Posted on 07/06/2008 11:33:48 AM PDT by SandRat
FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY — The No. 1 man glances back, ensuring his comrades are in tow. They’re about to search a building known to house insurgents. But where are they, exactly? The team leader signals. They rush in to clear a room. Gunfire! The “up” signal is given. An Iraqi man calmly walks through the door. He says, “Good, now do it again.”
Leaders of the 3rd battalion, 8th brigade, 2nd national police division conducted their fourth non-commissioned officer training academy at Forward Operating Base Volunteer in Baghdad last month. Leaders trained shurta - Iraqi policemen - from 3rd Battalion in tasks including cordon and search, first aid, rifle marksmanship, sensitive-site exploitation, non-commissioned officer duties and responsibilities and map reading.
What made this course so special was that Iraqi NCOs trained Iraqi NCOs. During previous academy courses, U.S. team members from 3rd Battalion’s National Police Transition Team took the lead. However, they received assistance from Command Sgt. Maj. Arrif Adel, the unit’s Iraqi National Police assistant senior enlisted adviser, and his team, said Maj. Bryan Hunt, team chief for 3rd Bn., 8th Bde., 2nd NP Div. NPTT. But all that changed for Class 4 students as Command Sgt. Maj. Adel and his team took over the class completely. For the first time, national police senior NCOs instructed their junior NCOs and NPTT personnel provided little oversight, explained Hunt, an Oceanside, Calif. native.
“This training filled a critical gap between the training in Basra or Numaniyah and what they will receive from Italian Caribanari in the coming months,” explained Hunt.
Caribanari is an organization scheduled to provide advanced police training Special Weapons and Tactics tasks to all Iraqi national police units, explained Master Sgt. Timothy Terpak, a Cliffwood Beach, N.J. native serving as NCO in charge of the 3rd Battalion NPTT.
Terpak thinks Adel Arrif Sa’adi, a National Police senior NCO academy instructor, and Haider, a National Police medic, have the skills and knowledge to successfully continue the program, providing critical training to the Shurta within the battalion and to future 3rd Battalion NCOs.
“I believe that this training is critical to legitimizing the NCOs in the ranks of the national police and prepares them for duties of increased responsibility,” said Terpak.
Looks like the 3-8-2 INP is next up for Phase III training.
The 1-1-1 INP is due to be the fifth battalion to graduate later this month.
The development of a solid NCO corps is the single most important part of producing a competent force.
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