Publication:Chattanooga Times Free Press
Date:Saturday, February 19, 2005
Section:Front Page; Page:1

Handling Iraq on Their Own

By Edward Lee Pitts Military Affairs

FORWARD OPERATING BASE BERNSTEIN, Iraq — At the command from their U.S. Army drill sergeant, the Iraqi soldiers here snapped to attention, stomped one foot each and yelled in unison, "Cobra."

This platoon, nicknamed Cobra, is the third cycle of Iraqi Army troops to go through the 278 th Regimental Combat Team-led basic military course. The course is held inside this base jointly occupied by soldiers from both nations. In all, 300 Iraqi soldiers have attended training under the 2 nd Squadron here since the 278 th arrived in December.

The Cobra platoon and another called Tiger soon will join the ranks of the regular Iraqi army.

"Teaching them what we know is our ticket home," said Staff Sgt. Don "Bull" McClendon, 45, of Haletown, Tenn., who grew up in Red Bank.

Now that the election is over, getting the Iraqi Army ready to handle a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq on their own is the main focus of many 278 th soldiers stationed here.

By the end of April, more than 400 new Iraqi soldiers are expected to receive instruction from the 278 th soldiers with 2 nd Squadron stationed at Bernstein. Tennessee National Guard soldiers at the 278 th’s two other bases here are conducting similar training in northeastern Iraq, where more than 2,000 Iraqi soldiers now serve alongside their American counterparts.

In anticipation of this Iraqi Army takeover, military contractors have arrived to convert the base into the permanent headquarters of a new Iraqi army division. Two U.S. generals were among the dignitaries at last week’s grand opening of the 4 th Iraqi Army Division’s temporary headquarters in downtown Tuz, just a few miles from Bernstein. In addition, U.S. State Department officials and international police advisers are providing advanced, SWAT teamlike instruction here, said Capt. Mark Lenhart, 34, of Holland, Mich., the Iraqi police coordinator for the 2 nd Squadron.

Capt. Lenhart, who is training about 30 police officers, said he hopes they will go back to their respective police stations and train others.

Soldiers both drill and go out on missions with the Iraqis to make their new security forces more self-sufficient.

"We provide the security on the outside so the Iraqi security forces can do the job on the inside," said Sgt. John Scarborough, 30, of Chattanooga. "They know the people, the language and the terrain, so they can handle that better."

BASIC TRAINING

Soldiers with the Iraqi Cobra and Tiger platoons recently completed a course on basic first aid, land navigation and rifle marksmanship with their standard issue AK-47 machine guns. The course also included marching, which the Iraqis do by raising their right arm chest high with each step.

The course of instruction here mirrors what is going on in many Army bases across the U.S., including tips on personal hygiene. But back in the States, U.S. recruits have eight weeks to learn what these Iraqi soldiers must master in two weeks, said Sgt. Robert Mussared, 25, of Trenton, Ga.

The hardest days are when the 278th instructors take their platoons out to the rifle range where, according to Staff Sgt. McClendon, the Iraqi soldiers struggle with zeroing, or aiming, their weapons.

"A lot of them will close their eyes and pray and ask Allah to guide the bullet," he said.

The Iraqi soldiers wear old U.S. Army desert-camouflage fatigues used by American forces during the first Persian Gulf War. Sgt. Mussared said the Iraqis "couldn’t march or do anything" on the first day of training. "Now they are a thousand times better," he said.

U.S. soldiers bark out orders, but the translator’s Arabic version does not always carry as much bite.

"Do you understand me?" shouted Sgt. Mussared after his platoon failed to conduct a proper right-face, about-face move. Not happy with the soldiers’ puzzled looks, Sgt. Mussared yanked a few soldiers out of formation and ordered them to "eat pavement" by doing push-ups.

Sgt. Mussared said some English drill phrases just do not have Arabic equivalents, not to mention the added confusion occurring when he throws in a Southern dialect.

"They aren’t very good with ‘Y’all,’" he said. "That really gets them."

However, these are not entirely green units. In fact, 40 out of one platoon’s 56 soldiers are veterans of Mr. Hussein’s disbanded Iraqi army. Some even were officers.

But now they all are lined up as equals moving to the translated instructions of an American soldier.

Aday Sharge, 30, an Arab who served more than three years in the former Iraqi Army, said good salary, food and instruction are the biggest differences between the old and new armies.

Soldiers training the Iraqis say it is harder to undo years of Iraqi army indoctrination than it is to shape a younger recruit experiencing military life for the first time. Sgt. Andy McClanahan, 34, of Morristown, Tenn., said one former sergeant major in Mr. Hussein’s army said he used to train soldiers with a steel whip. "He understands he can’t do that anymore," Sgt. McClanahan said.

Not surprisingly, the recruits are happy to put such brutality behind them in starting their new military careers.

"You felt like you were in a prison, not an army," Kamas Mahmood, 34, who spent more than a decade in the Iraqi army, said through a translator. "The soldiers in front of an officer were like a slave who didn’t have the right to live." He said the Iraqi army appeared strong under Mr. Hussein but inside all the soldiers were "limp."

"YOU ARE ALL BROTHERS"

The 278 th sergeants also must rid their Iraqi recruits of any ethnic biases. The area around Bernstein is a mix of Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen, distinct ethnic groups with a history of violence toward one another who now find themselves fighting under the same flag.

"The first day I tell them, ‘You are no longer Arabs, Turkomans or Kurds. You are now Iraqi soldiers, and you are all brothers, and I’m your big brother,’" Sgt. McClanahan said. "A f t er a few days they get the hang of it because they hate push-ups."

Despite the ethnic intermingling and the risk of death, many Iraqis want to join the army. Four hundred prospective soldiers lined up at the gate outside Bernstein on the first day of training for the current batch.

"It is good money, and it’s safe now because the sergeants aren’t shooting them anymore for screwing up," Sgt. McClanahan said.

Military salaries can be more than twice what an average resident makes in the area, the new Iraqi soldiers said through translators during a recent break in training. A soldier takes home about 500,000 dinars a month, roughly $300 to $400.

Most soldiers dismissed the threat of getting killed in action as something that long has been a part of life in Iraq.

"You know this is the army and you have to expect everything," said Olshad Kasem, 21, a Turkoman who had no previous military experience. "But you have to struggle, struggle, struggle to gain democracy and freedom."

E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - Iraqi Army officers present colors for the 4 th Iraqi Army Division as they open their new temporary headquarters. The new division eventually will be housed at Forward Operating Base Bernstein, where some members of the 278 th Regimental Combat Team now serve.

U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - A platoon of the 4 th Iraqi Army Division marches after a ceremony opening the division’s temporary headquarters in Tuz, Iraq, just a few miles from Forward Operating Base Bernstein.

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