Camp Bucca graduates final class from Iraqi Correctional Officer Training Academy
CAMP BUCCA, Iraq—Camp Bucca instructors graduated the final class of Iraqi Correctional Officers (ICOs)
May 7 at the Iraqi Correctional Officer Training Academy (ICOTA).
Class 11, consisting of 244 graduates, is unlike any of the other 10 classes the instructors at Camp Bucca have taught. These ICOs are almost all Sunni and the ICOTA instructors are all Shi’a.
“The people of Iraq seldom travel out of their tribal regions. For the cadets in Class 11 to travel to Basra was an act of courage. Each cadet must have felt as if they were traveling to the land of [the unknown],” said Salah Al-Hindawy, Task Force Bucca Bilingual Bicultural Advisor (BBA).
“It seems so simple and natural for Americans. We may be from different cities, different nationalities,
and different religions, but in the end, we are Americans first. This is a new concept for Iraqis, but it is the only way the country of Iraq will ever become a stable country. We at Camp Bucca had a role in the cadets and ICOs realizing that with all their differences, they are Iraqis first,” said Salah.
“We have placed the beginning of a friendship and travel between the north of Baghdad and Basra,” he added.
ICOs play an important role in the successful function of the detainee operations mission in Iraq. The major assignment ICOs work daily is manning the Modular Detainee Housing Units (MDHU), which house some of the country’s most extreme and high-risk detainees. ICOs also work throughout Camp Bucca’s Theater Internment Facility (TIF), the hospital, and the Visitation Center.
“I salute each and every one of these men for their commitment to improve themselves, improve their family and most importantly, improve their country by overcoming all the challenges placed in their way in order to be standing in formation as the newest members of the Iraqi Correctional service,” said Col. David P. Glaser, commander, 42nd Military Police Brigade and Task Force Bucca.
Camp Bucca, operated by the 42nd MP Bde., houses approximately 7,500 detainees who have been identified as security risks to Multi-National Force-Iraq, the Government of Iraq and the Iraqi population. Camp Bucca not only provides care and custody of detainees, but seeks to engage them in programs enabling them to become productive citizens working toward a safe and secure Iraq.
Camp Bucca is a forward operating base along the Kuwaiti border near the port city of Umm Qasr, Iraq’s southernmost city.
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