but Nathan said he is proud of his troops for the progress they have made.
"My soldiers have done and excellent job," Nathan said, "it can be very frustrating at times, coming to terms with the cultural differences and the way we work, but the guys have stuck with it, built up very good relationships with the Iraqis that they work with on a day-to-day basis and we've seen some good results."
| Date Taken: | 05.19.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 05.19.2006 04:21 |
| Story ID: | 6436 |
| Location: | CAMP UR, IQ |
| Web Views: | 134 |
| Downloads: | 21 |
This work, British troops train Iraqi soldiers at Camp Ur, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
