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Australians Teach Logistics to Iraq Army
Blackanthem.com, TAJI, Iraq, April 21, 2005
The training the Iraqis are receiving will certify them as maintenance, transportation and supply supervisors in the new Iraqi army A team of Australians in Taji, Iraq, graduated the first class of Iraqi soldiers, April 18, in an Iraqi Army supply, transportation and maintenance schoolhouse they helped complete in March. The team implemented a five week course at the Iraqi Army Support and Services Institute, with lessons for both Iraqi officers and noncommissioned officers. “We can only hope that after our job is done here they can take what we teach them and build a solid foundation. This Army is at war and they need to make sure they are trained up,” Australian Maj. Kenton Madsen When the team arrived in Taji to set up the institute, they had to start from the ground up. The buildings on the training grounds were empty and had no power or water. They repaired the buildings that were still structurally sound, then did everything necessary to get the school off the ground, from building cement walls to ordering post-it notes, said Austalian Lt. Col. Warren Jolly, officer-in-charge, Iraqi Army Support and Services Institute Military Transition Team. “The Iraqi Army doesn’t have a logistical system up and running, so we had to start from ground zero,” Jolly said. Doctrine is constantly being developed at Multinational Corps-Iraq and Multinational Force-Iraq levels and passed down to the institute level concerning appropriate tactics, techniques and procedures for the training system, so that the Iraqis feel comfortable with the instruction given, Jolly said.
“It is not a training system that belongs to any other army. We have tailored it to the Iraqi army and have worked it through the Joint Headquarters of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense to get it endorsed to help us adjust the things that we might not have hit on the mark this time around to develop a new system that they’re comfortable with,” Jolly said. “We are teaching something that the Iraqi army will find workable.” The institute currently has 50 Coalition and 35 Iraqi personnel mentoring and delivering the training. There are 23 translators who work with the instructors and mentors, translating in front of classrooms and transcribing doctrine. “We’re delivering the course work and actually developing it at the same time,” Jolly said. “We have a lot of people burning a lot of hours to make this successful.” The majority of the people who are instructing and mentoring at the institute have had previous instructor experience, said Australian Maj. Kenton Madsen, senior instructor. He said the experience of the instructors varies, but the quality of the instructors is very high. The instructors have been concentrating on more practical, hands-on, instruction - especially with the noncommissioned officers, Madsen said. “Quite quickly we realized that some of the students weren’t so bright scholastically, but just because they can’t read or write doesn’t mean they aren’t smart,” he said. The hands-on experience being given to the students has been excellent, he added. The training the Iraqis are receiving from this institute will certify them as maintenance, transportation and supply supervisors in the new Iraqi army. “We can only hope that after our job is done here they can take what we teach them and build a solid foundation. This Army is at war and they need to make sure they are trained up,” Madsen said. The first graduation for the institute is scheduled for the end of April. By U.S. Army Spc. Mary Rose
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