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4-14 Tackles CI Mission at Bliss

Apr-11-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

Link to Full Article with photo

Maj. Richard Rouleau
4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment

PLAYAS, N.M. – In mid-January, the Soldiers of Assassin Troop, 4th Battalion, 14th Cavalry Regiment occupied their first Forward Operating Base in a little place called Playas, New Mexico.

Playas is much like any subdivision in America except that it is not attached to a larger city. It was built by a mining company to house its work force and their families, so it has all the amenities that one would expect – a post office, a community center, a clinic, bowling alley, churches and ball fields.

What it is missing is the people; almost all of the residents of Playas moved away simultaneously when their employer’s business shut down. The structures themselves and a few nice people from New Mexico Tech, who now own the facilities, are now all that is left to run the town. To the Soldiers of Troop A, this became their new home away from home as they conducted training.

For training purposes Playas, New Mexico became Playas, Iraq, complete with role players dressed as sheiks and imams. Part of the training these cavalry troopers did while deployed to Texas and New Mexico was centered on the role of counterintelligence. CI Soldiers embedded with each Stryker Reconnaissance Vehicle. These CI Soldiers are trained to read people’s responses to questions, advise the chain of command on what to say and how to interpret what was said. They must also be able to write the myriad of reports for each event that are required to properly process the information into intelligence at higher echelons.

The training at Playas centered on presence or security patrols within the town where the scouts and the CI Soldiers work together and walk the streets looking for irregularities and potential sources for intelligence gathering. As Soldiers conducted these patrols they found areas of Playas that were pro-US and helpful in identifying insurgents; at the same time, they would encounter those that were anti-US and committed to causing the Soldiers and their supporters harm.

The planning that went into these exercises was largely done by the senior CI NCOs within the squadron. They developed detailed dossiers for each role-player and scenarios that would place the Soldiers in difficult situations. These scenarios tested the expertise of the CI Soldier on the ground and the ability of the scout section sergeant in charge of the patrol to accomplish the mission.

Scouts and the CI Soldiers know each other’s jobs in detail. If the enemy can identify which Soldier is the counter-intelligence agent, the CI agent’s life may be at risk. Therefore, the CI agent must be trained to the same level in patrolling techniques and be an integral member of the team to maintain operational security. The safety of those helping U.S. forces is also a consideration for these patrols. When identifying a source, the scout section is careful not to call special attention to those providing information as the providers’ lives would also be in jeopardy.

These are just some of the lessons the fine Assassin Troop Soldiers learned while maintaining order in Playas. They are skills that will undoubtedly be reinforced in future training events and will pay dividends when they are put to practical use in the cities and towns of Iraq.


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