Story filed 4-17-05

By Edward Lee Pitts
Military Affairs

CAMP CAMPBELL, Iraq -- As a front-line soldier who has spent the last four months securing the nearby city of Balad Ruz, Spc. Mike Hoback has cleared and searched buildings, patted down suspects and walked the city's streets -- activities he honed working more than five years as a Chattanooga police officer.

"That is all we do is patrols," said Spc. Hoback, 32, who patrols the East Lake area back home.

"If people are fighting, we get out and break it up. If someone is stealing gas, we take them to jail," he said. "Everybody here right now is a police officer."

Seven 278th Regimental Combat Team soldiers here are Chattanooga police officers, and they say their crime-fighting skills are helping them quell the insurgency near the Iranian border as soldiers with the Tennessee-based National Guard unit.

Piecing facts together and having a suspicious eye may not be the natural attributes of an insurance salesman serving in the National Guard, but they are second nature to a police officer, and they are valuable peacekeeping tools in Iraq.

"We are used to walking around with a loaded weapon and wearing uniforms," said Capt. Mark Smeltzer, 37, who works as a field-training officer with the Chattanooga police and has five years with the department.

Because soldiers trained to find and kill the enemy now have found themselves in a peacekeeping mission, those with a police background are at an advantage in making the adjustment, Spc. Chris Beavers, 32, said.

Spc. Beavers said Iraq's poverty-stricken people remind him of some residents in Chattanooga's housing projects.

"You have to be fair-handed," said Spc. Beavers, who has spent five years with the Chattanooga police and 12 years in the National Guard.

As in any location, he said, "You don't know who the bad guys are and who the good guys are, but you can't treat everybody like bad guys because you jade the good people who are glad you are here," Spc. Beavers said.

Capt. Smeltzer is using his police background while mentoring an Iraqi army company commander on how to cordon and search an area, how to take a suspect into custody and how to fire a weapon properly.

Chief Warrant Officer James Holloway, 40, said the attention to detail he developed as a homicide detective with 12 years on the Chattanooga police force helps him as a battle captain with the regiment's 1st Squadron. His role with the unit forces Chief Warrant Officer Holloway to conduct interrogations of detained suspects, something any homicide detective is used to doing, he said.

Capt. Grover Wilson, 38, said learning to deal with different people while working the Brainerd area as a police officer is paying off with better negotiation skills. Capt. Wilson handles civil affairs and special projects for the regiment's 3rd Squadron based at Forward Operating Base Cobra.

Capt. Smeltzer said the dangers here are more real.

"Here you are dealing with a group of people who want to kill you," he said. "Here we pretty much know when we surround a building we are going after some bad guys who have weapons. There are not a lot of people back home wearing vests to blow themselves up and hurt cops."

ADAPTING TO CHANGE

This constant threat is why soldiers here conduct patrols wearing the latest body armor and travel in a convoy of armored vehicles instead of just one police car.

"The big difference over here is we are carrying more firepower and we've got more backup," said Sgt. Bryan Wood, 26, who has been a Chattanooga officer for more than two years and a Guardsman for eight years.

Police habits, such as always eyeing a suspect's hands and using a weapon as a last resort, give the Chattanooga officers an edge, the officers said.

Spc. Hoback, who joined the Guard two years ago, said he has relied more on his 27 weeks of police academy training than he has on the exercises the regiment conducted at Camp Shelby, Miss., last summer in preparation for this deployment.

Capt. Wilson, a Chattanooga police officer for six years and an 18-year veteran with the Tennessee National Guard, said his observation skills have improved in Iraq, where threats can materialize at any time and place.

Sgt. Wood said he already would have squeezed the trigger on his M-4 rifle several times if it had not been for the muzzle discipline he learned as a police officer.

"Just because you are in a war zone doesn't mean you can shoot your weapon at any time," Sgt. Wood said. "I'm not going to shoot a bullet through the air and not know where it is going."

Chief Holloway said stress management is an ability engrained in a law enforcement officer that is indispensable in Iraq, where a routine mission can turn suddenly into a life-threatening attack.

"Police are so used to everything changing so rapidly," he said. "At home you can be eating a Panera bagel and the next thing you know you're in your car with the lights and siren going off."

Never shot at as a police officer, Sgt. Wood said surviving firefights is one experience he will take back with him when he returns to duty in Chattanooga.

"Now I know when or if I get shot at back home I'll keep a cool head and know how to react," he said.

TEACHING NEW OFFICERS

Capt. Smeltzer said instructors are teaching Iraqi soldiers proven police tactics to deter criminal activity.

The Iraqi army initially would drive around the villages without actually going in and giving residents a sense of security, Capt. Smeltzer said.

Soldiers in the 278th also are taking a page out of community policing tactics by showing the Iraqi army soldiers how relationships with residents can lead to tips and arrests, Chief Warrant Officer Holloway said.

To help with Iraqi police training, Chattanooga Police Chief Steve Parks has mailed the department's training material to Iraq on CD-ROM, said Spc. Hoback, who along with Sgt. Wood took a pay cut to serve here.

But Capt. Wilson said the hurdles Iraqi police face range from a lack of patrol cars to a misunderstanding about individual rights.

"They are going to have a hard time," he said.

Police here always will have challenges U.S. officers don't face, Capt. Smeltzer said. Traditionally tribes have their own laws, and police do not get involved in tribal issues, he said.

HOME SWEET HOME

All the police officers-turned-soldiers say they miss their jobs back home.

Chief Warrant Officer Holloway said there is no better reward than putting murderers behind bars. Capt. Smeltzer said he has a love for the street and can't wait to get back on patrol. Spc. Hoback said he is ready to renew the bonds he has formed with the East Lake community.

They said they gladly would trade in their Army desert camouflage for police blues. Patrolling the streets of Chattanooga is much better than convoying the streets of Iraq, they said.

For one thing, Chief Holloway said, the language barrier handcuffs his police abilities.

"I am a big proponent of talking my way out of trouble and not fighting," he said.

Spc. Beavers said he looks forward to working normal eight-hour shifts each day rather than what often seems like 24 hours a day, seven days a week in an area where mortars can land without warning, bombs on the road are a common sight and a soldier cannot leave the base without a small army of his comrades.

"It wears on your nerves at times," Spc. Beavers said.

But the main reason they yearn to return home has more to do with family than job.

"After my shift I can go to my house, sleep in my own bed and see my daughter," Spc. Hoback said.

E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

On the Web: Photos by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika of the 278th Regimental Combat Team are available on the Times Free Press Web site. Visit: http://www.timesfreepress.com/kp

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