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Vital lessons
Australians continue to make an important contribution toward the training of the Iraqi Army. Story and photos by Capt Sarah Hawke
Edition 1168, June 14, 2007 |
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| Purple patch: Tpr Brendan Higgs encourages an Iraqi soldier to push on during Australian-led training near As Samawah in southern Iraq. |
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| Fire drill: Sgt Steven Pike mentors an Iraqi soldier during a street patrol scenario at the As Samawah railway yards. |
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Every day an Australian convoy snakes its way out of the Ali Air Base, Tallil, in southern Iraq.
It heads a short way down the road to an Iraqi Army base at Camp Ur for Australian soldiers to continue the painstaking task of rebuilding what was once one of the world’s largest armies.
The troops are from the Australian Army Training Team Iraq (AATTI). Their mission is to mentor and advise the Iraqi Army instructors training institutions throughout Iraq.
The Tallil-based team works with instructors at the Camp Ur Regional Training Centre (RTC) to ensure they provide the best training possible to their new soldiers. The team is made up mostly of SNCOs from various units and fields of expertise across Australia.
Maj Jeff Ashton, OIC of AATTI-7 – which has just returned home from deployment in Iraq – said: “We’re talking about building an entire army of more than 100,000 soldiers across Iraq almost from scratch and restarting it, so the simple scale of what is being done is a challenge in itself.”
AATTI-7 was involved in recruit and IET training for more than 15,000 Jundi (private soldiers), and trade and promotion training for more than 600 soldiers, NCOs and officers.
The eighth rotation of AATTI has been bolstered by up to 100. The headquarters element is being relocated from Ali Air Base to Taji, north of Baghdad, where trainers and logistical experts will work with the Iraqi Army’s national depot and logistical school. But a team of about 26 will remain at Camp Ur.
The key focus for officers such as Maj Ashton in the training team is mentoring principal staff officers in the headquarters, assisting them in key support functions such as supply, personnel management and discipline. For the NCOs, the focus is at company level – dealing with the day-to-day issues of course programming, the conduct of training and instructor development.
Feedback to the instructors is not given in front of the recruits; instead the Australian advisers will speak with the instructors after a lesson.
Sgt Jason Carter was among the Australians mentoring instructors in a range of fields from medics to mechanics. “These guys have been doing it for years and they are very good at what they do, at the SNCO level in particular. Most of them are former regime soldiers and are doing a very good job,” he said.
While there is knowledge and experience within the ranks, the Australians are still trying to chip away at developing better relationships between officers and the NCOs to help in the building of a professional army.
“We harmonise that situation and bring them together. Then, by other officers seeing that, that has rubbed off on to them over the period of time that we have been working here,” Sgt Carter said.
The Australians also recognise that there are some aspects of the Iraqi Army culture they are unlikely to influence.
Sgt John Camiller observed behaviour that would not be tolerated in the Australian Army. “You will see a private soldier argue face-to-face with a colonel. Why? Because he may have rank but they’re from the same tribe or the same family, they have connections.” |
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