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MOSUL, Iraq -- A soldier with 2nd Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery, 101st Airborne Division, assembles an AK-47 rifle with a soldier from the Joint Iraqi Security Company, left, and a translator, center, June 5. The 2-44 ADA is training Kurdish and Iraqi forces to become the first self-sufficient Iraqi military force. Photo by Pfc. James Matise/U.S. Army. |
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“Very good,” the instructor said when the soldier motioned he was finished, stood up with his gift-wrapped head and gestured for the other soldiers to give a round of applause. “Now who’s next?” The Joint Iraqi Security Company, the first military security force in Iraq made up of Iraqis from across the country and hopefully soon to be the first self-sufficient Iraqi military force, is being trained for service by 2nd Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, a unit assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). The force is split in to three platoons, one of Kurdish soldiers, one of former troops from the Free Iraqi Force and one of former Iraqi military troops. Altogether, it’s about 100 soldiers strong. “They’ve come together in to one company with a chain of command,” said 1st Lt. Daniel Donovan, provisional JISC executive officer. “The company will have almost 100 people.” The two platoons are made up of former Peshmerga Special Forces and Iraqis from the Free Iraqi Force, which is now disbanded. The third platoon will come later, of former Iraqi military soldiers, vetted and cleared through the Civil Military Operations Center, Donovan said. The training is all done in the mornings. After several hours of training, the Iraqis go to work patrolling the Ammunition Supply Point side by side with American forces. “We have them working hand in hand with our guys. They’ve done some clearing missions with buildings, they’ve been shot at with us, we’ve been in combat together,” Donavan said. “Just the other day they apprehended some [enemy forces], disarmed them and turned them over to the Iraq forces.”
Saturday morning, two of the three platoons met to receive their initial first aid training from Capt. Donald La Rue, 109th Medical Company, a reserve unit from Arizona that is assigned to the 101st. “It was great fun today,” La Rue said. “We’ve been seeing them on sick call, and if they have injuries they would bring them to us, so there are a lot of familiar faces.” La Rue taught the soldiers how to apply basic field dressings and pressure dressings to the arms and the head, arm slings and splints. The soldiers trained on each other and said the JISC soldiers caught on quickly. “Some of them had first aid training, most did not, but shoot, we showed them once and they caught right on,” La Rue said. “This is a great opportunity. We got to get these guys trained so we can go home.” On completing three days of first aid instruction, the soldiers began their two-week Basic Rifle Marksmanship course. The course, much like U.S. military training, began with in-class familiarization of their personal weapons, which in the Iraqi soldiers’ case is the AK-47 automatic rifle. Kurdish soldiers demonstrated how to properly fieldstrip a rifle. After each trainee demonstrated this knowledge, he was shown how to properly take the prone and kneeling shooting positions. Capt. Brian De Leon, HHB, 2-44 ADA, and provisional JISC commander, said the Kurdish Peshmerga have been of great help to training the unit. “The Peshmerga have a little more training, so we’ve had them integrate that in to the company and teach the other soldiers,” he said.
Soldiers with the 2-44th were also familiarized with fieldstripping the AK-47 and the PK machinegun so they would better understand the weapons the Iraqi soldiers are learning to use. The marksmanship block of instruction will culminate in marksmanship practice and qualification on a live-fire range, De Leon said. Once BRM is completed, the company will learn principles of land navigation and map reading. The Iraqi soldiers are also learning the importance of discipline accomplished through drill and ceremony. They are required to go through the proper movements, according to their own drill standards, while moving, turning and speaking, both individually and as a group. They have already produced their own guidon, which depicts a pair of clasped hands against a field of yellow, surmounted by a row of three stars -- green, half green and half gold, and gold. Below the hands, the letters ‘JISC’ are printed in black. The company follows a ‘shadow’ chain of command, with a U.S. commander, executive officer, and first sergeant, coupled with Iraqi counterparts. An Iraqi major from the New Iraqi Force is scheduled to take command of the company in two weeks, De Leon said. “The soldiers will stand in battalion formation and do their change of command,” he said. De Leon said his unit plans to work with the soldiers for the next month or two, until it is ready to stand on its own. |
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