CONTINUING the good work of Al Muthanna Task Group 1 (AMTG1) can be deemed akin to fitting a new pair of boots – the design is spot on; there just needs to be a period to walk them in.

And so was the transition in Iraq from AMTG1 to AMTG2, which arrived for a tour of duty on Operation Catalyst in October 2005.

Major Wayne Crawford was Commander of Combat Team Courage, a cavalry team that formed part of the overall battle group, tasked with providing security for the Japanese reconstruction force and also for the Australian Army Training Team – Iraq (AATTI).

“AMTG1 did a lot of great work setting things up, so we came in and took it a step further by developing their initiatives,” MAJ Crawford said.

“They (Iraqi Army) had set up their battalion quite nicely, with good hygienic messing arrangements. We then deployed them away from their barracks environment while still maintaining those hygiene standards that we carry into the field.

“We found the Iraq Army to be very happy in their bases in the major cities, but take them out of that environment and it was all new to them, so they were very receptive to our training and there were a lot of good lessons learned.”

“The only real hurdles were the differences between our style of training and how we think and their style of training, and that’s probably more a cultural and language thing more than anything significant.

“I recall that they would do a lot of their work during the day, so we put it to them about providing security at night and they said, ‘No, night is for sleeping’, so it’s just their way of approaching their job that we worked through.”

MAJ Crawford said the training covered all aspects, with the primary focus being to let the Iraqi Army conduct the training, with the AATTI taking on a traditional observer or ‘overwatch’ roll.

“We’d take the battalion for PT (physical training) in the mornings and rather than us running the training for them, we’d sit back and provide fine tuning if necessary,” said MAJ Crawford.

“There was a contact during range practise just north of As Samawah for the Iraqi Company that was up there. We had a security element at the base and the local insurgents started shooting at our security element, so the Iraqi security element immediately returned fire, then went out and swept through and dealt with that situation.

“That was without us prompting anything or saying ‘hey you need to sort this out’. They did it automatically, so that was a great indication of the training that both AMTG1 did and we did.

“It was very rewarding to see them come and deal with that situation themselves without any of our direct involvement.

“A lot of the local Iraqi population spoke to me personally and said, ‘we like what you’re doing, you always look professional and you always conduct yourselves in a professional manner and we hope our army can take that from you’.”

Training in Iraq - Operation Catalyst fact sheet