Four ADGs help Iraq’s Army in tough conditions

CHARITY

By SGT Tim Ciesiolka

An Iraqi practises his weapons handling.

Photo by CPL Neil Ruskin

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Four Airfield Defence Guards from RAAF Base Amberley were part of the second Australian Army Training Team - Iraq. The hurdles the team faced in training the Iraqis has included learning Arabic and other languages spoken in the region, a shortage of resources and the impact of religious fasts on the army’s health. The training regime can be likened to any recruit, basic or IET course run by Defence in Australia. It included getting the SNCO to understudy the officer.

BEING asked to provide additional manning for a team to assist in the training of the New Iraqi Army (NIA) was a shot out of the blue.

There were four Air Force members within the Australian Army Training Team - Iraq 2 (AATTI) – myself, Sergeant Gregg Lloyd, Warrant Officer (Red) Wilson Usuga and Sergeant Eden Woolan.

We are all members of Airfield Defence Wing at RAAF Base Amberley. The challenge that was bestowed upon us was great and the chance to assist in rebuilding the defence of Iraq is not one that comes along very often.

The training at the School of Languages gave us a good grounding in the local customs and provided us with enough Arabic to get us started.

We all knew that this would be our biggest hurdle.

The isolation of our training area and the problems experienced by the first training team were passed on to us.

More often than not, the supplies didn’t get through and if they did, they were extremely late.

There were few convoys that came through without a few bullet holes in them. You really got to fathom the risk that the Iraqi people go through in the process of rebuilding their country.

The shortage of resources increased the challenge before us but with some good old Australian ingenuity we started to get the job done.

The team could train without uniforms, they could train without having a weapon and they could certainly train without vehicles. It took some convincing, but the message was getting through.

We couldn’t sit on our hands and wait, we were limited in time and needed to get the Army ready and operational.

Our training regime could be likened to any recruit, basic, or IET course that is held back home. We trained for 8-9 weeks.

Lessons covered included basic military knowledge. Some of the new recruits had only had a basic understanding of the military so this was new for them. During the rule of Saddam Hussein, every Iraqi was required to undertake some national service.

The only exception was for those who choose to go to university and even then, some were still forced into national service.

The age bracket of the Jundi (the Iraqi private solider) was vast and there was a mix of all different backgrounds.

Some of the Jundies have had some military experience and this was easily identified. For the new solider, the experience was one of doubt and one of hope.

Weapons training was essential for each of the Jundi, so they all needed extensive training in this subject. With vigilance on our part, it remained a safe environment.

We tried to get the SNCO to understudy the officer and provide him with more confidence in running a platoon in the commander’s absence.

To achieve this, we ran an officer’s course, which forced the SNCO into a position where he had to take more control and rely on his NCOs. We covered tactics, from squad level through to platoon and on to company size operations.

There was a military operations in urban terrain component that we believed would be very beneficial for them, due to the environment they will find themselves on in future operations around the country.

The training regime was challenging for them all and the commanders were happy with the direction we were going and grateful for our assistance in rebuilding their defence force.

With all training, there are difficulties, one of which was the religious period of Ramadan, a full month of fasting.

It is customary during this period for the country to abstain from eating during daylight hours and to pray five times a day.

When this period finished, the Iraqis celebrated over four to five days during a festival known as Eid.

This affected our training as we could only work for certain parts of the day and the soldiers were tired, hungry, and found it hard to remain motivated. In all of the companies we trained, there were many different languages spoken.

We had Kurds who didn’t speak Arabic and visa versa.

There were the Yuzidies and the Turkomen who speak a different dialect of both Kurdish and Arabic. This is at the squad level, and to say it was hard to run a smooth lesson is an understatement.

You may ask why we didn’t have interpreters. They were a must have in that environment, but they were scarce and were constantly targeted by the insurgents for helping the multi-national forces. Their families were often subject to death threats as well.

All of the members of the NIA run the risk of having their families targeted and we had reports of officers and NCOs killed on a daily basis.

Each day we started training we asked ourselves, “Who will be missing today? Or what bad news will be waiting for us when we arrive?”.

We were there to do an important task and to carry it out to the best of our ability with the equipment we had.

We were not going to let the lack of resources in this country affect our level of training expertise. We owed these people the best and we sought to deliver the best; the ANZAC heritage would not let us falter in our endeavours.

We had a detachment of ASLAVs providing us with a very strong protection capability. They were constantly on call and patrolling the training area made us feel pretty safe.

We were glad to have them on board and the Iraqi troops appreciated this protection as well. The sheer presence of them acted as a huge deterrent and made the insurgents think twice about trying to get too close to the base.

Our time there proved to be very interesting. We broke through the barrier of Air Force ADGs assisting in the training of an Army and the comradeship between both Services was high.

We were honoured to have been selected to assist in this task and the way we view it was that we were making history.

The threat was very real and constant, we found ourselves “standing to” for mortar and rocket attacks.

Just parking or driving past a non-military vehicle triggered instant awareness, not knowing if that driver was actually doing the job he was paid to do or more disastrously driving a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device in search of a target.

Sure, we missed home, our friends and especially our families, but the experience, the memories and new-found mates amongst our Army colleagues made it all worthwhile.

Together as a team of professional and very well-trained soldiers and airmen, we looked out for each other and eventually all returned home.

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