Articles:
Class in Session at New Shindokha School
U.S. Army Medic Treats Children in Taji
XVIII Airborne Corps mission comes to close: servicemembers, families credited for successful tour; 1st Corps inbound
8th IA Mortar Teams Sharpen Skills
CAMP ECHO — Soldiers from the 8th Iraqi Army (IA) Division completed a six-week mortar training course conducted at their headquarters here, March 24.
“The overall training gives them a more immediate capability to hit targets with indirect fire and provide suppression and neutralization,” said Sgt. 1st Class Joel Kane, mortar platoon sergeant, 2nd Combined Arms Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment.
Kane said the mortar teams add a great deal of fire support capabilities to the IA units, leading to an increase in the division’s strength and ability.
“We applied some of our techniques and tried to add to their abilities to employ their mortar
systems,” said Kane. “We’ve given them advanced map reading courses and gun training drills so they can take their crews and form mortar companies. Things have gone very well and I am impressed with their ability to learn the mortar skills.
“Overall, it is a much more professional system than the last time I was here,” continued Kane, who is on his second deployment here. “There are some very good noncommissioned officers and officers that show the ability to take the lead away from Coalition forces.”
The goal is to allow for a train-the-trainer environment where the 8th IA Soldiers can continue to train their fellow comrades, said Staff Sgt. Nick Schmidt, fire direction center chief.
“We’ve had a lot of success with using students from previous classes to act as training assistants,” said Schmidt. “These student-instructors gain more experience to continue training their own Soldiers after we’re gone.”
The course not only helped with mortar systems, but also with advancing Soldiers’ overall skills, such as map reading, said Sgt. Haider, with the 8th IA Div.
His mortar team won the competition, but Haider modestly downplayed taking the lead.
“The goal for this training is to learn and it doesn’t matter who won,” said Haider. “I think we are all the winners. This training will help us maintain security and defeat those who threaten the peace and lives of innocent Iraqis.
“The Coalition forces have given us a great deal of training, now and in the past. We have gained experience and we have become a stronger and greater Army for it,” the 11-year IA veteran continued. “It is good for us to work side by side with [Coalition forces] because we learn from them and also build friendships. My relationship with U.S. Soldiers has been great and I call many of them friends and brothers.
“I want to remain a Soldier and continue to protect my country, my people and my family. The security in the area has been good and there have been no big issues,” Haider said. “I’m confident we will be able to control the security of the country when the Coalition forces leave. We have been working hard and have learned much. We are stronger than we ever were and have proven our ability day after day.” (Multi-National Division – Center Release)
| Freedom Journal Iraq, March 26 |
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Class in Session at New Shindokha School
DAHUK – The Greek philosopher Aristotle said, “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
Six-hundred middle and high school students will taste the sweet fruit of education thanks to the efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Gulf Region Division (GRD) here.
Engineers with the GRD North district’s Mosul Area Office participated recently in a formal ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the opening of this new 12- room, $1.1 million northern Iraqi school. The Sihad Company was the general contractor for the project.
School administrators said they had to hold three daily condensed school sessions in the old schoolhouse because of the lack of adequate classrooms. The new school greatly reduces the overcrowding problem and can now comfortably accommodate 600 students in grades 7-12 with just two daily sessions.
The fact that the entire curriculum will be taught in English makes the Shindokha School unique, according to school administrators. To prepare for the English curriculum, prospective teachers must undergo four months of intensive language training, with only 50 of the top prospects offered positions at the school.
Since 2005, USACE has managed school construction projects totaling $16.3 million in the Dahuk province. Those projects include 94 school renovations and 17 new school construction projects, according to Terry Samson, the USACE resident engineer here.
Samson says the renovation and new school construction projects provide educational facilities for more than 10,000 students. These new schools will also give an economic boost to the area by offering 500 new employment opportunities for teachers, administrators, the house keeping staffs and security personnel, Samson said.
“These new educational institutions increase the scope and quality of education for Dahuk area students,” Samson said. “This in turn will better prepare students for the future and improve their employability, lifestyle and the living conditions of all residents. It also demonstrates that the United States is a caring nation and is extremely interested in the educational process in Dahuk and in the future of the region.”
U.S. Army Medic Treats Children in Taji
By Sgt. Ryan Nolan Multi-National Division - Baghdad
TAJI — A Pennsylvania Army National Guard medic is making a big difference for children here by providing a little medical care.
Spc. Neal Cooper, from Myerstown, Pa., is a medic assigned to the 104th Cavalry Regiment, currently working in Shaykh Amir Village here, just north of Baghdad.
Cooper completed Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas in August 2008, only one month before he was to deploy to Iraq. However, Cooper was well aware of the deployment before he signed his enlistment papers.
“I’ve wanted to go to medical school for a long time,” Cooper, who sees the deployment as a stepping stone to his future career, said. “Being here in Iraq is just jumping though the final hoops to get there.”
The 22-year-old medic expected Iraq to be more of an active combat zone. However, the majority of his work has been helping the local populace.
One of Cooper’s first tasks as a medic here was diagnosing what looked to be a cyst on the face of an eight-year-old child.
“He had a big scab on his face that had to be drained. He was really good throughout the whole process, remarkably quiet.” Cooper said. “The children’s medicine is mostly handled by the shaykh’s mother.”
The growth on the young child’s face was diagnosed as a probable Lieshmaniasis (a disease caused typically by sand flies). Cooper removed the scab, treated the wound, and provided the boy with medicine to ease the pain.
In another case, a 14-year-old boy had been attacked by a dog, sustaining gashes and deep marks on both of his legs. Cooper examined the injury, cleaned it, and bandaged it. Through just these minor medical actions, he was able to make the child feel better.
Here, even the smallest injuries, such as minor cuts and scrapes, have the potential to become infected if left untreated. Cooper is happy to help out however he can.
“[Some] don’t have any medical care out here, so we’re serving a critical role.” Cooper said. “I just wish I could do more.”
| Iraqi Freedom Minute, March 27 |
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XVIII Airborne Corps mission comes to close: servicemembers, families credited for successful tour
Multi-National Corps – Iraq - BAGHDAD – The XVIII Airborne Corp’s 2008 – 2009 deployment as the Multi-National Corps – Iraq is coming to a close, and many milestones have been met and passed in the nearly 14 months here.
Iraq held secure provincial elections. The U.S. and Iraq signed the Status of Forces Agreement, and coalition forces conducted innumerable successful counterterrorism operations – bringing down violence while bringing up hope.
There is still work to do however before this page of history is written. Work to do by Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines of the XVIII Abn. Corps who are credited with making the aforementioned milestones possible.
“Great people have done great things to make the mission here a success,” said the MNC-I and XVIII Abn. Corps’ top enlisted Soldier, Command Sgt. Major Joseph R. Allen.
Allen and the Corps Commander, Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, said that people, the servicemembers in the fight, are selfless in their desire to accomplish this mission at all costs.
“The guys and gals of the Corps may not get all the credit they deserve for the amount of work they put in here,” Allen said.
“But Lieutenant General Austin speaks for all of us when he says that we don’t want the credit, we just want to win.”
The road to success for the corps has been a long one since putting the first boot on Iraqi soil in January 2008. The Corps came to Iraq at a time of high levels of sectarian violence and would see the year’s highest attack numbers quickly after arriving.
Iraq had more than 700 attacks during a one week period in March 2008. Today, attacks have been averaging less than 100 per week for the past four weeks.
Allen, a 33-year Army veteran, attributes the successful decline in violence to many factors; however, he gives the credit again to the servicemembers and said winning the fight can only happen by having quality people in today’s military.
“I have never been more proud of the guys and gals that are in our military today,” he said. “They don’t do it because of the money. They do it because they love it.”
He knows that their hearts are in their work because he sees them on a constant basis.
Austin and Allen have traveled every corner of Iraq – numerous times to conduct battlefield circulations and visit Soldiers.
“Our Army puts more responsibility on young noncommissioned officers and young officers …. we give those young guys guidance and we turn them loose and let them do their jobs. That has a lot to do with where we are today with this war here in Iraq,” Allen said.
The Corps commander echoed the sentiment of the man he calls his “right-hand man”
“It’s been truly an honor and a privilege for me to serve with our young service men and women here in Iraq,” Austin said via press conference Mar. 10. “They never fail to impress me with their motivation, with their professionalism and their fortitude.”
Home is where the heart is though, and the achievements made in Iraq by the Corps and its roughly 700 Fort Bragg, N.C., - based servicemembers could not have been possible without those keeping the home fires burning, Allen said.
The XVIII Abn. Corps deployed and left behind ‘Task Force Bragg’ to keep up operations and help take care of families while loved ones were downrange.
“Not one time while we were here did we have to worry what was happening back at Fort Bragg,” Allen said. “We knew we had a strong garrison staff back at Fort Bragg. We knew we had strong leadership in the family readiness groups: strong husbands and wives watching over our children. And we had the Fayetteville community watching over our Soldiers and families. We are truly blessed to have the post we do in the city in which it is located.”
The sense of community – of peace and health and prosperity that the Corps feels in North Carolina – is the same that Allen wishes all Iraqis had.
When asked if he had the power to look into a crystal ball, to see Iraq in five, maybe 10 years, Allen had the following to say:
“The Iraqi people, at the end of the day, want the same things that any American wants,” Allen said. “I think the Iraqi people, at the end of the day want to raise their kids, be with their families, feed and educate their children and live a peaceful, uninterrupted life. That’s all the average Iraqi wants, and that is the same thing that we as Americans want. So that is how, if I had a crystal ball that I could look into and see the country of Iraq five years, 10 years from now, that is how I would want to see Iraq. And I think that is how most Americans wish to see Iraq.”
To date, XVIII Airborne Corp’s replacements are beginning to show up. The 1st Corps from Fort Lewis, Wash., will soon take the helm as MNC-I and begin penning their own chapter in the history books. Thus getting the XVIII Abn. Corps one step closer to home. One step closer to its beloved friends, families and home of the Airborne.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Staff Sgt. Raphael A. Futrell, 26, of Anderson, S.C., died March 25 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 13th Military Police Detachment, 728th Military Police Battalion, 8th Military Police Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, Fort Shafter, Hawaii.
The incident is under investigation.
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