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Iraqi, U.S. Soldiers clear village, find caches
Staff Sgt. Michael Myers (center), a military transition team trainer with 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, discusses the next move with Iraqi soldiers during a tactical halt. Photo by Spec. Chris McCann
JANABI VILLAGE, Iraq - Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment Military Transition Team have been working - as has the entire 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (LI) - to train Iraqi soldiers to enable them to take over Iraq's security themselves.
So the success of a joint operation Jan. 15 that put the entire 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division together with Soldiers of 2-15 FA and 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd BCT, was a victory not only against terrorism, but for troops themselves.
"This is the best Iraqi Army unit I've worked with," said Staff Sgt. Michael Myers, who serves on a MiTT, to an Iraqi soldier. "You guys are motivated."
Some troops air-assaulted into the village under cover of darkness, while the main force convoyed to the village, marching in at first light to search houses and fields, seeking weapons caches and suspected terrorists.
More than 600 troops participated in the operation.
"It went very well for such a large operation," said Capt. Art Stringer, field artillery effects trainer, who planned much of the mission. "It was a complex operation - the joint air assault and a large ground assault. Once on site, we used Task Force Iron Claw, engineers and explosive ordnance disposal, and they all combined very well."
"Any time you can let the Iraqis test their boundaries, it's good," he said of the IA involvement. "It's their battle space, and it helps them build confidence in themselves and in the U.S. forces."
The operation, two weeks in the planning, netted 87 detainees, 12 of whom were on the IA blacklist, and several large caches of weaponry, which included rocket-propelled grenades and launchers. A large cache of improvised explosive device-making materials also was recovered, which included cell phones, wire and other hardware.
One IEDs discovered was a pipe six inches in diameter and 42 inches long, filled with homemade explosive. A detonation cord was implanted in it as a fuse.
"We're talking about a catastrophic IED," Stringer said of the device.
Some residents directed troops to homes of suspicious people.
"We got information on two of the guys on the blacklist," Myers said. The squad he was with interrogated a man who gave them the information.
"Iraqi soldiers are very motivated," Myers said. "They're doing a lot better than they were at first; they're doing more complex missions. They need some more experience with map reading and such, but they did an excellent job creating a secure perimeter. They're doing well."
First Lt. Bobby Temple concurred.
"They've got good situational awareness," he said. "Our navigational and communications assets are still essential to them - they don't have global positioning systems or even maps, but they're doing better. And once they've been to a place, they can get there again, no problem."
The Iraqi Army took an active role in the searches and planning, Stringer said.
"The mentorship the U.S. forces are giving the Iraqi soldiers is very helpful. We're seeing a great increase in their ability from the hard work of our guys," he said.
"Without the effort of the Iraqi Army being reciprocated, we couldn't do this."