This Week In Iraq…or TWII!

Staff Sgt. John L. Brickman, a squad leader with 3rd Platoon, 135th Military Police Company from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, patrols the streets of the Balad Village training site at Fort Dix, N.J. during a Police Transition Training exercise Thursday. Brickman, a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Army, is a native of Cleveland. –photo by Sgt. Frank Vaughn

After all the soldier training we’ve had to do to get ready for Iraq, we finally hit the week where we had to demonstrate to….I’m not really SURE who….that we can do our jobs as journalists in a combat zone.

The assignment? Fall in on Military Police units who were also conducting training unique to THEIR calling and tell their story. The exercise was a 90-hour CULMEX (culmination exercise) that required me to get into “full battle rattle” (all of my protective gear–body armor, helmet, M-4 rifle and all the trimmings), catch a ride out to the training site and start gathering information and taking pictures.

I first went out on Wednesday just after dark to cover a mission with an MP company that was called “route recon,” but basically consisted of us driving around in circles in the woods for about an hour. There was no story to write about this exercise, because I never got out of the vehicle. There were no pictures to take because it was PITCH DARK outside! I *did* manage to get a couple of interviews for a feature I wanted to write on a soldier in the unit, but after giving me an hour-long interview and introducing someone to me for a secondary-source interview, he refused to let me take his picture for the story! Guess what? No story! I returned to the barracks that night plenty frustrated, but determined to make this thing work for me.

I went back out the next day with a different MP unit who was doing Police Transitional Training, or PTT. PTT is the process by which U.S. forces train Iraqi forces to take more responsibility for their areas of security. We convoyed to a mock village to meet with an “Iraqi police chief” to assess the progress of his troops in providing security for their village.

The men and women of this unit were FANTASTIC, very professional, and performed their jobs in a MOST exemplary fashion. I was proud to accompany them on this mission. The biggest surprise I got that day, however, was from the “Iraqi Police Chief,” who turned out to be an actual Iraqi national. I had to interview him through an interpreter as part of the exercise, and it was good practice for me to learn how to use an interpreter to talk to people who speak Arabic rather than English (tip: do not speak to the interpreter…speak to the interviewee as though he understands you and allow the interpreter to do his job). After the exercise was over (or ENDEX), the Iraqi gentleman switched to English and we had a very eye-opening conversation with each other about the current condition of Iraq.

I won’t share all of his views here, but he was very concerned for his people and expressed a hope that American forces would continue to be a part of Iraq’s recovery for a very long time. He is an AMAZING man who feels very deeply for his people and is very appreciative of all the U.S. military is doing there.

I wrote a story about the unit’s mission and took about a zillion pictures, just hoping one would come out good enough to use in the publication we were putting out at the end of the week.

I received quite a surprise when I was shown the final product and my story and picture were on the front page!!! I don’t know if they deserved to be there, or if this was done to give me some confidence in what I’m learning (or maybe the format of the paper dictated the decision), but it made me feel like a ZILLION dollars to see that. I also had a stand-alone picture on page 4 that actually turned out very well.

Today we did our AAR (after-action review) on the entire exercise. Talk about beating your head against the wall! The unit we cooperated with on this exercise dominated the entire thing, leading lengthy discussions on every slide they submitted, while at the same time saying NOTHING of any use that wasn’t already written on the slides! Our unit was rushed through about 2 minutes of review on our performance and we were summarily dismissed as though we didn’t matter. NONE of us were happy, but we were hardly surprised.

Whatever. I’m just grateful for the training. I was so nervous when this thing started, as this was a whole new world to me and I had no idea what I was doing. I still don’t know much, but I feel better about my ability to learn. I also feel really good about the leadership over me and their ability to squeeze some decent product out of a hard-headed dolt like me.

Our unit goes back to the rifle range on Monday to endure sub-freezing temperatures and high winds in an effort to get everyone qualified on the M-4 rifle. It’ll be a rough day, but my motivation will be that I’m going home the next day to see my beautiful wife and GORGEOUS son.

I don’t know if I’ll get another blog written while I’m home, but there will definitely be more from me as this mission progresses!

Advertisement

Tags: Fort Dix, Gloria, Iraq, Zachary