16 ARMY - AUSA

Right, Iraqi armyofficers and NCOs

receive instruc-tion on newly is-

sued M16 riflesand M4 carbines

during a train-the-trainer course

conducted at theBesmaya Range

Complex. Iraqiarmy units that

are swappingtheir AK-series ri-fles for M16s andM4s are being as-sisted in the tran-

sition by theMulti-National Se-

curity TransitionCommand-Iraq

(MNSTC-I).

An Iraqi NCO trains soldiers in room-clearing techniques at Besmaya’s mili-tary operations in urban terrain (MOUT)live-fire range.

16 ARMY n February 2008

Text and PhotographsBy Dennis Steele

Senior Staff Writer

he Besmaya Range

Complex is a sprawl-

ing 230-square-kilo-

meter training facility

situated halfway be-

tween Baghdad and the Iranian

border, and currently it is a pri-

mary launchpad for the second

surge in Iraq—the Iraqi army’s

surge.

Recently, an Iraqi army

brigade was spread around the

complex’s 26 individual ranges,

Iraqi soldiers qualify with M16s at one ofBesmaya's state-of-the-art, automated ranges.

February 2008 n ARMY 17

which are the best ranges in the Middle East and rivalsome U.S. training ranges, according to American offi-cials. Including the complex’s life-support facilities andspecialty schools (the Iraqi explosive ordnance disposalschool and combined arms school among them), the com-plex received approximately $100 million in upgrades ornew construction over the past two years. It is called theNational Training Center of Iraq.

At Besmaya, a brigade performs final individual andcollective training, lasting about a month. Newly mintedIraqi soldiers are sent there from basic training centers,link up with their leaders and form into small units whilethe staff receives its final training. The brigade receivesits complement of new equipment—vehicles (approxi-mately 400) and weapons, which now includes swappingAK rifles for American M16s and receiving marksman-ship training for that weapon. Most of the Iraqi army isswitching to the M16 and M4 carbine.

After training, a brigade goes straight from Besmaya tothe battlefield under an Iraqi program to field a continuingstream of better trained and more cohesive units to beef upits boots-on-the-ground presence in trouble spots a newbrigade at a time, expanding overall capabilities and tak-


Below left, an Iraqi soldier’s fingerprint is scanned while an-other soldier has his photograph taken with his new rifle(center) to ensure accountability of newly issued M16 rifles.Biometric scans are also taken of soldiers’ eyes, and all in-formation is connected with the weapon's serial number.


MPRI contractor Cordell Fairweatherassists an Iraqi soldier during a train-the-trainers course at Besmaya.

Ryan Collins, also from MPRI, demon-strates M16 disassembly. MNSTC-Imonitors Iraqi government contractswith private-sector trainers.


ing up slack for American brigade combat teams that willnot be replaced under current U.S. troop-reduction plans.

“These Iraqi soldiers are going to be in one of the mostdangerous places on Earth in two weeks, eastern SadrCity, kicking in doors,” said Col. Darel Maxfield, MN-STC-I’s (Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq) officer in charge at Besmaya and an Army Reserveofficer from the 104th Division (Institutional Training).

“My job is to train myself out of a job by training theIraqis to train themselves … but my personal belief isthat at the very least I owe it to these Iraqi soldiers’ moth-ers to provide the best training and best training facili-ties I can,” he said. “We can’t make them perfect whilethey’re here, but we can make them better and give thosemothers’ sons the best opportunity we can to survive.”

Only about two dozen American military personnelare stationed at Besmaya along with about twice thatnumber of U.S. contractor trainers from MPRI. The em-phasis at Besmaya and throughout MNSTC-I now is totrain the trainers and give Iraqi personnel responsibilityfor conducting most of the instruction.

MNSTC-I’s portfolio ranges from cook school to theIraqi cabinet. It coaches and oversees standards for Iraqisecurity forces’ institutional training—from basic train-ing to the top Iraqi military service academies and staffcolleges—and it is responsible for advising and posi-tively influencing Iraq’s ministries of defense and inte-

Below, an Iraqi army warrant officer is-sues instructions at one of Besmaya’s26 ranges. Right and bottom right, an

Iraqi soldier goes through an explosiveordnance disposal training scenario in

a protective suit at the Iraqi army’sbomb school, located at Besmaya.


rior in government-level policy making and fundingprocesses required to build and sustain police and mili-tary security capabilities. Senior U.S. government execu-tives attached to MNSTC-I work alongside their Iraqigovernment counterparts.

The command is an eclectic assembly of Americancivilians and military personnel from all services alongwith personnel from NATO nations and Australia.

Above, an Iraqi soldier trains at Be-smaya’s MOUT range.Top center,

American Humvees turned in at CampTaji on a one-for-one basis for new

mine resistant ambush protected(MRAP) vehicles will be checked, re-

paired and repainted for issue to Iraqiunits. Right, refurbished MI-17 heli-

copters are the foundation for the Iraqiair force’s rotary-wing fleet. Along with

training Iraq’s national police and army,MNSTC-I is helping to establish the

Iraqi air force and navy.

A class of Iraqi army bakers receives instructionat the Taji Regional Training Center.

In short, if a strong and sustainable Iraqi securityforce is the United States’ ticket out of Iraq, MNSTC-Iis the ticketmaster, and American advisers will likelybe the last large contingent to get on the bus. The com-mand is important to successful American strategicpolicy, and it has picked up momentum with the com-pletion of new training facilities.

Last autumn, vast attention was given to the Report

Above, Air Force MSgt. Phillip Fourrouxof the 370th Expeditionary TrainingSquadron, left, teaches firefightingtechniques at the newly establishedIraqi air force academy at the Taji Re-gional Training Center.The academyteaches a variety of specialties in addi-tion to educating Iraqi officers. Left, anIraqi army mechanic learns Humvee re-pair at Taji.


SFC Shelly Alter, a central issue facility adviser at theTaji Regional Training Center, checks initial clothing

issue during in-processing of Iraqi army recruits.

Left, MSgt. David Schorzman, servingwith MNSTC-I’s Taji Regional SupportUnit as the Class V (ammunition) ad-viser NCO in charge at the Taji NationalDepot, checks the performance of hisIraqi army counterpart.The Taji Na-tional Depot is the central logistics fa-cility for the Iraqi army. Bottom, CWO 5Doug Wyborney, from the 134th Secu-rity and Surveillance Battalion, servesas a MNSTC-I UH-1 (Huey) helicopterinstructor pilot for the Iraqi air force.

Air Force SSgt.John Dixon of the

370th Expedi-tionary Training

Squadron directsa helicopter used

for Iraqi pilottraining.

of the Independent Commission on the Security Forcesof Iraq—commonly referred to as the Jones Report for itschairman, Gen. James L. Jones, USMC Ret.—which re-ported a mixed grade on Iraq’s security forces’ state toCongress. The Jones Report was viewed as an objectivebaseline snapshot by the current MNSTC-I commander,Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik.

“The report was hugely useful to me because it wascurrent,” Gen. Dubik said. “From beginning to end [in-formation collection to published report] it took only sixweeks. The flash-to-bang time was near zero.”

He said there has been progress in the months since thereport was issued. Regarding the Iraqi national policeforce, which received the most negative findings in thereport, Gen. Dubik said that most of the national police



Spc. MatthewBurke, a central

issue facility ad-viser at Taji, mon-

itors Iraqi armyuniform issue.

leadership has been replaced, including all brigade com-manders and most battalion commanders, and that lead-ership development training by the Italian Carabinierihas started and will continue for more than two years.Meanwhile, all national police formations have sincebeen rotated through formal replenishment training.

Gen. Dubik added that it is significant to note thatIraqi confidence in their police has risen about 18 per-cent in polls taken since the Jones Report was issued. Hesaid the trend is headed in the right direction.

Gen. Dubik also said that many of the self-sufficiencyshortfalls noted in the report regarding life support, lo-gistics and maintenance have begun to be addressed bythe Iraqi government, but it will still take at least a yearto establish an independent maintenance system andabout the same time to fix the logistics system.

“I define progress, however, as continuing to face newproblem sets,” Gen. Dubik explained. “If you’re facing a

First Lt. JacobBarker, the Taji

Regional SupportUnit Class V ad-

viser officer incharge, checks an

incoming ship-ment of AK rifles

along with anIraqi soldier at the

Taji National De-pot.The AKs wereturned in for M16sand will be stored

at the depot.

Sgt. Adam Wright,an automotivemechanic instruc-tor at the Taji Re-gional TrainingCenter, checksprogress as Iraqisoldiers repair aHumvee.


new set of problems that you didn’t have six monthsago—rather than facing the same unresolved problemsover and over—it’s a sign of progress.”

The Iraqi army’s unit fielding initiative (the brigadetraining, equipping and fielding program at Besmaya) isanother progressive step undertaken after the Jones Re-port, according to the general.

“The unit fielding initiative acknowledges that theIraqis want to enter the fight with better training and co-hesion, and it acknowledges that the level of violencehas decreased to the point that they can afford to delaydeploying units for that training. When the violence wasbad, they were throwing units into the fight as fast asthey could,” he said.

Within a six-month period the Iraqi army created twonew division headquarters and five brigades of 10 battal-ions each, along with five separate battalions. Mean-while, Iraqi police ranks have grown by 44,000.

The foundation for Iraq’s ability to expand its security

Right, Iraqi national police

recruits changeinto their uni-

forms at the Numiniyah Re-gional Training

Center’s nationalpolice training

center.

Below, Iraqi national police-men go through a rifle drill at Numiniyah.

Below, MSgt.Parris Reed,serving with the MNSTC-I armytraining team atNuminiyah, goesover a trainingschedule with anIraqi armysergeant major.

Members of the Iraqi army training cadre at Numiniyahsend recruits through an obstacle course.


forces is a network of nine regionaltraining centers, which serve as in-duction centers as well as basic train-ing and advanced individual train-ing facilities. One of the nine is theregional training center at An Nu-miniyah in southern Iraq. It is both anational police and army trainingpost. With an Iraqi army cadre ofabout 800, the center can train about3,600 soldiers at any given time.

The police training facility can trainabout 2,000 at once, and the focus is to help shift the na-tional police identity from a paramilitary organizationtoward traditional policing and to help increase Sunnirepresentation. In the early phase of Operation IraqiFreedom, there were about 50,000 national-level police-men. The projected force is 400,000.

“When there is growth like that, there is turbulence,”said Maj. Dana Tucker, contracting officer for the na-tional police training center. “No business can scale uplike that without problems.”

Maj. Tucker and an Army NCO handle contract over-sight on the national police side. Seven American sol-diers, six of them noncommissioned officers, are as-signed to the army side, with each NCO advising aparticular staff section according to his own specialty—operations, intelligence, medical and the like. All arefrom the Army Reserve’s 104th Division.

Iraqi army basic training is five weeks long. Advancedindividual training lasts another four to five weeks, andthe center also conducts NCO training (a corporal course,

Iraqi army recruitsclimb an obstacleat Numiniyah.

Left, Lt. Col. Gary Rangel, officer incharge of the army training team at Nu-miniyah, observes training alongsideIraqi officers. Below, training rifles waitfor use at the Iraqi national police train-ing center.


platoon sergeant course and sergeant major course).Iraqi army military occupational specialties are limited

to a few fundamental functional areas: rifleman, trans-portation, maintenance, supply, administration, militarypolice, signal, unit medic and small arms repairer. Sol-diers are funneled into a particular specialty through testresults.

Lt. Col. Gary Rangel, officer in charge of the army train-ing team at Numiniyah, said the team tries to stay in thebackground and push the Iraqi cadre to the front to assume

total ownership of the training pro-gram and standards.

“A problem is that Iraqis are nottraditionally performance based, sowe’re trying to break that mold,”Col. Rangel said.

“The end state is that the Iraqishave to feel that something is theiridea, take ownership and make ithappen,” said SFC Chris Little.

“The thing that we have to first un-derstand is that we are uninvited,paid consultants in a mentoring rela-tionship that has been forced onthem,” Col. Rangel added. “As con-sultants, we have to depend on diplo-macy and salesmanship. We have to

sell them on the value of something and then talk aroundit until they decide it’s their idea.”

“Never confront them. Never show disrespect. Alwayslook for a way around the edge,” MSgt. Parris Reednoted. “We’re not here to tell them what to do. They haveto do their own work, and that’s what, in the end, willgive us the ability to get our forces home.”

“We’ve given them the breathing room they needed toget started,” SFC Little said. “We just need to give them alittle more so they can move forward.” M

Left, Iraqi national police recruits un-dergo hand-to-hand combat training atthe Numiniyah national police trainingcenter. Below left and right, an Iraqisoldier provides machine-gun cover,and Iraqi troops fan out during trainingat Numiniyah.

Iraqi soldiers nearing graduation at Numiniyah are formed into a brigadethat will receive continued collective training at the Besmaya Range Com-plex followed by deployment into its battlespace. `

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16 ARMY - AUSA