Dear Friends and Family,
By the middle of October, my Border Training Team will be headed to Kuwait and then to Camp Taji in Baghdad, where we will receive our vehicles and equipment for our mission on the border, with Iran. We will complete training in Taji by the middle of November and move to Combat Out Post Shocker. Shocker is roughly the size of two football fields and is located 3KM from what Coalition Forces understand to be the border between Iraq and Iran.
This border is contested. Government officials from Iraq and Iran have met many times in attempt to agree on a common picture of the border. As of September, these meetings have not been successful. Our 11-man team (consisting of a Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, two Majors, myself — an Officer — and six Sergeants First Class) will be responsible for a 200-mile stretch from Al Kut in the south to just east of Baghdad, in what is known as Al Wasit Province.
We all have had very unique experiences and we come from a variety of different career fields, including infantry, military police, logistics, intelligence, medical and communications, and fire support. This is modeled after a Special Forces team. I am filling a position that is meant for someone of higher rank than I, but I am doing well and my unconventional perspective is greatly appreciated. I am also the youngest man on the team, which causes some challenges. Overall, they are good men and deeply care for our mission. (I have included a map and rough locations of where I will be for the next year.)
I am responsible for training the Iraqis in a number of areas. These areas include, but are not limited to, Information Operations, or the use of non-lethal effects to change the human dynamic on the battlefield; Human Resources, or what the Army calls G1; and Fire Support, which is my primary function in the Army.
My team and I are responsible for ensuring that the methods used by the Iraqis to conduct searches and patrols at traffic control points are effective in preventing smuggling of accelerates, weapons, and humans across the border into Iraq. We will also be responsible for the proper operation of multiple Ports of Entry.
Some of the less glamorous daily duties will include being the Colonel’s primary driver and alternate 240B machine gunner for an M1151 up-armored HMWVV.
It is a lot of work for 11 men.
I speak weekly with the Officer I will be replacing. The soldiers seem tired and claim to have lost roughly 30-50 pounds each. Although they eat up to four meals a day, the high winds and 120+ F heat strips nutrients from the body.
For the last portion of our training, we will be flying to El Paso, Texas to train with the U.S. Border Patrol. This is exciting for us because the U.S. Border agents are the best in the world at what they do. Plus, it will give us a much-needed change of scenery from the day-to-day living at base. The long days and nights, the 40-man open-bay living situation, communal bathrooms and showers in conjunction with no real central air, and the overall poor quality of living has not been good for peoples’ spirits. But we have learned a lot about what our team is capable of, in regard to our strengths and weaknesses.
We have studied language and culture, conducted combat patrols (mounted and dismounted), conducted raids, set up traffic control points, completed house-to-house room clearing, and have learned how to use equipment that will help us defeat the Improvised Explosive Device threat. We have been trained on many different weapon systems, both foreign and domestic; and we have been issued the latest equipment and uniform modifications. I feel we are prepared for what is likely to be a most eventful year in Iraq.
I am proud of our mission, and I know we will be successful in training and advising the Iraqi Security Forces we are responsible for.
So with that, I wish you all the best this next year. God Bless you. I hope to see you soon,
Embedded Soldier
